Plusnet not listed for wireless connection

[#1]

Please can you help?
I have 2 laptops, both quite old.  One of them sees my Plusnet hub for wireless connection but the other one doesn't, although it does list all my neighbours BT and Virgin hubs..  Any idea why this may be?

[#2]

Do you have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi activated on your Plusnet Hub?

On a Hub 2, browse to the hub's home page, (put 192.168.1.254 in the address bar of your web browser), and look at the middle box on the top row: "Wireless".

It could be that you only have 5GHz WiFi turned on, and one of your laptops can only use 2.4GHZ whilst the other is dual band.

[#3]

@JoeS1  Welcome to the forum.

If that doesn’t work go into the wireless settings and try changing the 2.4 GHz Mode to 2 or 3.

Start with the 5GHz band switched off then switch it back on if the laptop comes to life.

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Full Fibre to My Router and duplicate Post removed.

[#4]

Thank you for your help. 
I had forgotten that I had disabled the 2.4Ghz.  I have enabled it again and now both laptops can connect wirelessly.  However, the original reason why I disabled the 2.4GH was that this always seemed to be automatically chosen by the hub when connecting with the laptop capable of 5GHz, so download speed was much lower than it could be.

Is there a way to tell the hub to always choose 5GHz as default, and only use 2.4GHz when the connecting device is not capable of 5GHz?

[#5]

That sounds like "Band Steering".

I can't see a setting for it in my Plusnet hub, (I thought that there was in my old BT SmartHub2), so maybe it is either selected by default or not available on the Plusnet hub?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009#Deployment_strategies

[#6]

Thank you for your reply.
One would have thought that the Hub Two should always choose the band that gives the best download speed.  However, in my case the 2.4GHz is chosen on the vast majority of connections with the laptop capable of 5GHz.  This is annoying because download speed is significantly lower when 2.4GHz is used.  Is this perhaps a design error with the Hub Two?

When using 2.4GHz download speed is under 40, when using 5Ghz download speed is over 90, so over twice as fast.  It would seem sensible for the hub to choose the band that gives the highest download speed, but invariably it picks 2.4GHz and I get the slower speeds unless I disable the 2.4GHz. 

[#7]

I don't know the answer to that, but I'm just wondering the 5GHz channel selected on your Plusnet hub is co-channel with one of your neighbours' and being interference limited?

I use an app called WiFi Analyzer on my Android phone. This gives a display of the 2.4 and 5GHz channels in use near you, and their relative strengths. I used it to select the clearest channels on each band.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=abdelrahman.wifianalyzerpro&hl=en_GB

[#8]

I would advise against using that particular WiFi analyser as it contains ads.

Please use this open source alternative.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en_GB

[#9 · Accepted solution]

I have found two possible fixes for this problem, by adjusting the setting for "Wireless Mode", or for "Preferred Band" in Windows 10 device manager.  Please see the first attached file.

It was set to use 802.1a/b/g; I changed it to 802.1a.

As a result the laptop always now connects using the 5GHz band.  

Is there any disadvantage to doing this I wonder?

Possibly a better option is to leave the Wireless band as 802.1a/b/g, and change the Preferred Band setting to Prefer 5.2GHz band. Please see second attached file.  This is the setting change I have decided to go for, I will see how it goes long term.  So far, my Preferred Band setting has been chosen every time I connect.

[#10]

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@JoeS1 wrote:

When using 2.4GHz download speed is under 40, when using 5Ghz download speed is over 90, so over twice as fast.  It would seem sensible for the hub to choose the band that gives the highest download speed, but invariably it picks 2.4GHz and I get the slower speeds unless I disable the 2.4GHz. 

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How are you testing this? At over 90Mbps you are either on Full fibre or transferring data on your network between local network connected machines.

Or is this just a reported 'connection speed' tool that you have? If so what do you get with real world data transfers? I have found these tools to be total rubbish and not give accurate results.

[#11]

I think it would be better it the Hub Two chose the band with the fastest download speed. rather than settings being changed on the connecting device.  Perhaps the "smart hub" could be smarter?

[#12]

Yes, I am a triallist on 900 full-fibre.  Using an ethernet cable to the Hub Two, I get over 900 download speed.  When on wireless I get sometimes over 100 on the 5.2GHz band, but much slower on the 2.4GHz band, typically around 40.
All testing is using the BT Wholesale speedtest at https://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/ 

If I had a newer laptop the speeds would be much better over wireless, I think, because wireless adapters now work to improved standards.

[#13]

@JoeS1 there is no band steering on the Hub Two, so the decision as to which band is preferred is solely decided by the client device that is connecting to it.