27-05-2026 08:55 PM - edited 27-05-2026 09:07 PM
A strange and very annoying thing has suddenly happened over the last 2 days - both our mobiles in the house have been dropping off the Wi-fi.
The Router is a ~3 month old EE Smart Hub Plus. To satisfy some older devices I have both 5 and 2.4 GHz bands available on both the Main Wi-fi and the Compatible Wi-fi. The phones are both Samsung A20e on Android 11. It is only the phones that we have problems with, our Samsung and iPad tablets and a Dell and HP laptop are all fine. We have older devices such as Kindles which also seem to be ok, just tested my Kindle and it connects fine. The router is strategically situated in the centre of the house upstairs but at the top of an open stairwell, a position we've used for 15+ years with good spread to the farthest rooms.
Originally the phones were attached to the Main Wifi 5 GHz and worked fine for around 3 months. 2 days ago they both started receiving very weak signals and dropping off the wifi. I moved them both to the Compatible wifi (which has 2.4 and 5 GHz) and thought this had sorted it, 2.4 GHz in theory being stronger through walls/floors etc. This seemed to work but they started dropping off again. Rebooting the router would re-connect them for a while but after some hours they would drop off again. Rebooting the phones does not help.
A strange thing is that the phones will now not detect the Main wifi even with the router just rebooted and the phones right next to the router.
I use an Android App called Wifi Analyser on my tablet and it appears the 5 GHz signals are actually stronger, around -40 dBm, with the 2.4 GHz weaker at -60 dBm. The 5 GHz's are on circa channel 106 the 2.4 Ghz's on channel 1, occasionally channel 10. The only other Wifi signal around is a very weak one from a neighbour, at ~ -90 dBm on channel 2.
We have DECT "landline" phones but have always had these.
The phones have not had a software update during this time, they are both the same version, and to have a hardware problem on both phones at the same time seems unlikely.
So I can't work out whether the router is faulty in some way (warm/failing? but we're in Scotland and have not seen the high temperatures in the south) or the phones have both had something happen at the same time.
Driving me nuts, as we depend on Wifi Calling on the phones (we're out in the sticks with no mobile signal). Thankfully we have a Home Phone installed, which works fine.
Any ideas, anyone? Thanks
Solved! See the answer below or view the solution in context.
31-05-2026 09:11 AM
Anyone following this, the "Solution" is purely temporary. Continuing discussion and more developments over in this thread:
02-06-2026 08:58 AM
Final solution as per PaulB's thread, the fixed MAC address does not seem to have been the problem, whicn was cured by setting the 2.4 GHz signal to fixed channel (6 in my case), not Smart.
02-06-2026 11:39 AM
@Cliff_G It's as per your findings, unfortunately i have nothing to look at EE wise, but i will say without a doubt in my mind when i was using the EE Smart Hub 6 Plus, it sure was fixed channel on the 2.4Ghz band for me, CH1 was the EE, CH6 was my TP-Link wifi powerline, and CH11 was all my Asus nodes (4). 5Ghz pretty much held it's own as a CH36 80Mhz wide and on auto smart as fixed is not allowed never drifted, nothing to cause it to do, Asus 5Ghz/5Ghz two were tucked up on CH42 and 100.
Just keep it on the CH6 and see how it all performs.... Will have to be aware for the next couple weeks asking if OK before/previous and not Auto telling to use the Compatible Feature as it was always a good get out of jail when stability was poor....
02-06-2026 12:28 PM
Summary of solution.
02-06-2026 12:34 PM
@Christopher_G and @Leanne_T Forwarded from findings this post as a so far. @Cliff_G the two user's are EE support on the Forum so you know.