This topic

Can’t connect my WiFi through 5ghz

Iggy90 — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 20:50:44 GMT

Hi everyone,

I recently renewed my BT contract and have Full Fibre 900. Over the last four days, I’ve noticed that my Wi-Fi speeds have dropped significantly to around 100 Mbps on all my devices.

When I connect my laptop directly to the router using an Ethernet cable, I get around 950 Mbps, so the fibre connection itself seems to be working perfectly.

I live in a new-build house where the walls are practically made of cardboards😂, so Wi-Fi coverage and signal strength have never been an issue.

I’ve tried separating the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks through the router settings. However, after saving the changes, the 5 GHz network no longer appears in the list of available Wi-Fi networks on any of my devices. Everything seems to connect only to the 2.4 GHz network, and the speeds remain slow.

I’ve already contacted BT, and they sent me a replacement Smart Hub 3, but unfortunately, I’m experiencing exactly the same problem with the new router.

A few days ago, everything was working perfectly, and I was getting much faster Wi-Fi speeds. I haven’t knowingly changed anything that should have caused this issue.

Has anyone experienced something similar or found a solution? Could this be a router configuration issue, a problem with the 5 GHz channel, or something else?

I’m running out of ideas, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Re: Can’t connect my WiFi through 5ghz

licquorice — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 20:57:17 GMT

As you can't separate the networks on the BT hub, I can only assume you have disabled the 5Ghz band

Re: Can’t connect my WiFi through 5ghz

Iggy90 — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 21:03:03 GMT

Yes, you can. By disabling the 2.4GHz band on my main WiFi network and leaving 5GHz enabled, while keeping the separate “COMP” WiFi network with 2.4GHz enabled, I can separate the bands. However, the 5GHz network is still not showing up on my devices.

Re: Can’t connect my WiFi through 5ghz

licquorice — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 21:25:38 GMT

Ok, yes, you can do that but it is not what is the usual accepted definition of separating the networks

I have just tried doing the same and everything works fine as expected. Devices can connect to either band so not sure where your problem lies.

Re: Can’t connect my WiFi through 5ghz

imjolly — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 21:41:06 GMT

Try getting a WiFi analyser app on your mobile and then check you can see the 5ghz channel is active from your hub. Just turn off the 2.4ghz and leave only the 5ghz available and see if devices will connect. Remember it is device that decides which band to connect to not the BT hub