3 ms·
> Don’t put 5 GHz on its own band. Uhh, do they mean "don't put 5 GHz on its own SSID"?
by jonny_eh 8y ago
> Don’t put 5 GHz on its own band.
Uhh, do they mean "don't put 5 GHz on its own SSID"?
- compumike 8y agoThanks -- fixed!
- MBCook 8y agoI thought it was considered and GOOD idea to put the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz APs on different SSID is because some clients won’t connect to the faster one automatically. Or maybe it was because all traffic slow down to the lowest level. Is that no longer an issue? Or maybe these aren’t problems as long as the 2.4 and 5 access points are physically separate.
- slantyyz 8y agoI think it depends on the use case. I set up extra SSIDs for specific bands on my Unifi equipment to force some wifi gear (IP cams that have since been retired) to always connect to the closest AP.
- jrockway 8y agoSoftware has been written that will forcibly disconnect a 5GHz capable client that is found using 2.4GHz. How widely deployed this is, I don't know. Avery did a talk about it (and other things) a couple years ago: https://apenwarr.ca/diary/wifi-data-apenwarr-201602.pdf https://apenwarr.ca/diary/wifi-data-apenwarr-201602.pdf
- Dylan16807 8y agoWhat's the point of using one SSID for both frequencies if you make roaming between them impossible?
- falsedan 8y agoSupporting clients with 2.4-only devices without distributing two sets of credentials & avoiding a 5Ghz use accidentally picking the wrong creds.
- jrockway 8y agoThe AP can make the decision as to whether or not it's possible. It has data about how well the packets are getting through on both bands (as long as the device probes both bands). If it sees that 5GHz is working, but the device is using 2.4GHz, then it can disconnect it from 2.4GHz. But if 5GHz doesn't work, then it can allow the client to stay on 2.4GHz. Clients do pretty stupid things, which is why the AP is the right place to control this sort of thing. (If you have more than 1 AP, then you have signal strength data from the other APs, and AP A can disconnect the client and force it to use AP B. This seems to work better than letting the client decide on its own.)
- Dylan16807 8y agoSure, as long as it's using real signal data to make the decision then things are good.
- jrockway 8y agoYup. I can certainly understand the hesitation because it's basically two computer programs both saying "I'm smarter than you! No I'm smarter than you!" which rarely ends well. But I think since WiFi clients are so varied in their intelligence, the ideal thing is to build the roaming functionality into the AP... because at least you have the ability to fix it once and for all for everyone. Whether or not currently commercially-available hardware does that, I don't know.
- mastax 8y agoYou're right that many devices don't choose bands very well, so you should use an access point that supports band steering if you want to do this. Pro APs will support this and Broadcom-based AC consumer routers do also - need to read a review to know if a specific model works well though.