EE Smart Hub Router (Wifi 5 or 6) and support devices

[Johnhutch71]

Hi, 

I'm looking to move to EE for our home broadband, currently have BT, we have Fibre to the premise so can take the full 900mb/s service from EE. I've asked customer services but am always a bit sceptical with their information, as I run quite a few IOT devices at home I constantly have 50+ devices connected to my router either hard wired or wireless, most wireless which was an issue for the standard BT router. I've been told the Smart Hub is WIFI 6 and can support 100 devices, does anyone have any experience? I assume the worst case I could simply switch to a 3rd party router as been thinking about changing my current 2-node Velop system to something from Ubiquiti anyway. 

Thanks in advance for any feedback 

John

[XRaySpeX]

All EE Fibre routers are 802.11 ac, aka WiFi 5. Most IOT devices currently operate on the 2.4 Ghz band. So I doubt that 802.11 ax (WiFi 6) would help you with them.

[Johnhutch71]

Hi, 

I'm working on the assumption that as a rule of thumb a wifi6 router doesnt have the limited device capability that an older standard wifi 5 router would, so I was thinking if its wifi6 then it should be good to go, you've already contradicted what the EE person I chatted too told me so thanks for the advice, I will try and find out more information before pressing the order button! 

[XRaySpeX]

I think the capacity of a router is more dependant on the power/efficiency of the hardware & firmware than the strength of the WiFi.

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

[Mustrum]

@Johnhutch71  As EE are part of the BT Group, they use the same routers as BT and Plusnet, with some firmware differences. You could even carry on using your BT router, unless they ask you to return it.

[XRaySpeX]

As you are moving to EE Full Fibre (FTTP) you will receive the white EE Smart Router which, like its BT counterpart, the BT Smart Hub 2, cannot split it 2.4 & 5 GHz Bands/SSIDs, unlike the black EE Smart Hub. This will cause issues with "smart" IOT devices operating on the 2.4 GHz Band only.

[Tr1ggsy]

Do yourself a favour and upgrade, I've got a 900 line in and it's bang on with hard wired connections but using the router provided on my phone (OnePlus Nord 2T) I got around 100-150Mb/s. This is using the white router with the green circle they provide, I could never get it to reliably connect to 5Ghz for some reason. I swapped it out today for a DrayTek 2962 router with Cambium XV2-2 APs (2 in my house run of a Cambium switch) and I now got around 500-600Mb/s which is to be expected with a WiFi 6 device on these APs. If I had a more up-to-date device I'd expect near enough 900Mb/s. So I would definitely recommend upgrading if you want to get anywhere near what you are going to pay for, bear in mind it's likely to be the device that is going to slow it down if it's not brand new.

IoT won't matter as they will be 2.4G so will only get around 100-150Mb/s, however with so many of them you WILL need a WiFi 6 router, part of the change from 5 - 6 is increased number of devices connected. That many devices on one router/APs is a lot for any residential piece of hardware, if you have that many devices you want to look at multiple APs or enterprise grade hardware.

Have a look at the speed tests I did, one on the EE router, the other 2 on the Cambium just now to show you. Same SSID and password used hence it showing in the same test page. I edited out my external IP for obvious reasons 🤣 don't care about the internal ones being shown.

 

[Johnhutch71]

Thanks for the reply and positive feedback about the EE service.

I had to switch away from the BT provided router to a pair of Wifi 6 Velop routers, not my finest choice but it was around 4yrs ago and WiFi Mesh was still quite new, would look to move to Ubiquti Unifi if I was to replace now. The main reason for changing is I’m an EE customer for mobile and BT want to put up my 150mbs Fibre connection to over £70 a month vs EE’s under £50 a month for 900mbs so seems like a no brainer decision. 

[Tr1ggsy]

Yeah I can't knock my EE connection, install went smoothly etc it was just the hardware but that's the same with any ISP router, it's free so will be made to a budget.

Can I ask why Unifi? It's alright stuff don't get me wrong and easy to set up but their routers and switches run flat out at 1G and I've known many fail after a year or so due to CPU being hammered by high bandwidth and loads of devices connected. They only have multi gig ports on the enterprise APs and switches so if you were to ever take a higher speed connection then it would need upgrading. Multi gig internet is becoming more common, they are doing 2 and even 5 gig internet in the UK now. If speed is a key thing for you I would really look at whether Unifi is right for you long term to avoid investment now that could be outdated at any point. The beauty of GPON internet (the system used by EE/BT) is that the max speed could be set to 2.4G with only minor changes at the cabinet meaning you'd lose out with little cost to EE.

[IT-4BusyPeople]

If the number of connected devices is an issue and is likely to increase further, I would recommend going with a solution where the total number of supported devices is specified.

For your WiFi, a discrete access point (802.11ac/WiFi 5) from Ubiquiti, Draytek etc. will typically support a maximum of 128 devices on 2.4GHz and 128 devices on 5GHz (256 in total). Similarly the routers from either, that as @Tr1ggsy infers will be needed to get the most out of the 900Mbps service will directly support several hundred local devices. However, setting these up to perform their best will require a little more effort than just plugging in a BT/EE provided router. 

An alternative approach that might make use of your existing kit (and avoid the problem @XRaySpeX  mentions), might be to use a dedicated router for the IOT which probably only needs to support 2.4GHz, put it on a fixed channel - probably 10 or 11, I would avoid 12 and 13 as many cheap WiFi  radios only support the channels licensed for use in the US and cable connect this to your new EE router.  [Caution: I've not actually set up this configuration with the EE Smart Router, I expect @XRaySpeX  will be able to clarify. ]