Plusnet Hub two Apple HomePod issues

[#1]

Hey!
After updating to the Plusnet Hub 2 I have been experiencing fairly shocking connectivity issues with our Apple HomePod Mini’s.. they frequently say they are “having trouble with the connection right now” and the audio drops out all the time with ones we have in a stereo pair… we NEVER had this problem with the Plusnet hub One, has anyone else experienced this issue? If so have you found a fix?

Thanks

[#2]

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to My Router.

[#3]

@zb6 - not an issue I've seen reported thus far.

Disruptive I know, but it would be helpful if you could try a full factory reset/reconfiguration of the Homepods to see if it improves matters.

[#4]

I’v reset the HomePods multiple times. The only thing that has changed in my set up is changing to the Home hub 2.. the past gen plus net hub handled it all fine. It’s very strange

[#5]

And presumably reverting to the previous hub sees the problem go away?

I don't personally have access to any Homepods else I'd give it a go. I do have multiple other smart speakers on my network though (some in pairs/groups) and besides some occasional wonkiness with visibility in casting lists (looking into this), they can always connect to the Internet and audio never drops.

I can't be sure, but statistically there's a high possibility we onboarded beta trialists pre-launch that have Homepods. We didn't have any bugs raised that mention them though.

Anything unorthodox about your network setup? e.g. any additional access points/extenders in use?

Anyone else out there using Homepods with a Hub Two?

[#6]

Hmm, it's a BT Smarthub 2 being discussed however this sounds mightily familiar (there could well be more with a spot of additional searching, however I'm on mobile at the moment)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252629186
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomePod/comments/l8rlb1/router_recommendations_for_homepod/

[#7]

Hey,

No I’m just using the hub Two, no extenders. I have tried it with a few alexas and they seem to be stable.
Yes the Old hub one works perfectly fine with the HomePod Minis, the issue Arises when the PN Hub two is introduced. So it has to be something to do with the Hub two not liking working with multiple home pod minis (and really Doesn’t like ones in stereo pairs) Really stumped by this, everything has been reset and renamed multiple times.. seems fine for a while and then the HomePods start saying they can’t connect to the internet. Then it goes away for let’s say a day max then it starts up again.

[#8]

There seems to be some reports of the Homepod not playing nicely when it has valid credentials for multiple wifi networks https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252222749

This would, of course, be the case with a dual band router where the bands are synchronised

[#9]

When this condition occurs, it would be worth checking the devices' connected status as reported in the router management system.

I know nothing of home pods, but thinking about the observation of the stereo pairs, one wonders what might be the consequences of one working on 2.4GHz whist the other is on 5GHz?  There might be merit in turning off the 5GHz SSID to see if that alters the experience.  Running a WiFi analyser might also be of some help - see Best 23 WiFi Tools for Analysis, Security, &Monitoring Wireless APs! 2022 (pcwdld.com) #2 & #3 would be my go-to preferencies.

The oft seen problem of iDevices flip-flopping between the two WiFi bands I have not seen with the Hub Two during the last 10 months of use, even with two dual band WAPs in the network.

[#10]

@zb6 are you still having this problem?

We've been carrying out some testing at our side but would be useful to know whether or not you still suffer problems with the Hub Two that don't affect the Hub One?