Homebrew Smart Hub Pro upgrades from Smart Hub Plus - will it work?

[hostler]

Hiya

I can now get full fibre to my home and want to order one of EE's FTTP packages. We're currently running the whole house off a EE 5G Home 'Broadband' router - quite successfully as it happens - but it tops out at around 150Mbps. Fast enough for most things, but obviously a bit brittle being a cellular service.

So, time to just to FTTP.

I'd really like the WiFi 7 feature of the Pro hub & Pro Wifi Extenders (I have Wifi 7 devices plus the 2.5G ports are useful etc) - and we suffer int he upper rooms from poor wifi - so a Pro Hub and couple of Pro Wifi extenders would be perfect I think.

But, you have to shell out for the 16.Gbps service at £65+ pounds month over the 2 years.

The 900Mbps service is more than fast enough in raw speed terms for me, and at £39/month much bette value - but you don;t get the Pro hubs - -only the plus hubs.

I notice they are available to buy new in box on eBay and googling suggests they will swap out fine.

Is there anything I'm missing if I do this? I notice some config has now moved from the web interface to the EE app for example - will that recognise this as a legit device?

If you ignore the speed benefits of 1600 over 900 Mbps, the difference I'd be paying over the 2 years to 'rent' the pro  hub & extender is 5x more than I could buy privately for - and whilst nice, I don't really need 1600 and 900 is 4x what I'm getting now.

@JimM11  - you have been very helpful in the past to my questions - hope you don;t mind me calling you out - but wondered if you knew? Many, many thanks in advance.

[JimM11 · Accepted solution]

@hostler Buy the FF900 service from EE and then addon the wifi7 package at £7 extra per month, that is all you need to do? your 5G mobile connection with EE will have to be cancelled with whatever period that you have left on the contract, so you may get some extra charges against that. HTH

Just be aware, that buying anything off the other site, you are basically getting stolen goods, so it is 100% up to you what to do...

[Matt_124]

Just a small correction on this,

The Smart Wifi Pro addon is £10pm and provides the WiFi 7 Smart Hub Pro and Smart WiFi Pro extenders.

The £7pm option is just Smart WiFi Plus, providing the extenders for the WiFi 6 Smart Hub Plus.

@hostler see the package below:

[JimM11]

@Matt_124 Thanks, negotiation skill's will come into play see who bend's first....

[hostler]

Thanks @JimM11 

I didn't realise you could add them as an extra to lower-tiers - many thanks - I'll check those out.

I'm out of contract on the 5Gee service, so free to switch, so now just have to figure out which package.

Thanks again - appreciate yours and @matt_124's reply.

[hostler]

Hey @JimM11 

Been mulling my options, and wondering if I'm better off buying my own WiFi7 mesh system to daisy chain off the EE Hub (Plus or Pro).

Do you know if the Plus and/or Pro hubs can be put into Bridge mode to facilitate this?  I've confirmed you can disable the WiFi radios if necessary, but can't determine if passthrough bridge mode is an option to prevent double NAT situations etc.

There's only scant details online, and my current 5gEE router doesn't seem to offer it.

As ever, appreciate your help and experience!

[XRaySpeX]

EE routers do not provide Bridge Mode or Modem Only.  You could disable WiFi on them & use an LAN Ethernet connected further router with DHCP disabled to handle all WiFi as an AP to the EE router.

[JimM11]

@hostler No longer an EE customer after the FW debacle in Feb, ISP routers are just that make it easy to get on the system and deal with all the other stuff. Do you need DV or EE TV, if not you could do as @XRaySpeX recommends, double nat is not a major issue but does take a little control, or best buy your own gear, added expense but control is what you get!

[XRaySpeX]

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@JimM11 wrote:

Do you need DV or EE TV, if not you could do as @XRaySpeX recommends

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Or even if you need DV or EE TV! My suggestion does not replace the EE router as the 1st downstream from the ONT.

[hostler]

Thanks @XRaySpeX and @JimM11 ... appreciate your answers ... and sorry to hear there was a 'debacle' in your life @JimM11 

No need for voice or EETV ... just looking to pay the least for a fast-enough connection AND WiFi 7 for faster local transfer speeds. Live in a solidly-built property with lots of WiFi dead zones, even with a WiFi5-era mesh setup.

Perma-renting WPS extenders over the full term is expensive, but you mentioned the ones that find themselves on eBay are of dubious origin.

Have been mulling a move to Ubiquity Unify AP's and all the extra tooling their platform provide if you need to fiddle - channels & spectrum, radio power ... to get coverage and reliable speeds .... plus proper VLANs for IoT separation and the rest.

Their kit is not cheap, but this setup is likely to be in use for 5+ years and in the initial 2-year contract alone the uplift in renting WiFi7 Pro Hub and *one* extender is £408 or £576 if I need two extenders (highly likely).

Have lived with double-NAT before and some (esoteric admittedly) online services struggled to connect to equipment inside the firewall(s) ... so would ideally just have a modem/bridge mode.

Our road has *only* just got FFTP after years of waiting, so there are fewer ISP options and many of the indies haven't got their equipment into our exchange yet ... only BTEE it would seem.

Don't get me wrong, very happy to have FFTP now  and to even be able to have this conversation!! As ever, thank-you both for offering your advice and wisdom.