Smart Hub 2 - questionable proficiency

Hi all, new here but would like some expert views on BT's "class leading" Smart Hub 2.

I live in a heavy usage home (teenage son, both wife and I work from home, smart home devices all over the shop) and recently upgraded to BT Fibre 500 (from Fibre 100).

Testing the WiFi connection after the upgrade, I can only get around 310mbps when standing right next to the hub using an iPhone 15 and a brand new HP laptop.

Wired the connection is fine at 510mbps.

Hub is placed on a unit in the hallway (the most open space in the house) yet upstairs behind 1 door, WiFi speed drops to less than half at c.240mbps.

I know walls and doors have a big impact, but 1 door, seriously?!

I realise that at 240mbps I am still getting a good speed and it should solve the issues we were having recently but, being from Scotland, I like to get what I am paying a premium for.

From research, I understand that the Hub cannot be used in modem mode (as I have an AX3000 TP-Link router sitting idle at present) so does anyone have any suggestions for actually getting improvements?

Thanks in advance.

If you are on FTTP the ONT is the equivalent of the modem on FTTC so just remove the BT Hub completely and connect your AX3000 WAN port directly to the ONT set up a PPPoE connection on the router and input Username and Password details, I can't help you there as I believe BT use some generic authentication data, you may need to investigate that, the HUB2 should be supplying this at present.
Best of luck.

Those are decent wifi speeds, and in the ballpark to be expected from wireless.

Yes, 1 door makes a lot of difference at high wifi speeds.

For comparison, I have dedicated Unifi AC Lite (802.11ac = Wifi 5) access points, theoretical maximum bitrate 866Mbps. Using an 802.11ac laptop (older Macbook Pro) I get real world speed 400Mbps to a local iperf3 server on the same LAN. To get even that, I had to adjust the AP settings to allow wide channels on 5GHz.

As far as I can see, the Smart Hub 2 is also 802.11ac. So your iPhone 15's 802.11ax (Wifi 6) doesn't help.

"Class leading" = "par for the course amongst mass-market residential ISPs"

For anything you normally use an iPhone for - that is, apart from running speedtests - you're not going to notice the difference between 250Mbps and 500Mbps.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

If you are on FTTP the ONT is the equivalent of the modem on FTTC so just remove the BT Hub completely and connect your AX3000 WAN port directly to the ONT set up a PPPoE connection on the router and input Username and Password details, I can't help you there as I believe BT use some generic authentication data, you may need to investigate that, the HUB2 should be supplying this at present.
Best of luck.

Yeah, they use a generic username but password is, apparently, "not configured".

I've just experiemnted with connecting the smart hub to my tp-link router and diabled wifi on the smart hub, set the tp-link to AP mode and I'm getting 480mbps when standing next to it and 425mpbs in my office (behind that one door) so, unless this is going to cause issues further down the line, looks like I have a fix of sorts.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Those are decent wifi speeds, and in the ballpark to be expected from wireless.

Yes, 1 door makes a lot of difference at high wifi speeds.

For comparison, I have dedicated Unifi AC Lite (802.11ac = Wifi 5) access points, theoretical maximum bitrate 866Mbps. Using an 802.11ac laptop (older Macbook Pro) I get real world speed 400Mbps to a local iperf3 server on the same LAN. To get even that, I had to adjust the AP settings to allow wide channels on 5GHz.

As far as I can see, the Smart Hub 2 is also 802.11ac. So your iPhone 15's 802.11ax (Wifi 6) doesn't help.

"Class leading" = "par for the course amongst mass-market residential ISPs"

For anything you normally use an iPhone for - that is, apart from running speedtests - you're not going to notice the difference between 250Mbps and 500Mbps.

No, I get that the speeds are decent, but it's not what they are charging me a premium for. Like buying a Bugatti and being told it's been limited to 100mph (ok, not quite but you get my gist).

As above, I connected my tp-link, switched off wifi on the smart hub and set the tp-link to AP mode and it seems to be working sweet with nearly double the speed in my office (with the door in the way).

First off, welcome to the FTTP club.

Like you I wasn't happy with the Smart Hub's performance, however as I already had an Asus router, I swapped it out for that. It's an old model (RT-AC3200, 2015) but it had Wifi 5, so we could get 500-600 meg in the next room over which is at it's limit anyway.

Fast forward to now and I've now built my own router using an old computer and Opnsense. Coupled that with an Ubiquiti U6-Pro to provide Wifi 6 to the whole house (not bothering with 6E or 7 - too much of a premium).

Coming from Virgin Media, where you have to use their router, it's a breath of fresh air.

In short, store the SM2 in a cupboard and get yourself a better model of Router is the easiest option.

The username and password for PPPoE:

[email protected]
BT

Now on some routers the password can be left blank but others will insist on something, so just use BT or whatever you'd like.

Using the TP Link in access point mode was not what I suggested. You don't need the Smart Hub at all, put it away in a cupboard as @Cheule says. The TP link can do all the connection and routing functions and has better wi-fi. Did you actually read my post.
Or did the password cause a problem, apparently it can be anything.

Edited by Realalemadrid (Fri 01-Dec-23 22:46:59)

I find the wireless performance of the SH2 poor which is why I use a repurposed router as a wireless point connected to the SH. If I didn’t need Digital Voice I probably wouldn’t bother with the SH.That said I would always hardwire when I can.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Using the TP Link in access point mode was not what I suggested. You don't need the Smart Hub at all, put it away in a cupboard as @Cheule says. The TP link can do all the connection and routing functions and has better wi-fi. Did you actually read my post.
Or did the password cause a problem, apparently it can be anything.

I did the experiment before I read any posts and it seemed to work. I did then try the direct connecting of the router but it wouldn't connect at all (at first). When I got it connected my wife kindly pointed out that the digital voice phone was now not working, of which I had completely forgotten as I don’t use it at all.

Then I discovered that disabling the wifi also has the same effect. So now in a quandry about the digital voice as she insists we need it “just in case” (despite there being 5 mobiles in the household)…