Smart Hub 7 Plus - Signal rubbish?

[RiskyJ]

New to EE and really struggling with signal strength from the Smart Hub 7 Plus. In all my time having home WiFi I’ve never experienced such weak signal. It seems the router is completely incapable of penetrating walls. House is a very average size 4 bed. 

Rang tech support who were worse than useless. After failing to understand the issue was the WiFi signal they then misinformed me that no extenders were available for the 7 Plus. Eventually they conceded that they do exist, but that they can’t order them. I was then directed to the ‘value team’ who don’t seem to answer the phone. 

My point is; in 2026 surely extenders shouldn’t be necessary in an ‘average’ house?

[JimM11]

@MrMirza The Pro is the one offered for the 1.6Gb/s high speed package as far as i am aware, you can get one but it's an additional £15 extra per month, As you have the TP and a FF900 connection, if that is working well and putting the wireless wifi signal about the home, unless you require to have a landline connection for DV Digital Voice you can ditch the EE one altogether and just promote the TP to be it....

Did you see the link earlier in the post with what EE are doing to the FW update on the EE Smart Hub 7 Plus version, that is currently in the wind somewhere and may just improve the wireless on the unit...... People either Rave about or Hate it, personally never used, 100% pure Asus Router user my self but do have Mesh as 50's style home with solid brick walls everywhere and a single hub just does not cut it anymore, It's the way off the units, the Faster the suckers go and depending on what you are doing, more gets required......

Your case i do think, 1 7+ Hub and 1 Smart Extender you will be set to go, Pro may work a bit better but you just could end up an additional Pro Smart Wireless also required......

[JimM11]

@MrMirza Your TP will be connected to the EE more than likely Ethernet possibly, if you have it's Wireless Wifi on it do you see the signal all over your home, Tp's are good i do have the Powerline in use and had to use one RE with the Son's VM 5x Hub as that was the only way to get the Ring Doorbell to work, it just would not see the VM Hub at all.... Is it the Archer AXE75 you have?

[JimM11]

@MrMirza If the go get one from the other market place is what you intend to do, please say there are Factors in play that you have to be made aware off as ALL EE Hubs are the property off EE and you are just in theory renting it from them to be Returned when they request so and the UNIT is tied by Serial Number to your EE Account.... Below was just a quick look but gives you the Idea from the EE Website as a new Customer TODAY....

FF900 Core get's you 7+ at £37.99

FF900 Ultimate get's you the 7 Pro at £61.99 

[RiskyJ]

The Smart Hub 2 was for the FTTC connection that was here when I moved in. I went with EE for FTTP. I’ll try your suggestion of plugging the Smart Hub in instead of the EE Hub. 

This house is 70s with all solid brick walls, I didn’t realise Wifi7 struggled so much with this. Weirdly though I get good signal in the garden which I can’t work out. 
When you mentioned the bars with WiFi 4/5/6 is that shown in the hub admin panel?

[XRaySpeX]

The BT SH2 does work on FTTP as well as FTTC or even ADSL.

[MrMirza]

@JimM11 

Yes, I have an Archer AXE75 but I use that for VR gaming and VR content. The Archer router is plugged into the back of my PC. The Ethernet cable from the EE router is plugged into the back of the Archer. I don't use the Archer for anything else currently. I use to own an ASUS router many years ago.

I live in a house built in the 1900s, with solid brick walls.

I am not interested in paying for a subscription for a pro router at the price of £37.99 and £61.99. That's almost double and triple what I pay now. 900MB is plenty fast enough for me. I was on a 250MB package with Virgin Media and that was also fine for me.

Maybe the new firmware would help but it is too late now, as I ordered a Pro router yesterday night from eBay for £50 and it's on the way now. I figured for the price, it was worth a try and gives me additional features and better performance. If this is the property of EE and linked to the accounts serial number, if the original purchaser is asked by EE to return the router and he/she cannot because they sold it, what happens? With Virgin Media, you would usually be charged a fee for not returning the router. Does this affect me at all? Can the router be locked and inoperable? I wouldn't have purchased one if I was aware.

[JimM11]

@MrMirza Think you are good and the Original Reseller is the one with the issue, as far as the Forum see's the Hub still get's it FW updates, and you still get control over it, the only slight fallback is when you use the app, it still displays there as a 7+ because that is what you have tied to the account. All you can do is give it a try, and see if it is any better than what you have currently.

[JimM11]

@RiskyJ The numbers in the bars are on the mobile device, my Samsung shows WiFi6 when connected to the AP or the Hub, and drops back to bars only when it connects on the powerline.

[XRaySpeX]

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@MrMirza wrote:

if the original purchaser is asked by EE to return the router and he/she cannot because they sold it, what happens?

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They are charged a non-return fee of £125. Otherwise nowt changes. The router does not belong to you. The legal owner remains EE.

[MrMirza]

If the original seller is charged a non-return fee of £125, as you said, that falls on him/her and not myself. Once this fee has been charged (and paid), there will be no more challenges made on this specific Pro router. Therefore, EE won't require it back and so the router belongs to me? But you say that is incorrect? How does it belong to EE if I paid for it and the non-return fee has been charged (and hopefully paid)?