topic Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked in Broadband

Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

Timmy1 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:29:01 GMT

Hello, I have an issue that I hope other Three users and support might be able to help me with.

I have exactly the same problem as some previous posters such as @mitgobla with my new Three supplied E5-250ma hub. Although I can connect all my wireless devices to this router and they can access the internet, none of the devices can actually communicate with each other despite being on the same LAN. I have tried separating the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands (also disabling each in turn), disabling the Guest network, disabling/enabling IPv6, enabling the uPnP setting and a whole lot else besides but the problem still persists.

I have just done some extensive testing in which I tried to ping between two wireless devices (computer and phone) connected to the router on the same Wi-Fi band (either both 5GHz or both 2,.4 GHz) and it failed because they could not discover each other. However I could ping each device individually from within the router's web admin interface. So I believe that with this router AP Isolation (Client Isolation, or Wireless Isolation) is enabled by default (even when the guest network is turned off) and cannot be changed by the user.

This seems like a crazy idea to me given that plenty of people now have wireless devices in their homes that need to communicate with each other such as Wi-Fi enabled printers and computers, controlling home heating with phone apps via Wi-Fi, IoTs, etc. At least I have found out what the issue is, as it's been bugging me since the 5G/4G Hub E5-250MA hub arrived 5 days ago. I chatted with someone from the Three support Team online yesterday about this but I do not think they fully grasped the problem — all my wireless devices can connect to the router and use the internet, but they cannot communicate with each other over the LAN.

If this is a generic problem with the routers setting/firmware then I can foresee a lot of Three customers being very frustrated but this issue.

Does anybody here have a solution for this as I cannot find any way to configure and disable AP, client or wireless isolation on this hub?

Re: Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

Timmy1 — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:02:10 GMT

If anyone else reading this has the same Three supplied router (on the base of the hub I lists the make as "Greenpacket" and the model as "e5-250MA") and access to a wireless printer, could they try the following simple test for me please?

1) Connect the printer to your main Wi-Fi network (make sure it is not a separate Guest network)

2) Connect another device such as a laptop or phone to the same Wi-Fi network

3) Make sure both devices are not physically connected to each other, or the router, in any way (so no ethernet cables between them) and are not communicating via bluetooth.

4) Try to print a document sent from your laptop or phone to printer over Wi-Fi

Does this work?

Thanks in advance

Re: Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

Timmy1 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:41:26 GMT

Update: Please read this is you have been sent the 5G/4G E5-250MA hub from three. I had an online chat with a very nice and knowledgeable representative from the Three technical support them today. Here is what they said, I have taken it from a downloaded transcript of our conversation:

Agent: . Based on what you’ve described, your suspicion about AP Isolation (also called Client Isolation or Wireless Isolation) being enabled by default on the E5‑250MA hub is very plausible. That feature prevents devices connected via Wi‑Fi from communicating directly with each other, even though they can all reach the internet.

Agent: That explains why you can ping devices from the router but not between them. Unfortunately, if this setting can’t be changed in the firmware, the only workarounds are to connect devices by Ethernet

Agent: Three hub does not currently allow users to disable AP Isolation (also called Client Isolation). This means devices connected via Wi‑Fi cannot communicate directly with each other, even though they can all access the internet.

You: Yes that is correct. However that does not help me because I ahed many devices and I do not want them in the same place as the router. The is supposed to be a wireless device

Agent: Because the firmware doesn’t allow you to disable this, the hub behaves more like a “wireless internet gateway” than a true home LAN router. That’s why your devices can’t discover each other unless they’re wired in.

You: I never had this problem with my previous Three supplied router which is was a Huawei model. I think this problem must be specific to this e5-250ma model.

You: Glad you understand the issue but I need a LAN router and I thought that was what this device is (Three website does not mention this limitation()

Agent: if AP Isolation is hard‑coded and cannot be disabled, then it’s not something you can fix from the admin interface.

Agent: You’re right — the E5‑250MA hub is marketed as a home router, so it’s reasonable to expect full LAN functionality. The fact that Three’s website doesn’t mention AP Isolation being permanently enabled is frustrating, because customers assume they’re getting a proper LAN router when in reality it behaves more like a wireless gateway for internet only.

Re: Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

MymsMan — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:01:36 GMT

Given that Three have admitted that the device does not meet reasonable customer expectations I would think you should ask them to supply an Eero mesh device to act as a home router with your existing hub or to switch you to the Y5-210MU/Eero combination (at same price) which I know does work

Re: Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

Timmy1 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:07:39 GMT

Update Wednesday 01 April 2026: I received a SMS from Three support today to my hub (viewed via the admin web management interface) stating that they had now fixed this problem and to reboot my device. It then stated if there was still a problem to contact them. I was initially excited by this update, assumed there had been an over-the-air firmware update and did duly as they asked. I rebooted the hub but alas the problem has not been fixed. I even did a factory reset but again when the hub restarted the problem had not been fixed. So even though Three have explicitly acknowledged that there is a LAN functionality issue with this device and have spent the last few weeks telling me they are resolving it, they evidently have not as none of my devices can communicate with each other when connected wirelessly to the hub. So back to square one again. This is very disappointing and frustrating but perhaps unsurprising given that my recent experience with Three support has been dismal. Three will have a lot of very unhappy, disgruntled customers if they continue to supply this Greenpacket E5-250 MA hub without fixing this very basic issue. Can any members of the Three support team on this forum comment on this please?

Re: Communication between LAN devices appears to be blocked

Mariyan90 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:49:03 GMT

Hi Timmy1, I’m also using the same model (E5-250MA) and I’m having the same problem. I need communication between my Mac, which I use to run an OpenClaw agent inside a VM, and my Linux laptop for my gamma4.0 Ollama model. I couldn’t get them to communicate over WLAN, even though they can see each other’s MAC addresses on the network. What I did as a workaround was set up a Tailscale connection between them so they could communicate over the internet. But that will not help for communication with other local network devices such as printers or anything other than PCs/laptops. Anyway, I had to visit three customer service centres to replace the router and get one without hard-coded client isolation enabled.