Disable Smart Wifi

[FredBloggs60]

How can I stop virgin changing my wifi channel settings

[jbrennand]

See this
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Go into the Hub’s settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless signal >smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  May be different pathways and wording on the 3 Hub types
Then, go to advanced>wireless signal>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just type over to change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Billybob2 & Billybob5) Try to avoid spaces and periods in the SSID names as they can cause issues with certain devices. Use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want each device to connect to… individually from the "available networks" list on each of your devices. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
All things being equal, 5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less congestion/interference (and is better for iDevice speeds than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and will be needed when the 5 GHz drops out of range and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[FredBloggs60]

Sorry John, I have been running with your suggestion for several years. Until very recently I have had no problem. Now even with optimisation off virgin keeps resetting my 5G channel to ch44 along with 4 other local strong signals. Ch36 has been grabbed by Sky,  My BT wifi has been allocated Ch48 (by me) Ch40 is totally clear (nothing over 100dBm). Every time I do as I have done previously and allocate and save Ch40, optimisation off, the "SMART" Hub resets it to Ch44. I tried to prevent Virgin upgrading my hub to "SMART" as I suspected that this would happen but they must have slipped it in somehow.

Thanks for suggestion though.

[jbrennand]

Seems like recent firmware updates have given VM Hubs minds of their own.

This is one reason I (and many others) never use the VM equipment for that.

You should look at getting your own wireless router or mesh system that will sort the issue for ever

[Matthew_ML]

Hey FredBloggs60, thank you for reaching out and to answer your question the WIFI wouldn't work as well if you turned these channels off.

If you wanted to look at changing the settings I can help you.

Please do let me know. Thanks 

[Sephiroth]

That is so bad. The HUB 3 allowed you to turn off the SmartWiFi setting (which everyone should do as it's a pest).

My cynical mind tells me, prolly accurately, that these settings were giving VM serious support grief so they removed them from the Hub 4 and, I assume Hub 5. Fair to say, I'm working off my screen shots taken in 2020 before I put the Hub4 into Modem Mode.

I recommend anyone with some IT or network nous to use their own router with the hub in modem mode.

[IKbrunel]

@Sephiroth.

@HUB 5 has this feature, it can be disabled.....BUT it is a requirement to be enabled, when using "Intelligent Pods"

[Sephiroth]

@IKBrunel

Thanks for the clarification. It reinforces my view that peops should buy nothing from VM other than the broadband/TV service! Trouble is that many people who don't know WiFi/networks expect VM to provide "boosters" and indeed ones that do the job.

[FredBloggs60]

Matt, I'm not trying to disable these channels, I know my local Wifi environment and until recently I could allocate my 5G channel to Ch40 and it stayed there. Now when I manually set the channel to Ch40 with auto set to off, Virgin always moves it back to Ch44 within minutes. 

Channel 44 has 4 separate Virgin accounts nearby ranging in strength from -70dBm to -50dBm. Ch40 has no signals above -100dBm.

Thanks for advice Matt, but unless you know how to permanently switch of smart I still need to look further into it.

[legacy1]

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@FredBloggs60 wrote:

How can I stop virgin changing my wifi channel settings

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You can't if you want to change channels get your own router