Can’t enable 2.4Ghz on E5-250MA router

[Rich15]

I’ve just moved from a Plusnet landline broadband to the latest Three 5G E5-250MA hub solution. I have a good 5G signal where I live and the 5Ghz band seems to work ok, but I can’t enable the 2.4Ghz band despite many varied attempts. Unfortunately none of my 2.4Ghz devices recognise the default merged 2.4/5Ghz band, hence the need for separate 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band networks.

I have unmerged the networks, whereby the initial default was one 5Ghz main band  On and one 5Ghz Guest band On, with the 2.4Ghz main and 2.4Ghz Guest bands showing as blank/Off. Going to Advanced Settings and logging in again via the IP address route, under Wi-Fi/WLAN Settings I can see that WLAN field was ‘enabled’ only for the two 5Ghz bands. I tried selecting each of the 2.4Ghz bands, ticking the Enable box (which it seemed to accept), then hit Submit. After a few seconds i was automatically disconnected and a message subsequently appeared telling me the update had been successful. However, when I reconnect and go back to look at the settings I see that the 2.4Ghz fields have reverted to unchecked (ie disabled).

Unfortunately I’ve been met with various responses from Three support via phone - a couple guided me through the very same process which gave the same results but couldn’t enlighten me any further alas, another inferred that the router couldn’t be configured to do what I want.

Is the new(?) E5-250MA actually capable of having both 2.4 and 5Ghz bands running side by side as separate networks? Seems a reasonable requirement for connecting various home devices. Am I doing something wrong? 

[Rich15 · Accepted solution]

Well…. I took the router into the Three shop yesterday and they happily exchanged it for another (the same E5-250MA model). We went through the configuration process of separating the bands whilst in the shop and it was soon apparent that the Enable boxes were now saving properly for the 2.4 GHz WiFi bands. Can only conclude that the original router was faulty or maybe had an obscure setting that I couldn’t see that prevented changes being saved?

Back home and both 5 and 2.4 bands appear to be working and accessible by devices.

happy days 🙂

[JonathanB]

Great news, glad to hear it was a glitch and the store could help swap your router out.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Rich15]

Thanks for looking at this Jonathan. 

[Rich15]

It is really odd. I’ve spent a few hours on this and tried all sorts of configuration settings, made sure the SSID’s are uniquely named for each band (ie 2.4ghz, 2.4ghz guest, 5Ghz , 5Ghz guest), also tried configuring via iPhone and laptop (in case the config apps have issues). It just doesn’t save the Enable box next to either the 2.4Ghz or 2.4 Guest selection, despite saying it has.

I signed up for a 2yr contract just over a week ago in our local Three shop where they supplied me with the router there and then, wondering if there’s a conflict of settings preventing the 2.4ghz band from being enabled, or simply a fault with the router? As I say, the 5G signal is good here and the 5Ghz bands seem to work fine with my 5Ghz compatible devices, just can’t get it to save any Enable setting on 2.4Ghz.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Rich15,

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble with unmerging your Wi-Fi bands. I've not came across this specific issue before, but I'll try to check into this further in case we can replicate the issue, or find any missing steps in the settings..

Thanks,
Jonathan