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Replacement WiFi7 for EE Smart Hub Pro and extenders

tnj
Skilled Contributor
Skilled Contributor

‎03-07-2025 10:40 AM

I have recently had installed the Busiest Home Bundle which is 1.6GB FTTP with a Smart Hub Pro and three WiFi extenders. The problem is that this is supposed to support up to 190 WiFi devices but it will not support more than about 30. EE have investigated and concluded that this is the case and nothing can be done other than new hardware or firmware changes, none of which are likely soon. They have offered to release me from my contract although that is not yet showing on my EE account.

At the moment I am getting by using my old BT SmartHub2 which I have used with up to eighty 2.5G WiFi devices.

However I want a WiFi7 mesh network in my home and I am looking for the best way to achieve this. I could go to another provider for a package, I could wait for EE to have one that works or I could buy a mesh system and use on my EE fibre although I am paying extra for the WiFi7 bundle that does not work.

When I look at buying WiFi7 mesh systems I am confused by some of the differences. If for example I look at Eero they do the Pro7 at £299 per unit and the Max7 at £599 per unit and I will probably need at least three units so this is getting expensive. Similar offerings such as the Netgear WiFi7 Orbi RBE973S costs £1,878 for a three unit bundle and the Asus Zen around £950 for two units. Is there much difference between the offerings some of which cost twice as much per unit? Can these act as standalone without my Smart Hub Pro?

Any thoughts?

0 Helpful
14 REPLIES 14
Pindu
Investigator
Investigator

‎28-12-2025 05:32 PM

Strange - I have been experiencing the same issue as you. Devices randomly disconnect and when the do connect again, no internet. I am using PiHole for DHCP and DNs so could be that. Spent 2 hours on a call with EE support before they would even consider an engineer coming out. Engineer could not find the issue either. When he called his tech folk, they said that it is a firmware issue. He recommended ditching EE kit and going with the deco mesh!!!

Did you ever get it sorted?

0 Helpful
Factotum
Investigator
Investigator

‎29-12-2025 03:21 PM

This looks to be a DHCP issue that possibly affects some but not all EE hubs.
Check the obvious first and that your DHCP Server address range ie 192.168.1.50 - 192.168.1.253, which should allow 200+ devices, plus a range at the start (1-49) for fixed items such as printers.
Check lease times are set to 1 day, to prevent rapid cycling as new devices are added.

Next option, I'd suggest turning "DHCP Server Enabled" to OFF and then allocating a fixed IP to each device.
This works as a master table even if extenders are used.

However, I'm reading here that there's also the potential for DHCP server clash, ie which one has authority?
If using an external  DHCP server, ensure EE hub is set to OFF and allocate a fixed IP to the other server to allow it to allocate leases

Relatively straight forward and should solve both issues. 
Hope this helps 🙂

0 Helpful
bobpullen
Star Contributor
Star Contributor
In response to Factotum

‎31-12-2025 06:09 PM

@Factotum - I suspect both have already disabled the DHCP server on the EE hub as they're using Pihole instead.

Pindu
Investigator
Investigator

‎31-12-2025 07:40 PM

Indeed @bobpullen  @Factotum , pi hole and router all set up correctly. Thanks.

0 Helpful
bobpullen
Star Contributor
Star Contributor
In response to tnj

‎09-01-2026 05:07 PM

@tnj wrote:

I have not found a good solution yet and have spent the last few days experimenting.

@tnj - I've offered some comment on your issue in the past, but I too found some time for a spot of experimentation 🤓

I'd previously stated that I don't have 30+ 2.4GHz WiFi devices but then the obvious dawned on me: I can simply disable the 5GHz and 6GHz radios to force everything across to 2.4GHz (I do have > 30 total WiFi devices).

Results were enlightening and what I saw aligns with your own observations.

Before I did anything. Single (hardwired) extender and a spread of devices across bands and access points. Everything working: -

 before.png

After disabling the 2.4 & 5GHz radios. All but one device has reconnected to 2.4GHz however, the load is spread across the hub and extender. From a quick spot check, everything still seems to be working: -

after.png

Now for the interesting part. I powered off the extender to force everything across  to the hub. The number of devices that reconnected this time certainly raises an eyebrow 🤨 : -

hub_only.png

And spot checking some of them yielded similar observations to what you're reporting. A lot of this sort of stuff: -

no_internet.jpg

I also saw at least a couple of clients disassociate from the WiFi as I was running around toggling WiFi on/off on various devices to try and get Internet resolution working.

To summarise: you're not going mad and there definitely seems to be something awry. Looks to me that it's at an access point level though, so those with large amounts of 2.4GHz devices spread across extenders are unlikely to see it. Would certainly explain why there's not more noise about it as I imagine those with > 30 2.4GHz clients connected to a single hub/extender are going to be few and far between!