Plusnet Hub 2 Wifi Settings

[#1]

I have just updated to a Hub 2 from Hub 1

My neighbour is setting up a Wifi network between himself and another neighbour and wanted to make sure he and I were using different 5G Wifi channels so I set up chan 48 and he set up chan 36. He has a scanner and noticed that I was still transmitting over the whole 5G bandwidth at quite a high level and even if I turned off my 5G Wifi it still transmitted, with no SSID over that bandwidth. We know it was my hub transmitting because as we got nearer the hub the signal went up.

We had previously checked with my Hub 1 and when you turned off the 5G Wifi it stopped transmitting.

The same things happen turning on / off the 2.4G Wifi. With Hub 1 turning off turned off the transmitter. Hub 2 didn't turn off the transmitter.

This is rubbish and can't be correct, turn off should turn off the transmitter. This must be a software design bug. I talked to help but as it was a design fault rather than an operation fault they couldn't really do anything. Is this acceptable?

[#2]

@Guild 

It is a known ‘feature’  associated with the mesh unit backhaul used on the BT Smarthub from which the Hub Two is derived.

As far as I am aware there is no traffic on this transmission so should not affect your neighbour.

[#3]

 has a scanner and noticed that I was still transmitting over the whole 5G bandwidth

you'll probably find that most routers default to using an 80mhz bandwidth on 5ghz. Thus they take up 16 channels. If you want to avoid interference with nearby neighbours then both of you need to switch to 40mhz bandwidth unless one of your routers can support the DFS channels

[#4]

I'm the neighbour mentioned in the first post and the OP asked me to comment/clarify here. The issue is that turning the WiFi off in the Web interface is only removing the beacon for the SSID on the Web page, there is still a "hidden" (no SSID) beacon being transmitted (this is always there, in addition to the named SSID when active). This is pretty dreadful really. Turning the WiFi off, should do exactly that. We have an agreement between several "wall to wall" neighbours to each use separate, non-overlapping channels, and this new HUB2 doesn't allow us to do that.

The 5GHz config page only has two settings: On/Off, and channel (only covering 36 to 48). Scanning with my home router, and also with an app on my mobile, both show the HUB2 always uses the entire 80MHz block (36 to 48), regardless of either of those settings. Pretty pointless advertising a 1700MBit/s WiFi link from a modem synced to FTTC at 1/20th that rate.

In response to previous comments (thanks for those):

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@Baldrick1 True, there's no user traffic in this case, but the beacon is still transmitted, so is causing interference and reducing available bandwidth. There is no mesh network here (nor any option for it in the menus), it's a stand-alone modem/router in a house with no requirement for WiFi. Also, if the WiFi is needed in the future, we cannot configure it (see below).

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@MisterW True, manually choosing a narrower channel would be fine (we already do that with other neighbours), but the HUB2 only uses 80MHz (no choice), and cannot be switched off. Hopefully changing channel is actually changing the beacon channel. We could use DFS channels but our tests show that the 5GHz propagation drops off as frequency increases, so narrow bandwidths on the low channels below DFS are our aim.

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I could understand it if the HUB2 was always advertising a BT Hot Spot SSID, but that's not the case here. We are not looking for suggestions for our network here, we want to be able to turn off the HUB2 WiFi. This thread is to ask why the HUB2 behaves like this and what can be done to stop it (e.g. some save/edit/reload of the config, different firmware, or such like).

Just to be clear, when the (older) HUB1’s WiFi is disabled, it really does stop transmitting (I have one, and don't use the WiFi on it). Plusnet aren’t interested in helping, because the OP doesn’t have a service affecting fault. He doesn’t want to buy a third party modem, and nor should he have to.

[#5]

This thread is to ask why the HUB2 behaves like this and what can be done to stop it 

@alandamore 

@Baldrick1 has explained why it behaves like this. Whether it is by design or a bug is unclear ?

As to what you can do about it, I'm afraid at the moment there is nothing you can do.

Plusnet aren’t interested in helping, because the OP doesn’t have a service affecting fault. 

Until the product support group decide on whether new firmware is required there is little the first line customer support can do.

[#6]

@alandamore - I've mentioned this elsewhere round these parts but I'm strugglign to locate the post...

We are aware of the behaviour you're describing and the ability to completely disable the Wi-Fi broadcast is on the backlog for inclusion in a future firmware build.

I can't provide an ETA at the moment though I'm afraid. 

[#7]

@bobpullen Thanks for that, good to know it's planned to be fixed. Maybe you can tell your telephone support staff as well. The person my neighbour spoke to didn't seem to grasp the nature of the issue.

[#8]

Thanks to all the people who have replied to this. The help is appreciated

[#9]

@bobpullen 

Is there an update on this please?

[#10]

I believe the latest firmware, being rolled out now, has an option to completely disable WiFi.

[#11]

@Townman 

Take a look at this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Disabling-WiFi-on-Hub-2/td-p/1873676 the later posts show the version number and some screen shots.

I believe it is now being rolled out.

Dan.

[#12]

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@Townman wrote:

@bobpullen 

Is there an update on this please?

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About half way through the firmware deployment. I expect it will be done and dusted within a week.

As it always the case with these things, there will be a period of time where devices continue to go out with v06 installed, however they will upgrade to v08 within a few days of being connected/activated.

[#13]

Hi @bobpullen 

I guess that I got a little foxed in my expectations of the new firmware.  I was hoping that the update would give one full and proper control of one's WiFi set up - that is to turn off the hidden SSID, not all or nothing.