Smart Home devices and connecting to BT Hub 6 with Smartlife App

[#1]

Trying to set up a "smart home" but having some difficulties getting devices to connect to BT Hub 6.

The dual-band is turned off, just using 2.4ghz and smart set up also turned off. (Devices will only connect to 2.4ghz anyway)

Using the Smartlife app (Tuya) that most of the smart plugs etc use to connect to the network, I cannot get them to connect to the hub. I did have some smart plugs connected that seems to be OK, but the new ones refuse to connect. However, they will connect to the TP-Link extender that is actually upstairs and away from the router, the plugs are downstairs.

I have tried various makes of smart sockets as well.

It's very confusing and somewhat frustrating. Used more that one Android mobile with the App to try to connect, the same error message comes up every time trying to connect to the hub.

I don't know if the HUb has recently updated itself or what is causing the connection refusals if anyone can shed any light on this issue that would be great.  There is not a lot of information on the internet and the App support is basically non-existent.

Thanks in advance for any advice that may cure this problem.  I would rather have all the smart devices actually connected to the hub rather than the extender which sometimes has to be rebooted to restore the connection.

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from General Chat to Tech Help

[#3]

Has the Hub 6 got MAC filtering enabled? If it is, have you added the MAC addresses of the new plugs to the list?

As I understand things it is possible to set the TP-Link extender into a mode (Universal?) where it replaces the MAC address of the device with it's own. If that MAC address (the TP-Link one) is in the Accept list on the router, you could get the effect you describe. 

Using their own MAC addresses the devices are rejected by the Hub. Going via the TP-Link extender the MAC address would be accepted.

Start by disabling MAC filtering on the BT Hub and see if that fixes it. 

[#4]

Have the smart plugs got a factory reset option, where you push a paperclip or similar in a reset hole? If so it might be worth giving that a try.

[#5]

Tried all that my friend it does not work but thanks anyway

[#6]

Hi there is no MAC filtering set on the router other devices connect no problem at all even visitors phones connect once given the password.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I am still trying to find out why they refuse to connect to the hub.

[#7]

Hi Spikeyman,

I’ve just bought a business HH6 and have encountered the same problem with connecting the smart sockets (they worked fine with the previous Plusnet router, either directly from efamilycloud or via Alexa). TVs, phones, computers and Alexa all work fine with the HH6. How did you resolve the issue please?

[#8]

Just found the related correspondence on the BT Community site and yes, switching off the 5Ghz signal and changing the security to wpa-auto worked for me. Smart socket continues working now that I have turned the 5Ghz back on and set to wpa-2.

Thanks spikeyman (zippy?)