EE SmartHub Plus Wireless Access Point Support

[Fenton95]

Hello,

Hope you are well.

I would like to connect a wireless access point to my EE Smarthub Plus to improve the wireless performance. I was wondering if this is possible.

I cannot remove the smart hub from the pipeline as I have to use the EE voip solution (FTTP customer) so I cannot connect directly to the ONT. The access point I have selected is not a router anyway.

I cannot find a bridge mode or equivalent setting in the control panel. I would connect the access point to the router using an Ethernet cable with a POE injector. Would this work? Are there any settings I would have to change.

The access point I would like to use is the UbiquitiU7 Pro. I cannot buy the unit and test it, it is not returnable.

Thanks in advance

[XRaySpeX]

The SH+ does not provide a bridge mode. You could disable WiFi on it & do all WiFi thro' the AP.

[JimM11]

@Fenton95 Please also remember that you will be restricted also by the Gb ethernet port of the EE router and the fibre package speed which you have not indicated on your post.

[Fenton95]

Thanks both for your quick response @XRaySpeX @JimM11 🙂

Can you personally attest/have seen it working with an AP in that configuration? Will the SH+ still act as a router with  DHCP etc when running like that?  The AP I’m looking at for all intents and purposes is dumb and would not run the majority of the router functions. 

@JimM11 Yeah I understand, I’m only on the 500 package but the link speed to my devices is quite low at around 400 and the real world speeds on wireless don’t exceed 200. I have verified 500+ when hardwired.

[JimM11]

@Fenton95 The router is an AX wifi 6 compatible so do not see how your figures are as quoted, will improve, standing about 6' away from the router you should be pushing 400mb/s easily, your WiFi 7 device may improve, but you should concentrate on getting what you have now working first. Your wifi testing can only be done with ONE wifi device, all others OFF.

AP mode even in a router, is a very basic function with all the routing removed, The AP you are looking at and using Poe is really nothing special, just one cable form the adapter placed at the EE router to the AP disk. 

[Fenton95]

Hello, yeah sorry I didn’t mention, that is at range. I can get ~450 next to the router on a 6E capable device.

When I say at range, it is within 8 meters with only one drywall in between. Looking into it that AP should help me realise the full speed under those conditions. But I need to know if it can work with the router as it is non returnable. 

[JimM11]

@Fenton95 An AP is just similar with regards to wifi signal distribution, so has all the same distance issue's etc, as you are doing a wired back haul it will run to the EE router at 1Gb speeds, but your pipe is only 500mb/s on fibre, so will look and feel bit quicker due to the processor in the AP, and really cant see why it would not work, Does the site for the AP say works with any router?

And this is my current Asus AP stat's just snapped them there, to the EE router in wireless mode.

5 GHz Parent-AP

Link Rate: 2161.8 Mbps