EEWIFI / BTWIFI - Finally time to Dump BT after 40+ years as customer????

DarthDaisy

I have been telling my uncle and aunt to DUMP BT and get an MSE deal for ages but they have a unique household and are loathe to change suppliers despite obscene pricing. MSE deals for Fibre Broadband start at around £19 a month, well they are paying around £75 a month for Broadband and another £35 for Sports which only one person watches. On top of that BT have started charging them for some so called "out of network calls", even excluding those calls they are paying £1320+ a year compared to £228 if they went with MSE's cheapest deal. Certainly they can get the sport elsewhere and it won't cost £1000!!.

So what straw broke the camels back that makes them finally realise they need to dump BT?

Well to understand that one needs to understand their household who are living in a very old house with very thick walls, they can't drill into these nor run cabling.

They are a multi-generation household, they have an extension for the aging great grand parents, while the remainder of them live all over the house including the attic. Despite various promises of high speed broadband in every room, their old and crumbling house was not going to work. Broadband was most important in the extension because they share care between the family and this means at least one member of the family is in the extension, sometimes working from home while making sure nobody has a fall or needs care.

Ironically, it was the BT-Wifi (which became EE-Wifi) that clinched the deal with them staying with BT because they found that they could logon to EE-WIFI which was actually served from the neighbours house. They have a cable router solution to boost that EEWIFI to the extension and that has been working for years, you still have to login etc, it just makes the signal more reliable.

ee-wifi.ee.co.uk/public/ee/index.htm

Well this house of cards collapsed dramatically last week, EE-WIFI introduced some changes to their logon website, including 2Factor authentication. There was no warning from BT, it just happened, all of a sudden none of the devices worked with EE-WIFI. With adults, children and grandchildren there are a plethora of devices, mobiles, laptops, desktops, some are Apple, some are Dell, some are Android. Yet not a single one of their devices could login to EE-WIFI, so of course they called me in after attempts to get help from BT fell on deaf ears, a foreign call centre script or blame the victim and their devices.

I was able to sort out the 2FA for now by getting each device to login to the BT Website, although I can't be sure that this is what fixed that or how long it will last. People complaining on EE forums seem to suggest it is still a problem. As part of these changes BT now require both an email and a mobile number for 2FA, initially it was using mobile but seems to have settled down to email and only for the account login not the EEWIFI for now at least.

However, there is a bigger problem, not one of their devices can load the EEWIFI login page, in fact nor can my devices, except for an old laptop running a very old OS. The login lasts for 24 hours and it does not work on any device on any network, i.e. if they go to town they can't login to EEWIFI. So now they have to look at buying more expensive data contracts for the whole household as well as changing broadband to anyone but BT/EE.

I have been experimenting with my nephews phone and his Iphone 13 does load the EEWIFI first login page but only after 15 minutes and then it does not get to the next stage. I have done all the usual things of nuking cookies, setting milder security, but after testing so many devices I am convinced the problem is with BT EEWIFI. Also it sometimes drops the connection and they can't login again. I tried to leave them my backup laptop but that does not work.

BT try to blame the family, they say they are providing what is contracted for, but the issue seems to be how EEWIFI has made changes. BT does not seem to care that overnight they completely wrecked the justification for paying their high prices. Now everyone in the family hates BT and I have been tasked with finding an alternative supplier. They do not care about the Sport, it was only the oldest man in the house who watched it and he has dementia, the sad thing was they would sit with him and watch a match which seemed to resonate with him even though he does not really know what is going on.

I can't see BT rolling back whatever this change was, but that seems to be the only solution that would prevent them leaving and it needs to happen yesterday.

I have always thought it was absurd that the BT/EEWIFI used the account login when the BT portal has a capability to set up manager accounts for the family. That now also requires a separate BT account, but it would not work and it provides no actual services for the manager. We have prepared a technical solution for the 2FA aspect to inform all of the family if there is a code requirement but 2FA does not seem to be the issue (yet), the issue is the the EEWIFI login page.

The only solution I can think of is for BT to roll back the changes but I can't seem to get hold of anyone at BT who seems to even care, let alone have the authority to demand a roll back.

There is no alternative equivalent WIFI Hotspot service that I am aware of which will work except in towns, the strength of the BT EEWIFI product was that it uses their whole network as a mesh of sorts.

The problem is the family need to act soon, they may have to buy two services one for the extension and one for the house plus get some new mobile providers. I am not sure, they can't have Ethernet cabling anywhere in the house, there is a chance to run a cable to provide a second account to the extension.

I suppose they ought to be thanking BT for saving them at least £1000 a year, but the reputation damage to BT & EE is huge, you can imaging the whole family is cursing them and telling all their friends to dump BT.

If anyone has any miracle cures or suggestions for the technical issues with the BT EEWIFI Login login page I would be grateful to hear them?

Neil49

It sounds like you need to investigate setting up an extensive mesh network in order to boost your own wifi signal around all parts of the house. Each unit would need careful positioning to minimise the impact of the thick walls but such a setup would provide the coverage from your own router. Hopefully your BT router isn't stuck somewhere that blocks the signal. They don't have to be in line of sight but it would help, particularly for sending a signal upstairs and also to the extension.

