BT Smart Hub 2 And App Connection Issues

indeed - its the bridging between the two WLANs on different radio bands - ie between say wifi connected streamer and wifi connected control point being on different WLANs, one using 2.4 and the other 5.

So either turn off 5GHz and force device not to use 802.11ac and only the 2.4GHz part of 802.11n.

Or if all your devices are reasonably new and you have good wifi, switch off 2.4GHz and force devices to use 5GHz only (5GHz part of 802.11n and 802.11ac) - but legacy Naim streamers don’t support 802.11ac so may not be a good choice - but is the most performant mitigation until the issue is resolved.

Ie until fixed or alternate wifi bridge separate from the router choose the best radio band to use for wifi devices to talk to other wifi devices - this does NOT affect wifi to ethernet connected devices

This was definitely the issue with me as some devices were on 2.4 and some on 5GHz (namely my iPad/phone) which could then not find the Nova in the app.
A question came to mind was are you able to choose whether a device connects to 2.4GHz or 5GHz? Or does the router/device do that automatically?
I bet loads of people are having issues…
@Naim.Marketing please do let us know if you become aware of the firmware fix. I suspect the router will get updated automatically but at least the we know we can switch 5GHz back on.

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Other routers give you more freedom to choose (IIRC, the original BT Smart Hub did, too), but BT Smart Hub 2 does not. Hence the issues now this firmware bug has come up.

As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let people know - as i’m sure all the other affected brands, will, too.

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My Nova was delivered yesterday and I have this problem. You can temporarily fix it by setting a fixed ip address but when this runs out the problem reasserts itself. I have an AV amp on the 2.4 ghz band that happily pulls data off the usb stick in the NOVA so it does seem to be limited to devices on the 5 ghz band.

Slightly off topic but I had to search this forum to figure out how to connect the Hdmi ARC correctly and managed to get that fixed but in the time it took me to go and have my tea the TV had updated its software and reset everything. Some rather blue air in my house until I figured out that I just had to go through the same process again. This wouldn’t have been so bad but I was showing the wife ‘how easy’ it was to control the Nova by switching on the TV and using the TV remote as volume control. Grrrr.

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There seems to be a lot of it around this week! An Apple update meant HomePod speakers couldn’t stream Apple Music…

Going back to the BT bug, we’ve summarised everything - including easy workaround solutions - here:

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Thank you. I shall take a look and see how I get on.

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Covered by the BBC yesterday.

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Good question… it depends on what protocol your wifi access point and device have decided to use.
802.11n and 802.11ax can choose and hop between 5 and 2.4Ghz

802.11g is only on 2.4 GHz
And 802.11ac is only on 5 GHz

Therefore it should be automatic unless you are using legacy products. You want to try and use 892.11ac where you can for best performance. Unfortunately legacy Naim devices don’t support 802.11ac.

Hi Simon,

Thank you for your reply. Well, it’s made a huge difference. All my Gen 1 Muso’s are so much quicker to be identified within the App. I’ve not noticed any other WiFi products in the house suffering in speed with 5Ghz being switched off.

Hi Clare,

Thank you for your reply. I’m really enjoying the rapid and “snappy “ App response. I’ll run it like this for a while as I’ve also not noticed anything else on WiFi suffering due to 5Ghz being switched off.

Have a lovely weekend.

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Hi all ,just to say , that as a service technician supporting many retail electronics stores ,I’m finding the BT smart hub 2 is causing Wi-fi connection issues with many brands of smart televisions too. I do hope BT can get a software fix soon as there’s many frustrated owners out there,who had zero issues with hub 1 connectivity,until they upgraded to hub 2.

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I just heard from a Sonos friend that BT firmware has been updated to v026.04.04227 & has started to be released

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Heads Up - BT auto-updated my BT SmartHub-2 overnight (24/25 May)

Firmware version: v0.26.04.04227-BT
SmartHub Wireless Disc did not change & remains on v0.23.00.08070

I don’t have wireless streaming & had no problems with the bug, but heads up for those with wireless to lookout for it & re-enable 5GHz

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Thanks for the heads up Mike, will check my firmware :+1:

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the heads up!

My router has also updated to new version and wireless discs have remained unchanged. Not wishing to go off topic! I was wondering why either through the BT app and or browser we are able to restart router and not wireless discs? Or am I missing something, likely!!!

I have reenabled 5ghz and drum roll….app seems to be picking up WiFi connected Musos…big relief! I will keep an eye on this as I’ve mentioned, the Naim app was far quicker to pick up WiFi Gen1 Musos I have “dotted “ round the house with 5ghz disabled….go figure!!!

I’m no BT expert Dusty, but as I understand it, the BT Disc’s integrate (mesh) into the main SH2 to receive & retransmit traffic to & from the SH2 thereby extend the area coverage.
I’m not sure there is a need to restart.
They do get firmware updates from time to time, the last time I noted one was back in 2020.

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Hi, the BT wireless discs are separate from the wifi router access point… they work together as a mesh by using a separate wireless uplink channel (wifi back haul) which is why mesh systems work so much better than the the old fashioned wifi range extender or repeaters type products. The BT Wifi Disc system is a mesh system, not an extender system.
Anyway long story short, they are, at a radio level, autonomous from your wifi router access point, and so do not need to be upgraded or restarted just because your primary wifi router access point has.

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Hi Mike,
Thank you for your insight. I am always keen to learn more and thanks to you guys you keep me on my toes!!

Thank you Simon. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and breath of fresh air for me. I always appreciate and respect the help and advice you guys give to me and others.

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It is easy to configure an old but good quality router as a wireless access point. Turn off dhcp and set wireless as required either to replace the existing Wi-fi or to work along side it. I do this with my Smarthub 2 utilising a Netgear router.

It’s easy but not always that efficient… sure you can cobble different access points together, and hope they support and inter operate with protocols such as 802.11r. This allows seamless and fast transition between APs for load balancing and interference management.

But without this your wifi could be a poor or suboptimal experience, fine if you are stuck in an emergency or have no choice, but best use APs that are known to work together and/or can also work with wifi backhaul if needed.
As always best use the right products for the job… network protocols are often designed to limp along if needed, but that doesn’t mean they are working effectively.