Smart devices unable to connect to Ultra Hub Wifi (Eufy Doorbell and AudioPro speakers)

[Alex_C]

I've recently moved back to Vodafone, and had my FTTP service activated yesterday, with the Ultra Hub and Pro WiFi.

Laptops, phones and tablets are working just fine, but I have a few smart devices that refuse to connect, specifically a Eufy Video doorbell (https://uk.eufy.com/products/e8222313) and several AudioPro multiroom speakers (https://www.audiopro.com/en/product/c10/#black)

On both of these, you use the manufacturer's mobile app to choose a WiFi network and provide the password, then they should connect, but it just fails every time. They were all working just fine on Tuesday with my BT Hub so it looks very much like a compatibility issue with the Vodafone router.

I have tried using WiFi compatibility mode on the Router but that's made no difference, and have had some incredibly painful chats with the support team who have insisted that WiFi won't work properly in the first 48 hours until the service is fully activated, or that the problem is with all my devices. They also seem to disagree about whether I have the Pro WiFi or not, and suggested that might be stopping things connect. They did offer to send another WiFi booster in case it's a coverage issue, but that's not the case as these are a matter of meters away.

Has anyone seen anything similar with smart devices that refuse to connect, and if so, how did you solve it?

In the event log I can see errors like
"Failed to send to ff02::1%guest@br-guest (Cannot assign requested address)" and "Ignoring MLD pkt on non snooping enabled bridge interface lan"

The tech support team didn't seem even remotely interested in looking at those.

If this can't be fixed I'm going to need to leave Vodafone, as the service is not fit for purpose and I'm not going to abandon £1K's worth of equipment that can't connect, but I don't imagine that's going to be easy.

[Cynric]

@Alex_C  Slight "clutching at straws" moment here, but I have seen some devices connect to my WiFi with different capitalisation, e.g. abc123 as opposed to ABC123. This odd because the password at that time was 16 chars alphanumeric but all lowercase, but a device I was connecting would only allow me to input using capitals and yet it still connected. These were fairly old bits of kit, but still of this century.

[Alex_C]

I’ve been doing a but more reading and it seems there’s a lot of people with 2.4GHz smart devices that can’t connect to the Ultra Hub and pro WiFi. 
On the older router, splitting 2.4GHz into its own SSID would solve it, but that’s not an option any more. 

[Ripshod]

It is an option. 

Disconnect the WAN, reset the router, make your WiFi changes from the gui, reconnect the WAN. 

[Alex_C]

Interesting, does it restrict some of the menu options only after checking in with the Vodafone mothership for the first time?

[Ripshod]

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@Alex_C wrote:

Interesting, does it restrict some of the menu options only after checking in with the Vodafone mothership for the first time?

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Correct. The reset wipes all the account specific configuration leaving a blank slate. It's only when the router connects to Vodafone's provisioning server that everything gets locked down.

[Cynric]

@Alex_C As far as I can tell the router comes with a factory built firmware in EEPROM which gets updated from HQ, but the update is in a NVRAM and doesn't overwrite the EEPROM. Without ripping one apart (wouldn't that be cathartic?) to see what chips are on the circuit board there's a certain assumption in my post.

[Alex_C]

Strange things are afoot this morning. 
Both the doorbell and speakers will now connect to the MySSID_Guest network (which has exactly the same security settings as the main MySSID one) and AirPlay seemingly works between a device on the main network and a speaker on the guest…..

That does make me question the purpose of a guest network if there’s connectivity between them, but I won’t worry about that. 

What I’m going to try next is to rename the main network to MySSID_Temp, and then change the guest to MySSID before connecting the speaker to it. Assuming that works, I’ll then rename the main network back to MySSID and see if the speakers will reconnect.

[Alex_C · Accepted solution]

It’s only gone and worked!   
Renamed the guest WiFi to what I plan to use as the main SSID and joined the devices, then flipped the names over and so the main network has the right name and it reconnected just fine. 

<insert huge rant about how a Pro WiFi service shouldn’t require an IT professional with twenty years of experience to figure out a trick like this, or how the online chat support was so infuriating it nearly reduced me to tears>

Hopefully this will save someone else the headache. Thanks to all of you who offered suggestions which helped nudge me towards a solution. 

[DJM1971]

Similar here with a Roberts i93 internet radio. The guest WiFi will connect to it. Th main WiFi won’t. 
noticed the guest WiFi has a no WPS  option were as all the main WiFi SSIDs are WPS by default

[DJM1971]

Just done this to get a reluctant Roberts radio onto the main wifi. Like you found switching the SSIDs and passwords with the guest account worked.

I think its something to do with the main wifi having WPS on by default were as the guest account doesn't.

The clear solution would be to allow users to switch off WPS on the main wifi in the router GUI