EE Smart Hub 7 Plus

Silly question perhaps, but is there likely to be any difference in sound quality (electrical system noise) from installing an EE Smart Hub 7 Plus to replace a BT Smart Hub 2?

@Simon-in-Suffolk et al

no in a word.
But no such things as silly questions :slight_smile:
Its a good device - with the latest wifi protocols and also support 2.5gbps ethernet switch ports so I understand.. you can also customise your DNS should you wish to directly on the router now.. but as far as electrical noise they are going to be relatively low - otherwise it would interfere with wifi operation obviously - which in many ways is more sensitive than audio circuitry.

Some people conflate common mode currents with general electrical noise. So I would suggest if using twisted pair ethernet instead of WLAN to your streamer then use an intermediate switch that is mains earthed that will mitigate any leakage currents from non earthed devices

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It’s good that EE is now giving me 900mbps (instead of 500) for significantly less £ per month.

Something getting much cheaper and better VFM makes a pleasing change in these inflationary times.

Do you know what BT Group plans to do with the BT and EE brand architecture going forward - as a UK customer it seems they are not planning to kill off the stalwart BT brand any time soon.

I think its more a BT Ltd matter now rather than BT Group plc (you can read all about that in the public domain)

In short I understand they will keep both brands but they have decided to reverse the phase out the BT brand for consumer - apparently there was a bit of backlash from customers/market and was counter productive. Expect to see far more focus on the BT brand as the dominant brand for consumer and B2B over the coming year.
BT Mobile will also be revived as a growing brand, and other brands such as PlusNet will remain as a value broadband offering suited for certain markets.

Sources BT Newsroom and ISP review and web anecdote.

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They’ll probably keep the EE name for the ESN project :rofl:, if I was BT I wouldn’t want my company name associated with that Home Office clusterf of a project.

I dont know - but I suspect the goto mobile brand for cellular mobile BT services is likely to be and remain EE - powered by BT technology and infrastructure … with BT mobile being a value mobile brand for certain markets - but as I say that is my speculation.

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I have a variety of BT- and EE-branded boxes around the house, as well as apps on my phone and tablet. I find it amusing more than anything else, especially when I receive communications from the company that are confused about which brand is used for each of my products. Left and right hands not knowing what the other is doing seems an apt description.

Yes - though I think in this case there is far more to it in terms of coordination than meets the eye :wink: - but yes changes do cause a slew..

Well, I am now getting one gigabyte which is well over twice as much data speed as I was previously for about 2/3 of the price… Which is great.

The set up process was a breeze, taking five minutes.

The funny thing is that my Naim system streaming from Qobuz sounds really good since I just plugged the new EE router in! :joy:

I know it shouldn’t make any difference, but perhaps it is less electrically noisy as a router?

Perhaps the old router and ethernet and power cables being changed to new ones made a difference somehow?

Perhaps it’s just random variability in electrical noise from neighbouring houses?

[or of course, it could be that I imagined a positive difference to sound quality compared to the tunes I was listening to just before plugging in the new router!]

:grinning_face:

Anyway, who cares it works a treat and the system sounds great!

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I doubt it - I suggest if anything it’s vDSL routers rather than fibre routers that need to be low noise to function effectively .. but anyway great that you are enjoying your new service.

My black BT Wi-Fi Disc (extender upstairs) no longer works with the new EE WiFi 7 router.

At the moment I’m not sure it’s worth getting an EE Smart WiFi Extender 7 Plus to replace it as the wifi reception upstairs and throughout the house seems ok with just the EE WiFi 7 router.

According to www info, the EE 7 has a slightly better range than BT Smarthub2. The info says expected internal ranges are 40/50 feet for EE 7 vs 30/40 feet for BT SH2
……. internal walls and Tx & Rx device positioning cause variables.
Sorry to see that BT are still using imperial measurements.

if it was me - and you are a little that way inclined - I would get a separate wifi system - and disable the wifi on the router. Products from Ubiquiti and others which are dedicated home and small business wifi systems are pretty good - rather than aiming to be a jack of all trades. There are others of course, but I have used Unifi for over 15 years and found them very effective, as broadband routers have come and gone.

The best wifi systems in houses are typically when you have at least two cooperating access points (ie connected by ethernet) - rather than one trying to cover the whole house - unless it’s a very small space. if wifi is secondary - and you mostly use ethernet - then a single AP might work sufficiently well in a large space. But if you are using wifi to better or be as effective as ethernet - which it absolsutely can do now - then best have two or more wired APs. The key thing to look out for on the WLAN manager is host signal quality. If it’s low - or coloured orange or red, wifi will likely work for a device - but it will be suboptimal connectivity to even marginal.

Remember wifi range is two way - the range is determined by the AP/router and, which some forget, the remote device.

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Simon, just to query this with you. I currently have the BT Smart Hub 2 with 3 black extender discs (wired backhaul in all cases), and it usually works fine. However, I have a load of smart devices (bulbs, switches, then all the hifi stuff) and there can be issues.

My main bugbear is that devices seem to randomly connect to different extender discs, and often not the one closest to them. Added to that, BT have “updated” the MyBT app. It used to show the quality of connection for each device, but now just says “online” or “offline”, and the app itself can be very flaky, often requiring full login and restart. I get frustrated when a smart bulb that is 5 feet away from a disc ends up offline, as it was last connected to a disc on the other side of the house and doesn’t seem to automatically reconnect to the nearer disc.

As far as I am aware, there is no way to lock devices to specific discs on the BT system. The question I have is, can that be done with a Ubiquiti mesh system? If so, what version/configuration should I look for? The house is 1,800 square feet, brick built.

Apologies for the intrusion on your knowledge base!

Are you actually looking for a mesh system as you mentioned you’re using wired backhaul in all cases.

Do you have floor plans for the house as Unifi have something called Unifi Design Center, you can pop in the floor plans, place components and see what wireless coverage you’ll get.

I’ve got the following:-

1 x UCG Fiber
1 x U7 Pro XG
1 x UDB Switch
1 x USW Flex 2.5G 8 PoE

The UDB Switch is meshing off the U7 Pro XG at 5 & 6 GHz in the same room.

Unifi seem to be pushing “Whole Home WiFi by Unifi” that looks to be a bunch of Unifi Express 7 devices.

There is an option in the Unifi GUI to lock devices to a specific access-point, but I’ve never had to use it with the single AP I have:-

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So, what I have is the BT Smart Hub 2 plus 3 black disc wireless extenders, which create the mesh network. Two extenders are downstairs and one is in the loft. The extenders are all wired back to the hub as I found that wireless connection of the discs wasn’t reliable enough once the signal had to pass through two brick walls. But yes, a mesh system is what I’m after, and I can use the existing cabling to connect Unifi (or another suitable brand) extenders back to base. Locking devices to a specific AP would be a huge bonus, as I have multiple outdoor lights that seem to do a merry-go-round of choosing which disc they connect to. And a better app than the very basic (and updated in a fashion that made it even less functional) MyBT wouldn’t hurt either.

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If you just have your router and 3 disks all connected via copper you’d get away with a router and 3 access points or 4 if the router doesn’t do WiFi.

You’d need additional POE injectors to power the access points.

You could mesh off the access points if required.

Would that be using a Unifi system, allowing the devices to be locked to a specific AP? Adding POE injectors wouldn’t be a problem.

Yes using a Unifi system.

I replaced a friends BT router with a Cloud Gateway Fibre, a POE switch and some access points, you just need to input your BT PPPOE credentials in when you configure the Internet link.

Unifi also do gateways with inbuilt WiFI.

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Do you have a phone connected to your BT hub?