Smart Hub plus 7 - Always use this IP address Issue

[jsviper77]

Hi all, 

I have just switched from Sky to EE. 

I have the new Smart Hub 7 Plus and although most of it works, i have a couple of issues. 

1. When i try to turn on "Always use this ip address" for devices on my LAN it won't toggle. Therefore i cannot set fixed LAN addresses for smart devices etc around the home.   (I changed the DHCP Range/Router IP to match Sky's)

2. Port forwarding, although works, creates two entries every time.

Frustrating for the most simplest of functions.

Anyone have the same issue or can help shed some light on what might be the cause.

Is it a bug in the firmware, as i can see previous models had this working ok.

[sedling]

I have been wrestling with this and address table problems in the router for the last 4 weeks.

2 of my ethernet attached PCs have static addresses, one is OK, the other limps along with the address table saying the address is a static fix, but will not let me save (or see!) the IP address. Always use this IP address: is set to yes, but the IP address is shown as N/A on the change device settings page (and will loop forever saying 'saving') if the address is entered.

On the Address table page it is the only device listed as N/A as well.

No idea why this is happening, I have even installed a new RealTek adapter because of intermittent drops. It is driving me crazy.

[XRaySpeX]

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@sedling wrote:

2 of my ethernet attached PCs have static addresses.

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How have you made them static? Are the PCs themselves setting their own IP addys on their Ethernet adapter Properties > TCP/IPv4?  If so, stop doing this & let them have an Auto IP. Let the router use its DHCP to assign an IP & then "Always use this IP " should work.

[sedling]

Believe me I have tried every combination under the sun.

I have reverted to good old fashioned’let the router allocate via DHCP’ but that is always giving duplicate errors on the pc.

I have a static ip on my other pc with the router set to always use this address and that is absolutely fine, but the other PC and the router never agree on addresses.

Currently my router has an ip for the Pc MAC, but the pc shows a different auto ip with the duplicate tag

I have just set up a static ip on that pc of 192.168.1.20 (outside the router DHCP range..).

I have re booted the router, it matches the MAC with that address - hooray *except* when I go back to the PC and run ipconfig, it shows an APIPA address as the preferred autoconfig (169.354.1156.136 (preferred)), and the IPv4 address as

192.168.1.20 (duplicate) - no internet working again..

[Huggons1]

Hopefully this will help you…

Just realised that your router is not actually on the list to receive this version.

r5.16.1-R-2011329-PROD-1 and the gui is at App Version 3.17.5 20/08/2026

Firmware version: r5.16.1

Deployment date: From August 2026

Hub Types: SH30A, SH31B, SH32B, SH40J

Release notes: 

•  Security patches
• Improved WiFi and extender stability/performance
•  New - Updated WiFi controller with improved logic/decisioning (SH31B/SH32B)
•  New - Removed support for 2.4GHz extender backhaul (SH31B/SH32B)
•  New - New Hub Manager UI (Beta)
•  Fix - Some extenders dropping connection after firmware upgrade
•  Fix - Temporary Loss of 5GHz extender backhaul in certain conditions (SH3x)
•  Fix - Issue affecting certain traffic/activities e.g. PS5 downloads/IPv6 applications
•  Fix - Custom DNS feature issues hub IP as secondary server
•  Fix - Pixelation/IPC6023 errors in some situations when viewing subscription EETV channels

[JimM11]

@sedling If an address has been used is not currently viewable then you CANNOT use it ever, DHCP has it reserved for when the device comes back online, You change the IP in the DHCP scope range, say like 192.168.1.107   And DHCP accepts that then go set it as Always Use This IP, that should work fine and dandy...

You can look at all the lan with the Network, toggle the active/inactive and see what is available for use.

[sedling]

Hi Jim, you are a star, I have been trying to set addresses that are somehow reserved in the hub address table for 'returning'; use (i have over 50 devices on my network so was 'unlucky' in trying a lot of times- and then got in a timing/addressing loop that defaulted to APIPA too).

I managed to find and setup a PC static an IP *within* the DHCP range that wasn't used and the router and PC have now sync'ed up.

Many thanks.

[JimM11]

@sedling Just don't make it easy at times.... Glad your working now. If you ever need for the future useful utility to scan and associate then you can at least quickly work out what is needed.

Advanced IP Scanner - Download Free Network Scanner

[sedling]

Sorry Jim, spoke too soon.

Pc lost connection this morning, and yep, APIPA kicked in, as well as the PC finding the static IP was now (again) a 'duplicate'

I have spent 4 hours this afternoon re-installing the internet adapter (that I bought to to test if this was a hardware error on the PC side- no) and trying in vain to re -sync a non-'duplicate' id with the router. Every combination of DHCP or static is now failing. The router says it is connected to the static PC IP, but the PC defaults to 'dupliacte' and generates an APIPA addres.

I've even edited the registry to turn off APIPA generation but still get 'duplicate' status.

When I luckily get a DHCP generated IP from the router, the address table says connected, the PC status looks OK but cannot access internet addresses.

I have spent on and off 3 to 4 weeks on these issues since switching to EE from BT and I am probably going to go elsewhere.

All I want to do is connect my ethernet attached PC to a DHCP lease from the router. no luck.

I managed a connection with your suggestion tyesterday (thanks again btw) but a connection error this morning and all that work was undone by the dreaded 'duplicate' scenario.

I have bought and installed anew TPlink ethernet adapter with Realtek hardware as I was dubious about my motherboard Intel adapter, but the problems remain.

The address table in the router is just not stable or good enough at cleanup.

Tomorrow I may just try *another* factory reset to clear out old saved addresses, but I think another provider is the way to go.

The EE Smart Hub 7 Plus seems blighted by poor firmware.

[bobpullen]

@sedling - I'm really struggling to understand why you're having such a rough time of it. Are you literally just trying to get two wired PC's connected to the router?

It should be simple enough to just have them obtain their IP's automatically from the hub's DHCP server and if you need a static assignment, either use that feature within the hub or explicitly configure each PC's network adapter to use a fixed IP, gateway address, subnet mask and DNS server etc. If you choose an IP outside the range of the DHCP pool then there should be zero  chance of an IP conflict.

I have a bunch of wired devices on my network with static IP assignments and I've never encountered these problems.

You haven't got another DHCP server on your network have you?

[JimM11]

@sedling Got no idea what you are doing, so if you want to have a structured network then you have to do the following.

1. Switch all off your devices off or stop those that you can....

2. Switch the hub on, do your full factory reset to square it away, then set anything up hub wise that is needed.

3. Attach your devices one by one, at that point if the device has retained it's DHCP IP and you are happy with that at each stage apply in the Advanced Lan section for EACH use as static or not.... DO NOT DO A FIXED IP on a device it is just not needed, but you can if you wish, there is just NO WAY to let the DHCP know when connected this is fixed so do not use it, then you run into the problem your DHCP server get's confused.... Devices that have rotating mac addresses are the worst, they attach the server gives it an IP, next time it get's an new IP because it hides it's original mac address, known as randomised mac security......

It will take you a couple off hours to set it all up, there is NO easy way to do it and NO recovery as there is NO backup/restore feature on the EE Hub you have.

Beware of Range Extenders that have the setting on them USE this device as a DHCP Server....

I no longer have my screen captures of the EE 6+ version but they are all similar, so will attach my Asus Lan setings, you will see Multiple Devices same Name with _NIC or Wifi, those are DUAL types ie Desktop/Laptops with both Ethernet and Wifi that can be used at the same time....