EE Smart Hub - Removed WiFi settings

I was called to one on my customers on EE yesterday to see why their laptop would no longer connect to their router.

A little bit of history:
When I visited them last year for exactly the same issue following installation of new hub (that they had NOT asked for).
I established that their Lenvo IdeaPad 305 would only connect if I used the router's UI to downgrade from WiFi 7 to (if memory serves me right WiFi 6) then the laptop connected fine.

Yesterday:
I found that the router no longer had the ability to downgrade from WiFi 7 to WiFi 6. Obviously it had recieved an overnight update which changed all the settings.
I found a setting which says it enables a "Compatable mode" for older systems. I enabled this without any success.
I tried manually changing the channels - again no success.

I ordered an external WiFi dongle and left my customer with a long ethernet cable so that they could get online.

Why have EE changed the setup so fundamentally?

Can't answer why, but if you use the ISP's router you are at the mercy of them fiddling. As it has happened twice now, I think I would be suggesting that they get their own router and done with it.

Unfortunately this is not possible (As Far As I Know) because they use the VOIP service provided by EE to retain their "landline".

the idealpad 305 seems to be an old laptop.

Did you check what wifi drivers it was using?

The other route if the drivers are upto date is to replace the wifi card.

In reply to a post by Mike_Williams_UK:

Unfortunately this is not possible (As Far As I Know) because they use the VOIP service provided by EE to retain their "landline".

The knots people tie themselves in for a simpler life.

Take the ISP router and have to call someone in when the ISP 'upgrade' the software

Take the phone from the ISP and lose service when the ISP 'upgrades' the router software

Seesm to be common ...

Have a read of:
https://community.ui.com/questions/Laptops-with-real...

The laptop does not "see" the router's WiFi signal in the list of APs discovered.
My ainchient Linx 12X64 sees it and connects without an issue.

This is why I ordered a USB WiFi adapter which should hopefully solve their issue.

Your "ancient" tablet has Wi-Fi 5, the Lenovo only has Wi-Fi 4.

A permanent fix would be swapping the Wi-Fi module, a review suggests the current card is an Atheros AR9565 which is half mini PCIe, an Intel 7260 is around £10 and should be a drop in replacement.

The majority of the public will take the default option because they don't know or are not cofident enough with VOIP to do anything else.

The knots people tie themselves in for a simpler life.

Take the ISP router and have to call someone in when the ISP 'upgrade' the software

Take the phone from the ISP and lose service when the ISP 'upgrades' the router software

Your comment is not very useful, is it?

In reply to a post by Nervous:

Your comment is not very useful, is it?

It indirectly suggests a course of action which could leave people more in control of their communications technology. Even if they are not confident, they could get the kit and try to sort it out on their timescales and not be dropped into problems by their ISP with no say on when that happens. If you don't thin that is useful, that wold be a you problem.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

In reply to a post by Nervous:

Your comment is not very useful, is it?

It indirectly suggests a course of action which could leave people more in control of their communications technology. Even if they are not confident, they could get the kit and try to sort it out on their timescales and not be dropped into problems by their ISP with no say on when that happens. If you don't thin that is useful, that wold be a you problem.

Most people don't know and don't need to know about how their internet connection works (in the same way that they don't need to know how their motor car works or how their washing machine works). That may be evidence of their lack of connection with your definition of usefulness but it may indicate that your idea of usefulness does not align with what most people consider as useful in the other world outside your ideal. Is their problem being that they do not align with your ideal?

Edited by GonePostal (Sun 23-Feb-25 00:05:06)

@GonePostal. And thus we end up with Mike_Williams_UK's customer cut off from service, not once but twice. It is not a straight choice between ISP or the customer owning and managing the router etc.

I would suggest that if the customer owned the router and subcontracted managing it to Mike_W, then the outcome would be better.

There is a good chance that the Ideapad will not work with an alternative wifi card due to Lenovo's whitelist in the bios. I have several Lenovo laptops that will not boot with a foreign/new wifi card installed. The cure seems to be to install a hacked bios with whitelist removed. This is a step too far for me and I think for most people.
The USB dongle is a good solution as would be a second wifi router in bridge mode.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Your "ancient" tablet has Wi-Fi 5, the Lenovo only has Wi-Fi 4.

A permanent fix would be swapping the Wi-Fi module, a review suggests the current card is an Atheros AR9565 which is half mini PCIe, an Intel 7260 is around £10 and should be a drop in replacement.

Thanks for the info, it would seem that my "aincient" tablet is not so old after all

My customer is quite happy with the solution I proposed ie use of a WiFi 6 USB dongle at a cost of £14, which is cheaper for them than me purchasing a new WiFi module and my labour for fitting it.

I think you'll find the router is set to Wireless Mode = WiFi6 or 7 and Security Type = WPA3 by default. Your device mayn't cope with that. Change the router settings down to WiFi5 and/or WPA2.

Previously (prior to automatic update) I was able to tell the router to not use WiFi 7.

Post up upgrade that option is gone. It has been replaced with a compatability mode, which causes a second SSID to be broadcast with suffix _comp.

This did NOT work on customer's old laptop.

I resorted to purchasing a new WiFi 6 dongle for them which is working fine.