BT WiFi Disc causes dropouts

Username03725

Finally had FTTP last summer (from BT, City Fibre only arrived round here a week or two ago); all good but the wifi didn't reach the far ends of the house so I got hold of a brand new Black Mesh BT Disc of the type that's recommended to work with the supplied Smarthub2. Disc set up was easy and positioning it via the app was also a doddle, and it seemed as if all was ok until after a few days all of us who use it - us parents + our two sons (when not at uni) - noticed that we we were all suffering wifi dropouts since the disc arrived. This is on Android phones, iPhones and the iPad. And it was consistent - plug the disc in and all is good then within minutes various devices could no longer access the net as the wifi had dropped off. It was easy to go into Settings and reconnect but a bit if a PITA. The fix was to unplug the disc - without it everything is fine, but we're back to not having decent wifi in some bedrooms, which we need as OH is a teacher and often does stuff up there out of the way while I'm busy downstairs.

Any suggestions from you people who might have come across this before? The disc doesn't seem to have any user-applicable config or settings etc, and all the reports about it suggest it should work just fine straight out of the box. At the minute it's back in a cupboard, unused.

Thanks

arrallas

Are you able to select 2.4GHz or 5GHz? If so, try just running on 2.4GHz to see if the problem persists. If you live in an area with lots of neighbouring wifi, download an app on your phone to see what channels are being used and try changing your channel if there are conflicts.

Username03725

Not so keen on switching 5GHz off; this stuff is meant to work  (it costs enough) so disabling half of it - the better bit too at that - isn't appealing. 

I'll try the channel stuff but I assumed that the SMH2 and its peripherals would use automatic ch selection tbh.

debitcardmayhem

5ghz doesn’t travel so well, you don’t need it to switch off totally, just use 2.4 upstairs, it’s a pain I know, but I don’t have the problem since i have Asus routers and their mesh. Have you tried putting the disc halfway?

flaneurs_lobster

A lot of chat on the BT Community pages suggests that turning off Smart Setup in the Hub Manager is often effective. Easy thing to try.

CoastingHatbox

Have you had a look to see what the WiFi spectrum is like, using a WiFi Analyser app on your phone?
Before making any changes, my first port of call is to do a "WiFi survey" and see what channels are in use and how many other neighbouring WiFi Access Points are sharing channels with my APs.

What colour is the LED on the WiFi disk when the dropouts are occuring? Do you see the simultaneously on different devices? Or at different points in time on different devices?

Username03725

gavinbaxter said:

A lot of chat on the BT Community pages suggests that turning off Smart Setup in the Hub Manager is often effective. Easy thing to try.

This appears to have resolved it. Switched off Smart Setup, powered up the disc and it was fine all through yesterday evening and still is the following day, so thanks for the tip. 

Positioning the disc a bit more centrally also allows it to connect to a switch via Ethernet so I’ve done that too. Fingers crossed it works for more than a few days.