Frequent loss of WiFi signal strength

[PhilipD]

Ever since I renewed my broadband contract and upgraded to a higher speed, I am frequently, every day or two and sometimes more than once a day, having to restart my EE Smart Hub 6 Plus as it loses WiFi signal strength and my devices further away from the hub drop out.

I have tried buying and installing a Smart WiFi SW30A WiFi Extender but although it improved the signal strength at the distant devices while the hub was working properly, it did not cure the problem when the hub goes wrong. The distant devices still drop out and when checked on the EE App, the WiFi Extender appears to be disconnected with a prompt to "Setup WiFi Extender 6 Plus".

The problem can only be fixed by restarting the hub, either by powering it off then back on again, or by restarting it via the EE App on my iPhone. However, when restarting it via the EE App, although the hub does restart and work normally again, the restart progress indication on the App gets to 95% or 96% completed then sticks there. I have to manually close the restart indicator to get back to the App.

What can be done to fix this hub WiFi signal strength problem?

[JimM11]

@Daniel_G Is there also then a smart wireless extender involved that would be the SW35A device? Link to that...

EE WiFi Extender 7 Plus Device Guide | Device Help

[JimM11]

@PhilipD Have you considered only using the Compatible 2.4Ghz network and the WPA2-Personal on it for your Eightree smart plugs, i do think they are all just 2.4Ghz only products so better suited on the Comp network off that EE Smarthub 6+

Sorry just looked they do also have a 5Ghz branded product so you would need to say, all the Tapo ones i have and use are only 2.4Ghz devices and no issues at all with them.

[PhilipD]

JumM11

Yesterday, I browsed to the hub from my PC, entered the admin password & changed the 2.4Ghz network from channel 1 to channel 11 and so far today, it’s been behaving itself. I think it’s too soon to say it’s fixed though. 

[Daniel_G]

No, didn't buy the extender. I plan to purchase them on my own.

[PhilipD]

Well I thought I had fixed it by changing the 2.4 Net to channel 11 a few days ago but I’ve just had to restart the hub again. 
the first thing I noticed was the signal strength at my Hall Light switch had dropped back to -82dbm again then asking Alexa to turn off the hall light produced the response from Alexa "Hall light is not responding ". The WiFi Extender was showing good in the EE App but with such a lousy signal strength , I suspect my Hall Light was not connected to it but connected to the hub instead.  I restarted the main EE Hub & that fixed it. The Hall Light signal strength is now back -49dbm and working via Alexa. 

[JimM11]

@PhilipD Is there anyway that the connection shows what the EE Router or the EE Smart wireless extenders are at, the Hall Light device may indeed be latching on to the wrong part off the mesh, what is the relationship distance device to Hub/Mesh, is there anyway to just reset the Hall Light device without doing the Hub and seeing what it is like when it powers back on -db wise.... 

[PhilipD]

JimM11: I checked the devices that were connected to the WiFi Extender in the EE App and it did say that the Hall Light was connected to it, but with a -82dbm signal strength I doubt that was true. I also checked a few other items that should have been connected to the WiFi Extender and they also had bad signal strengths. The Extender is only about 4 feet away from the the Hall Light switch and about 24 feet away from the Hub, but when I set it up, google said that the device chooses where to connect to, hub or extender, and you cannot set that yourself.

The EightTree sockets are not difficult to reset individually as they are just plugs plugged into power sockets, but the Hall Light is a BSEED WiFi Touch Switch and is wired up to the house's  Downstairs Light circuit, so the only way to reset that is to turn off the main power switch in my fuse box for the downstairs lights, then back on again, so that it loses power for a while.

[JimM11]

@PhilipD Got that now, wonder if the Extender is dropping the 2.4Ghz signal power down at that is pushing the -db up higher to your light switch instead, being so close and as you have said the app does think it is connected to the Smart Wireless and not to the hub, has an Extender off/on kicked it back down lower if you have tried, or is it just the Hub that brings it all back to life...  True way might just be turn the Extender off and see if they can hang on and connect to the Hub, if so do they automatically give you the higher -db reading's that you are seeing.... 

The Asus hub i use, i can chain link my Tapo devices to a particular node on the mesh, so i have two on one node, full strength and two attached to the dinning room node, those have to kick through a brick wall so the 2.4Ghz is just a little weaker to reach them and Asus display's that as a dropped bar, will keep looking but have not found a rssi value yet for any off them and the Tapo app does not show it either.

Going to re read the whole post as spotted you are using a 6 Plus hub and a 7 Plus smart wireless extender, that may NOT be a good combo for operation....

Was another OP on the post, your devices are matching EE wise Hub/Smart Wireless....

[PhilipD]

JimM11: Next time it happens I'll try restarting the Extender.

I've just discovered that in the EE App, if I go to Manage, Broadband, then See all connected devices, then look at each individual item that is connected to the WiFi, it tells me where it is connected to. Either the WiFi Extender or the Smart Hub 6 Plus. That's another thing to look at if/when it goes wrong again.

Another 2 things on a different subjects that might help people:

Some time ago, my Hall Light Switch (BSEED WiFi Touch Switch) stopped responding to touch, It still worked via the SmartLife App and Alexa commands but not to touch. After a couple of weeks of that, I eventually flipped the Downstairs Lights trip switch in the fuse box off then back on and that fixed it.

I have also discovered that this community page does not work on my PC unless I turn off the VPN in McAfee. When it is on, I get Edge opening with the message "403 Forbidden". Aren't computers wonderful!!!!

[JimM11]

@PhilipD They sure are, i always 99% of the time looked at the EE Hub with the web manager and my laptop, in the WiFi extenders tab, you could see the rssi figure displayed, have no idea what the app did, hated it with a passion as 50% off the time stupid issues with it work today, not the next day or so etc etc !

Hub manager is https://192.168.1.254 now with some applied securities.....

Re: Devices connect to WiFi but is assigned no IP address - The EE Community At least the BT version showed what it thought the rssi signal was from the link, does the EE do the same, or not, have nothing to look at!