I suggest that you Google mesh networks to get a better understanding of how they work.

GrumpyDil

How about using mains extenders?

I use those in my house and despite being on different circuits have been suitably impressed by the results.

DarthDaisy

Thanks for reply. I think that MESH will come after they get a new ISP.

I imagine MESH has come a long way since they last looked into it, I know they wasted a lot (over £700) on MESH previously, but that was some time ago. Anyway the issue for now is one last ditch attempt to see if the existing system can be made to work again.

They have given BT Notice that they are quitting and the indifference is astonishing, especially as the household has had BT Telephone and Broadband since the 1970's.

I have asked them to confirm with BT that they are out of contract, they have not had a new contract in decades, I think it just rolls over with price increases each year.

It seems others have had the same problem, some with the 2FA aspect and the login page not displaying (user:AlanRob).

community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-Landline/My-partner-can-t-access-WiFi-hotspot-because-of-2FA/td-p/1601739

He had it on Apple devices but we could not get it to load on Android or Win10. In the old days BT used to have URLs you could go to if things did not trigger, now they use some sort of auth.bt.com long login that I think changes each time.

It is not just the home, but all of the family when they are out and about, done of them had big data allowances because they had this free wifi almost everywhere they went. For now I have suggested they get a Lebara sim offer which gives them a fair whack but of course some of them are reluctant to change supplier. One thing is for use, BT/EE are never going to get any business from any of them.

The other aspect is that it is simply unreliable, the other day it just dropped the connection, usually it lasts 24 hours, it had not even been 9 hours, they are providing care on a rota which includes overnight cover, so they need wifi 24/7.

Part of me is glad BT/EEWifi does not work, they spend so much on BT and with the £1000+ money saved they can afford to spend on other things.

DarthDaisy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977936#Comment_81977936

Thanks for your reply, those were tried years ago and did not work, I remember giving them two sets including one set which were pretty expensive. It is a complicated house, I think they have completely different electrics too. I am not sure but I think there used to be some sort of separate dwelling where the extension is.

flaneurs_lobster

How does the current BT broadband enter the house? Underground duct or from a pole? Is it FTTC via a copper cable or is fibre FTTP in place/available to install?

How thick are those (external) walls? My thick stone-built wall was no real obstacle to a recent FTTP install.

DarthDaisy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977959#Comment_81977959

Thanks for your reply, I have no idea. I remember that many years ago they were considering moving to TalkTalk and that ISP told them to upgrade to fibre with BT or they would have to pay at least £1000. I also remember that they could not get fibre for the longest time, something about how the street was wired. Then it came in via a box above the garage, then by a back bedroom on a new line, I think it is currently back to near the front door but can't be certain.

With respect, I want to stay on focus of getting the BT/EE WIFI working if that is possible because the issue is not just about home login.

I think the issue is whatever triggers the auth.bt.com long URL, putting it in by itself gives some sort of "azure front door" error.

Asking AI about this the replies all talk about things in BT not the user.

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977936#Comment_81977936

We also have these, in a flat conversion with very thick walls and they.work really well.

flaneurs_lobster

So you want to use BT public wi-fi as your primary internet access but recent changes to how BT give access to that service are causing problems?

Fair enough, but presumably you realise that "free" access to this service is only granted while you have a BT broadband (or Mobile) contract in place? Once you cancel that then access to the public service is a separate (expensive) subscription with a limited number of devices able to connect.

There's another thing you might check, in order to provide the wide public wi-fi network, BT use extra capacity on your broadband connection to broadcast a public signal from your router (or from your neighbour's router). If this sharing is turned OFF on YOUR router (it should be ON by default) then your BT account will not allow access to this public network. There's an overnight lag to this setting being flipped.

DarthDaisy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978008#Comment_81978008

I do not use the service myself, mostly I use mobile wifi from Lebara.

I am writing on behalf of my uncle's household as explained in my OP.

I don't think you seem to understand the issue, in simple terms, the BT EEWifi access is the USP that made them stick with BT all these years, the free access they get is defined on this page

https://ee-wifi.ee.co.uk/public/ee/index.htm

Now IT DOES NOT WORK they have already have had to make other arrangements, now they are cancelling the service, currently they pay £75 a month plus £35 a month for TV, so £110 a month loss to BT.

The whole household were using BT/EEWifi in one form or another, some out and about, others in the extension of the house which houses the elderly members of the family and whoever is providing care.

Nobody has changed the the router settings, to be honest nobody would know how to, besides it works for one device which is a very old laptop, so it is not that. The issue is that the login page is not triggered and the service is sometimes dropped for no apparent reason.

flaneurs_lobster

I don't think you seem to understand the issue, in simple terms, the BT EEWifi access is the USP that made them stick with BT all these years, 

You're right, I don't understand why they are paying £110/month to BT for a service that fundamentally doesn't work.

Now IT DOES NOT WORK they have already have had to make other arrangements

Good. When that goes titsup - because they haven't addressed the actual issue of getting internet access around a whole building from a single access point - come and let us know.