Connecting devices to wifi

Apologies for the rather vague info, but I hope there is enough for someone with the relevant knowledge to give me a steer.

My daughter has had electric underfloor heating fitted within the last year or so and there is a wireless (and wired?) thermostat, the box it came in being marked '2.4GHz only'. Also within the last year she has had Virgin Media internet installed, I think it is FTTP. There are about three Virgin wifi repeater units extending the signal throughout the house.

I get the impression that these repeaters use some recent protocol, possibly combining both 2.4 and 5GHz, they certainly seem to get the signal around quite well.

My problem is that the thermostat won't connect to the network, and I am looking for any suggestions as to why that might be or what can be done about it.

When she set up the extenders, she altered a config in the router to make them work, and then some but not all of her smart power switches (for lamps, etc) stopped working. She remedied this by buying some new smart switches.

Can anyone recognise what is going on here, and are there now mutually incompatible wifi standards?

I shall be visiting the site tomorrow so could get more info and try things.

If the name of the wifi network (SSID) has changed or the wifi password then the thermostat would need to be setup with the new one (and the SSID is case sensitive so if you even change the case of a letter then devices won't connect to the new network).

Wireless is pretty much backwards compatible so there shouldn't be any reason at that level for it not to connect. There may be a requirement on the router to open ports but it is unlikely - a manual for the thermostat should say what the network requirements are and how to configure it for the wireless. If the thermostat normally connected wireless then there might need to be some way to reset it to start the configuration again or it might have a network port on it you could use to connect it temporarily wired with a long enough cable to the router. It is also remotely possibly that it can only be configured via a serial port and software by a heating engineer.

Ideally you need the make a model of the stat so that a manual can be found to see how the network connection is setup.

You could ask your daughter what the SSIDs and passwords for both the 2.4 and 5GHz networks are and make sure that you can connect to both networks using a laptop or maybe a mobile phone. I have a Heatmiser thermostat that can connect to a 2.4 but not a 5GHz wifi network. I have to make it search for wifi networks then I select the correct one and enter the password.

I have Tapo smart plugs. When new or reset they broadcast their own wifi network. I have to connect to this network and then enter the details of my house wifi. I connect to the Tapo smart plugs using the Tapo Android app.

Some devices as you say only work on the 2.4ghz range, there for setting up an extra 2.4ghz ssid for those devices makes alot of sense, if your router can support this.

Thank you all for your kind advice, I will delve into the ideas tomorrow.

So would I be right in thinking that the router and extenders will likely all be transmitting on 2.4 with the same SSID as each other and on 5GHz with the same SSID as each other, which may be different from the other one, and it doesn't matter how they all talk to each other (frequency hopping, beam forming or whatever) there will still be available a radio channel that the thermostat can connect to using a basic protocol.

Is it possible that a security setting in the router (WPA3 or whatever) used for the extenders might exclude simpler devices?

Taras's approach of setting up a second 2.4 SSID is interesting, to avoid the above concerns. Would it get retransmitted by the extenders? I don't yet know if he thermostat is connecting to the router or an extender (or understand if that matters).

I have software called "Acrylic WiFi Home" on my Windows laptop which lets me see the details of all wifi networks that have a strong enough signal. It is useful for problem diagnosis. It is possible to download a free copy here.

I have succeeded in connecting the thermostat, a Meross MTS200. After installing the Meross app on a phone and also running Acrylic, I noticed a Meross SSID. Thanks to the suggestion from Michael, I connected to this and then the software instructed to move the phone close to the thermostat. I presume a near field aspect of WPS kicked in, and it connected to the main wifi. The thermostat can now be controlled by the app and by Alexa.

The old smart switches which didn't work are Teckin SP23. I am hoping on another occasion to use a similar technique to bring them back into the fold.

These techniques are not mentioned in the user manuals. Many thanks for the guidance, which unlocked this for me.

Just for information around VM and Pods (extenders) The VM Wifi and Pods need to have a single SSID to work, so it is fortunate for the OP that the thermostat worked. If the SSID is split, or indeed any change to the "out of the box" Hub settings are altered, the whole system will not work, The VM Intelligent Wifi only works this way.

Edited by Adduxi (Mon 25-Mar-24 10:11:58)

Another useful fact. Thank you. This may well have been a factor previously when I was struggling to get both the extended network and the 2.4 GHz-only device to work. It looks like certain devices don't readily join such a network, but you have to join their own internal network and then authenticate onto the Virgin network or connect with NFC WPS.