Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

[DigiVIV]

The Smart Hub 7 Plus is annoying in various ways, but the most annoying seems to be that it doesn't do what I tell it!

I have turned off the 2.4Ghz band for the "Main" wifi and also turned off the 5Ghz band for the "Compatible" wifi (so that there are separate SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands).

But whenever the hub restarts it reactivates 2.4Ghz for the "Main" wifi.

It keeps the 5Ghz off for the "Compatible" wifi, so clearly is half listening to me!

Am I missing something, or is this just a bug that needs fixing? (And if the latter, could EE fix it please, pronto?!...)

[JimM11]

@DigiVIV That is the case, you cannot channel fix the EE Plus 7 smart hub down or up, nor wither it's going to be 80/160Mhz, that's the nature of the hub, Pro may be better with 6Ghz free and clear of DFS, but that has it's own issue. You may want to drop back to wifi 5 and get a AP close to your mac, that will help the 5Ghz probably be more stable. Are you close to an airport or radar station, glasgow airport / prestwick airport both 20 miles either way, and no issues with DFS, but do have my Asus set for channel's selected, 36 (42) on 80Mhz, and 100 (114) on 160Mhz, no issues at all for the two separate 5Ghz bands. 2.4Ghz currently all sitting on CH11... My old Asus wifi 4 but with 5Ghz support hated the EE Smarthub 6 Plus, and flipped between the 2.4/5Ghz also, AP close to it fixed that out and it stuck hard 5Ghz all the time, even on combined or separate ssid's just like you are trying to do!

[DigiVIV]

Thanks @JimM11   If only EE would provide a little more control over the wifi settings (as well as ensuring that available settings are retained!) that would solve a lot of problems. But otherwise, yes, looks like alternative APs, proffering older standards may be required. Am quite near an airport and approach path.

Just really annoying, because better firmware / UX would save so much hassle. There's no technical reason why the Smart Hub 7 Plus can't be a perfectly good wifi router for the whole range of technologies actually in use today.

[JimM11]

@DigiVIV You may just have to hold off until @bobpullen get's a little time to play and see what is going on with the Plus for you with it not holding the channels and switching back on with the Main wifi one, 2.4Ghz/5Ghz that is a feature on/off power to channel test and jump away from nearby signals with neighbours etc. Approach path for me is directly overhead both in/out but does not seem to affect the Asus in the slightest.

[DigiVIV]

I'd really appreciate it if EE could fix this bug before pushing out any more updates and thereby unilaterally restarting the router. Is that looking at all possible @bobpullen ?

It has happened twice in the last month or two, and each time the wifi configuration is reset: which messes things up, without warning or any indication until the problems are noticed. The latest time, 2GB of mobile data used because a phone didn't reconnect to the suddenly dual band SSID. I chose the settings for a reason. They are valid choices and I want them to stay that way. Seems a reasonable expectation to me...

The previous time, the IPv6 settings were changed as well. I presume because that update included IPv6 fixes. But the same principle applies. I do not expect the ISP to be randomly changing the configuration I have consciously chosen to set up locally. That never, ever happened on PlusNet, over many years.

I would ditch the Smart Hub 7 Plus altogether, but it's required for Digital Voice.

In which case, I would suggest that EE really needs to ditch this dodgy way of doing things.

[JimM11]

@DigiVIV Down grade you equipment, go get a second hand BT Smarthub2 and if using extenders currently look to pick up also a complete wifi disc or disc's. You still will not be able to separate the bands on it as NOT a hub feature, but your older mac may hang in the 5Ghz possibly better if not start looking for Mac help advice how to get it done. There was also a new round of FW pushed out to the 7 Plus range, is the re-boot issue with that version still current? Below is the latest and greatest from EE.

FW: r4.27.1-R-1862254-PROD-84001 and the gui is at App version 3.14.5 13/07/2026

BT Smart Hub 2 | Devices | BT Help

[jak26]

As I mentioned last month in https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-Landline/Hub-7-WiFi-turns-itself-back-on/td-p/1622655 the Hub 7+ does indeed default Main WIFI to On after a restart (both 2.4 and 5 get turned back on). I haven't seen any other settings get changed on restart. It's either a bug where the settings for Main WIFI aren't respected at startup and get set back to default or someone thought it a good idea to re-enable Main in case it had been turned off in error. 

It doesn't take too long to turn Main back off after a restart - and so far there's only been one restart on f/w update - but don't change too many WIFI Settings too quickly - wait for each change to take effect at a time

A setup of using wired LAN ports and 2.4 compatible on the hub 7+ plus a new Asus access point for 5 and 6GHz WiFi sited nearer to devices  is working well across all devices with good wired and WIFI speeds and stability.

[JimM11]

@jak26 Is the 7+ you have also running the latest FW and still with the auto re-enable Main wifi still on power off/on?

The vodafone Power Hub for sure was the worst i had seen, setup prior to even joining them, had it all tickety boo, first FW push from them NOT one single setting was maintained, so had to go reset every single aspect again. Just got my Ladline fixed after 3 months VF mess up, had to do the Factory reset (could not get past VF stupid request so impasse was in surmountable) then to find out after 3 months talking to the clowns, oops we made the mistake and you are stuffed now. Just about to check there stupid Hub again now but pretty sure it did some FW updates again as took one long time to get back on the connection. Phone to be fixed and enabled 31st last chance for them if not i'm off.

[DigiVIV]

We do indeed now have the "latest and greatest," @JimM11 !

I can set up the Ubiquiti AP when I have some time, but if the Smart Hub main wifi turns itself back on anyway, I'll still be going in to force it off again, albeit with less disruption because the SSID will be irrelevant.

I guess if, as @jak26 suggests, it is a deliberate choice to minimise consumer mistakes, the problem won't ever be fixed. Would be good to know that, if so.

It just occurred to me to try adding a firewall rule to forward port 7547 to a non-existent internal IP address. Wonder if that will prevent EE meddling, so at least I can determine when restarts happen?

Mind you, port forwarding is also flakey with these things, isn't it?...

And, in fact, an online port checker is still showing it as open, rather than timed out as I would expect...

Quite a security risk, leaving the CWMP/TR-069 port open to the Internet at large, I'd have thought. But nothing surprises me about how poorly implemented this router is.

[JimM11]

@DigiVIV Got it, let's see if @bobpullen has managed time to do the look see, but you are correct EE FW updates do recycle and reboot the Hub final part to activate everything. PF is way oopsey with that particular hub for sure, as also most off them appear to be heading the same way especially if uPnP gets a hold quickly.

[DigiVIV]

Well, he seems to have confirmed @jak26 's issue in the other thread, so I guess it's the same thing.

Question is when/whether it is going to be fixed.

(Do PlusNet hubs have the management port open to the Internet, I wonder? Can't check any more. It should surely be restricted to access from ISP systems.)