Poor/No wifi upstairs & other rooms

[Rking314]

I had EE full fibre broadband installed just over a week ago. But the WiFi signal is poor and sometimes not at all upstairs and in the back of the house.

I changed from BT Halo 3, as i wanted a faster broadband, the BT set up didn't have these issues.

Are the EE routers poor?

If it doesn't improve I will go back to BT.

[JimM11]

@Rking314 What package did you settle for, the BT Smarthub2 can be used on the EE service and is fine for operation upto the 900mb/s speed, and supports the DV landline. So if you still have the BT router and not sent it back yet you could put it back on the system. No too routers are alike in operation, and it is reported that the BT is better than the EE at putting the signal about,  probably has different ariel positioning. Cannot say as never used the BT router, but do not find that the EE is any worse than my previous sky router, then again i always had a booster about 30' away from the main router anyway to get stronger signal coverage.

Also is the router position for the EE in the same place regarding were the BT was, when fibre is installed this dictates were the router is placed and may not be ideal, most central position in the home is the best place but that does not always work out because of the ONT position and the short connection cable.

[Rking314]

Hi.I got the 1GB Full Fibre package which has the ee smart hub plus.I may try the BT hub again, if the problems persist.When I say I got the 1 Gb package. It's coming in at 608mb at the moment, even though they guarantee 700mb.I presumed getting the 1gb set up would have given me nearly that, but there's another disappointment.!RegardsRichard. 

[JimM11]

@Rking314 If you are doing speed test with wireless wi-fi device then that may be a fair result, BT router may also be slightly lower, ethernet connected with all wireless off should give you the more accurate test.

If you have been asked to return the BT equipment you have 60 days, so no rush to do so until you are happy how the EE router is performing.

[Ewan15]

Hi Jim

You can run your own ethernet cable so that you can locate the router more centrally in the house. You can also get BT / Openreach to run external network cables up the another floor to facilitate siting the router in a better location. Having drywalls I opted for running a decent quality network cable (Cat 5E or above) from the ONT to my office on the second floor.

The main difference I notice with the EE router over the BT Smart Hub 2 is the WIFI speed. With BT I was getting around 600mbps, whereas with EE I get near enough 900mbps to my Pixel phone.

If anything I am finding the signal is stronger from the EE router that the BT one.

[JimM11]

@Ewan15 Always the main problem when going to fttp is the positioning of the ONT, most don't consider the factors, and OR/Sub are some what restricted to what the can do with the delicate internal fibre cable, and many customers are not capable of doing the ethernet cable run's internal. EE router with the correct device attached will always be quicker speed wise, as ISP routers go it is not to bad, and its what the customers are used to previous where mainly complaints arise.  Glad you system is working out good for you!👍

[Rking314]

Its not working out good at all.It is terrible.Download speed supposed to be 700mbps minimum. It is actually ranging from 30 to 300mbps!Plus wifi connection when not close to router very bad.BT hub was OK.Got engineer coming out Saturday. 

[JimM11]

@Rking314 With wi-fi devices it is unfortunate that the further you get from the signal source that speed drops relative to distance, competing signal interference and all other various issues come into play, how good the device is at handling high speed etc, and ethernet connected network speed test with all wireless devices off if possible give the more realistic picture of what is capable from the router to the device.  Copied some OR fttp info below. Hope the engineer visit works out and if issue he sorts for you.👍

1. FTTP is a contended service, up to 32 users can be sharing the 2.5Gb backhaul, so you can never expect the full speed all the time, you may get 900mb when there are fewer people using it. I expect that you are sharing the backhaul with many users. If everyone was using it fully, you may only get 78mbs. Its called statistical multiplexing, which relies on the fact that all users are not utilising their connection fully, all of the time.

BT quote up to 900mb, so you are likely to get much less than that during peak times.

Speed tests pass very little data, so normally give a much higher speed.

2. The max OR connect to a splitter is 30 ( 32 is the splitter maximum but policy is 30 ) not every CBT port provided is likely to have a customer using it , so unless on a ‘new site’ that has no alternatives to OR FTTP the actual number on a splitter is likely to be way less , OR currently have about a 30% take up, so maybe 10 users per splitter , plus the majority don’t take 900Mb but slower profiles , and the chances of those ‘on line ‘ at any one time all and doing something intensive, rather than browsing / Netflix that may be consuming less than 30-100Mb , is slim , that’s why there is a 700Mb minimum speed guarantee on 900Mb …..the 2.4Gb will be plenty ,you would have to be incredibly unlucky to have any consistent congestion.

If you suspect PON congestion, try at a time when there won’t be much activity, late evening or early morning .

Although you have tried somethings to ‘ isolate’ the problem , the most obvious thing to do ( that you haven’t apparently tried ) is use the BT router , without doing that , you haven’t really proved anything , your third party router may great , but even great routers can be mis configured or faulty