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BT Business Hub 6 and Wireless " Smart Scan "

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kevdwyer
Grafter
Posts: 28
Thanks: 9
Registered: ‎04-09-2015

BT Business Hub 6 and Wireless " Smart Scan "

I've been using a BT Business hub 6 for several weeks now and an generally very pleased with the performance, especially the WiFi performance which seems a lot more " Tenacious " than previous hubs including a TP Link TDW 9980, a Netgear router and the Plusnet Hub One.

I use an Ethernet connection as does the TV, there are at least 3 phones, a few Google Home / Alexa type devices, 3 laptops and an iPad all of which utilise the wireless network, though rarely / never all at the same time.

Upgrading to the BT Business Hub 6 has solved the occasional iffy WiFi problems though I do still monitor the wireless networks from time to time. Next door has a Party wall, they have Virgin and the WiFi signal tends to be far stronger than that from my router which of necessity is upstairs and a couple of rooms away from the living room where the WiFi is mostly used.

I'd previously noticed that sometimes the Virgin router was on the same channel as ours so I'd switch away to the least busy "True" channel. Occasionally after several days the Virgin signal would channel hop onto the new channel that we were using so I'd switch again.

When I installed the new BT Business Hub I switched on " Smart Scan " and chose channel 1 which was empty at the time. Out of curiosity I have just checked and can see that the stronger Virgin signal and that of a couple of other weaker wireless networks have now migrated to the same Channel 1.

I went in to router settings and checked that " Smart Scan " was still selected and then chose the " rescan " option. The hub then switched to the far less congested channel 6. I'm just curious as to how often the Hub rescans to choose the " best " WiFi channel, will it happily coexist alongside a stronger signal, or have I got the wrong end of the stick as to how it is supposed to work?

 

 

 

 

2 REPLIES 2
Baldrick1
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Registered: ‎30-06-2016

Re: BT Business Hub 6 and Wireless " Smart Scan "

Fix

It will co-exist on the same channel, you may however have more errors. In terms of re scanning frequency I think that the answer is only when it reboots. Mine resets itself every two weeks, which I believe is a 'feature' of Smarthubs. The problem I have is that when re-scanning, hubs can only monitor the transmissions at their location, not where devices are used. My router is located in the hall and because of walls and distance doesn't detect a significant amplitude signal from my neighbour. In my lounge, which is closer to my neighbour's router than it is to mine and with fewer intervening walls I get a very good signal from next door, sometimes on the same channel. Hence from time to time I need to change the router channel manually.

I use the wifi sniffer app Wifi Analyser on my Android phone to monitor channels so that I can select the best compromise channel for all the locations where I use devices.

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kevdwyer
Grafter
Posts: 28
Thanks: 9
Registered: ‎04-09-2015

Re: BT Business Hub 6 and Wireless " Smart Scan "

Ah Baldrick1, I rather thought / hoped that it would be you who came up with the answer.

I've just had a  " D'oh! " moment. I use the self same App on my phone ( and Fing for other useful stuff ) and until you just mentioned it the penny didn't drop that obviously the router is seeing the signals where it is located and not downstairs in the living room, D'oh indeed and much embarrassment :-0

 

Thanks for the info about the reset frequency, that's useful to know. I've just reallocated channels manually and I'll keep an eye on the Virgin router that is stalking me 🙂

 

Many thanks

 

Kevin