Smart hub plus and wifi extender

[Trick971]

I was recently forced to change hub from the smart hub 2 to an EE Smart hub plus. 

with the previous hub I had one black wifi disc that was placed in my garage and gave me complete coverage across my property.

now with the new setup of the smart hub plus and smart wifi plus (sw30a), the coverage is much worse.

same location for both hub and extender and now it’s a poor signal to hub from wifi extender. 
I thought this was supposed to be an upgrade or at least like for like.

anyone else experience this?

[Trick971]

I think I’m at the end of my tether now.

Given all the above i decided to get the whole home wifi.

i want to use the existing wifi network ssid since i didnt want to set up all the wifi devices again, anyway i cant do this because i need to switch  the hub wifi off but cant do this because i cant connect to the hub via the app (wifi controls) and nor can I get into the hub via  192.168.1.254. Just times out.

so after all time and money spent I’m better off going back to the smart hub 2. That worked fine, I didn’t need more than one extra disc. And never had issues. This is shocking.

[Trick971]

after a couple of days of trying, rebooting etc i finally connected to hub via app. couldnt see a way of turning off the wifi without adding everything to a group which it wouldnt let me do.

So connected to hub via browser which now also works, and did it that way.

now running wholehome wifi..

however speed of that is 35mbps.. compared to EE router wifi of 800+

Jeez. i think its better for me sell the stuff i got, and asked for the router to be swapped back so i can go back to using one black disc that covered my entire property. 

[JimM11]

@Trick971 One of the main problem's with new builds is the plaster board walls, and with the new materials used they are more than likely foil lined, but it does not excuse the performance of the BT Smarthub2 and you complete wifi black disk. Wifi testing speed wise, would be good to know values as you step across each wall testing as you go along, to your final brick before the outside. Wifi analyzer app on your mobile would also give you an idea what's going on and how badly the wi-fi signal is tapering off through the walls.

[Wraith1273]

It sounds to me like you're connecting to the 2.4 GHZ channel, because  5 Ghz is not as good at penetrating walls.  This would also explain the slow speed you recorded.

Have you tried changing the wireless channel?  If you have a lot of neighbours it can cause mayhem with speed and dropouts etc.                                                                                                                                                                                               

Most systems are set to channel 1 on 2.54 and 36 on 5.  Try changing the channels through the router admin.

https://youtu.be/IGMAAptTm0E

To see the channels in use and get free, uncongested ones, use something like this - https://www.metageek.com/inssider/?utm_source=announcing-inssider-5&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=nbs...

it's helped me achieve the ultimate settings more times then I can remember.  

Interesting that you can't change the 5 Ghz channel setting.  There must be advanced settings that allow this, odd.

[JimM11]

@Wraith1273 And you cannot change it by more advanced settings (5Ghz), so you know.

[Wraith1273]

@JimM11 Not allowing the 5 Ghz channel to be changed is ridiculous.  How annoying.

Thanks!

[JimM11]

@Wraith1273 It is what it is, ISP router well locked down to stop tinkering! New AX control philosophy applied so ISP is well in control!

[Trick971]

Sounds like im better off getting them to switch me back to old setup. 

1. wifi will work

2. less locked down and more control over my bands and channels 

any cons of smart hub 2 vs smart hub plus?

wifi 6 or something?

[JimM11]

@Trick971 WiFi6 that's one of the benefit's, little faster due to the modern processor, smartwifi appears to be little problematic wireless mode, but reported ok cabled, do not use so cannot compare, BT OP's rate the old way better but never used so they are not the same devices. Each has to make there own mind up...