I wanted to get WIFI 6 as existing hub only WIFI5

[sloopjohnB]

Got told to keep BT Smart Hub 2 when switched to EE at end of BT contract. No choice given. Bought EE Smart Hub SH32B from Ebay- new. But found as it is FFTP cannot connect to broadband. EE Help was useless. I wanted to get WIFI 6 as existing hub only WIFI5.

[JimM11]

@sloopjohnB Just return it and find a SH31B to replace it with!

[sloopjohnB]

EE say even the SH31B not suitable. Looked at prices for SH31B and they are over £35 - SH32B was only £12!

[XRaySpeX]

@sloopjohnB : That's to be expected. The SH31B incorporates a modem, the SH32B doesn't!

Containing a modem, the SH31B will work on all types of BB, ADSL, FTTP VDSL and Full Fibre, other than G.Fast. Is G.Fast what you have? In which case you would need the white EE Smart Router.

[JimM11]

@sloopjohnB What is the speed off the line that you currently have the BT Smarthub2 connected with, you can just get a wired wi-fi 6 AP and connect that to the router, so guess you need to go search for one off those, and turn off/disable your wi-fi on the BT unless you can cable the AP away from it! Not sure if the EE Smart Router is a wifi6 device so that may just be a waste of time for you!

Until you say what speed package that you are connected on then there is NO way really to advise you Router wise!

[bobpullen]

@sloopjohnB - if you really want to you could configure the SH32B as an access point and wire it to your SH2. It's a bit messy though: -

• Power up the SH32B and connect a device to it so you can access the Hub Manager at http://192.168.1.254
  (using an Ethernet cable is preferred if poss).
• Navigate to Advanced > My Network > IPv4 configuration (make sure it's the SH32B interface that you're looking at!)
• Change the IP address value to something that isn't being used by another device on your network e.g. 192.168.1.1
• Disable the DHCP server
• Save the changes
• Power off the SH32B and connect it to your SH2 using an Ethernet cable between LAN ports (do not use the WAN ports)
• Power up the SH32B
• You should now be in a situation where you have two Wi-Fi networks broadcasting, one for the SH2 and one for the SH32B. You should be able to connect to either of these networks and browse the Internet
• Log into the SH2 Hub Manager at http://192.168.1.254
• Navigate to Advanced > Wireless, toggle the switch to 'Disable all wireless' and then save. Warning: This will 'kill' the SH2 Wi-Fi and disconnect any devices that are using it.
• Using a device connected to the SH32B Wi-Fi, navigate to the SH32B Hub Manager, this time using the address http://192.168.1.1 (we changed the IP earlier, remember)
• Navigate to Advanced > Wireless and configure the Wi-Fi network as you desire e.g. you could give it the same name/password as what the SH2 was using which should result in most of your devices automatically moving across to the SH32B Wi-Fi. Alternatively. just leave things as they are and reconfigure your devices to connect to the new network.

Some caveats: -

• The SH32B will not receive any firmware/software updates in this configuration
• The SH32B will obnoxiously flash its lights at you as it will think it's not connected to the Internet. This will happen even if you have the option enabled in the Hub Manager to turn the lights off
• You are now having to power two separate units alongside each other instead of just one
• If you are relying on a Wi-Fi connection for any EE TV subscription services then there's a chance they won't work
• Very unlikely you will be able to use the EE app to manage any of the software features on the SH32B (Parental Controls/renaming devices etc.)