Smart Hub Pro client roaming

[ben_flugel]

Good morning,

I moved over to EE's 1.6gbps service on 21st Jan. I have a Smart Hub Pro and 3 Smart WiFi Pro extenders. Two of those extenders are wired in with one wireless. We live in a large property with thick walls, so signal is always a struggle.

Coverage with the 4 units is excellent, I have no issue with the coverage or with the speed of the service whilst connected to any of the nodes.

My problem is with our mobile phones - two Pixel 8 Pros and one Pixel 8. When moving around the house, the drop off they WiFi and onto the 4G. The message on the phones' WiFi says "Connected/No internet access". We have turned off the Adaptive Connectivity options on the phones.

We had 4 x Eero 6 Pros before this setup and had no such issue with client roaming.

A quick dive into the phone WiFi to flick WiFi off and back on again, and the phone connects immediately.

It appears that the Smart WiFi systems struggles to move the phones between the APs as we move around the house.

We've tried with WiFi Enhancer on and off and with advanced security on and off. These don't appear to affect the roaming - the problem happens whether these are on or off.

Any suggestions or help is welcome.

[JimM11]

@ben_flugel Do you have a landline on DV and for that reason are using the EE Router and smart wireless devices?

[ben_flugel]

No, I don't have a landline connected.

The Eeros were supplied by Talk Talk and have to go back. And their throughput wasn't good enough, even for the 900mb speeds.

[JimM11]

@ben_flugel With you now, was going to be the next question, so apart from the Pixel mobile issue, anything else struggling with the EE Seamless roaming on the Wi-Fi side, EE Mesh appears to be a bit of a mess, Asus AI mesh user myself, obvious by the sound EERO does a good job also, Mobile's are very sensitive best of times, but you are trying hard to compensate hope that one of the Pro user's replies if they are seeing it for you, EE smarthub+ seems ok, and Samsung user so not seeing it, but then again not looked close at it, but will do now and if i do will flag it up on your post.

[ben_flugel]

@JimM11  it's just the mobiles we've noticed at the moment. Most of our other devices are static. I do have a couple of tablets I can test with. I will do that and report back here. Apple and Android tablets.

But yes, the "feel" of the mesh appears a bit flaky. I imagine this will improve as EE releases new firmware but given the cost of the service, I hope this is sooner rather than later.

[JimM11]

@ben_flugel DO NOT set you expectations of that happening, had the + for nearly a year now, at least two FW updates, and still major oops on halve off the doo doo complaints, The saying it only get's better DOES not apply.

[humeka]

I purchased my EEROs a few years ago and now have 6 around the property , so when changed to EE Smart Hub Plus last week , I decided to keep my EERO mesh (the only issue being BT/EE TV which requires some odd protocols , so I'm using the EE Wifi 6 on a different SSID for BT/EE TV boxes) .

I did change the EEROs to Double NAT'ing  rather than bridging the EEROs and achieved better end device speeds.

I have very poor mobile 4G connectivity at home so always use WIFI calling over the FTTP , as you say client steering works well in the EEROs.

Digital Voice on Advanced ALEXA phones working OK other than the lack of contact IMPORTation , but of course these DV handsets are DECT and not WIFI.

Doesn't help you problems, just my current experience 😄

[ben_flugel]

I did like the Eeros very much. Very reliable, great coverage and great client steering. But throughout I felt was a bit poor. Though 600mb over wifi from a phone so hardly slow! 

I've been doing some testing tonight. The WiFi 7 system with EE is definitely better if you have no WiFi connected nodes. I removed my 4th and repositioned one of my others, leaving me the router and two ethernet connected nodes. It seems more stable and client hand off is quicker but there is still a big delay and my Pixel 8 Pro still decides to report no internet. 

[JimM11]

@ben_flugel Wi-fi mesh is difficult at the best off times, and a lot of people do not get that too many wi-fi extenders can be just as bad as too little, smooth transition from one to the other all down to how good that they play with each other and also that the device's happy as they move from one to the other, getting them just right will be the challenge and the EE app tools do not aide much in helping for that. Ethernet connected backhaul is most certainly the way to go with the extenders. Hope that you manage to solve the pixel Pro moving between units.👍

[ben_flugel]

@JimM11  I've taken the extender that was wifi connected, out of the environment and moved one of the wired ones to the top of a bookcase. This gives better signal upstairs to the area where the WiFi connected unit was. If I take any of the 3 total units out now, that area is a complete dead spot.

It's slightly more reliable now but phones are still dropping off and go to 4g. It's really annoying. I rang EE who are sending one of the engineers out to me on Monday. 

There's nothing wrong with the positioning of the APs now, it has to be the way the mesh system is handing devices between nodes.

It's not a cheap service, so I'm getting frustrated.