11 ms·
I’ve tried using the same SSID for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz but find that some devices (my kids’ Fire tablets, for example) end up hanging on to a weak 5Ghz connection w
by qzw 4y ago
I’ve tried using the same SSID for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz but find that some devices (my kids’ Fire tablets, for example) end up hanging on to a weak 5Ghz connection when they would’ve been better off switching to 2.4Ghz. But if the bands have different SSIDs, I can at least easily force them to switch manually.
- guidedlight 4y agoYour router needs to support 802.11k for devices to reliably switch between wifi networks using the same SSID. This is normally a feature offered by enterprise or pro-consumer equipment.
- oneplane 4y agoWorks fine without K or R, but then the client has to do more work and lots of client devices have bad software on them. On top of that, while K and R can help, even then it needs to work with the client to have all the benefits.
- xrisk 4y agoopenwrt offers this. Another reason to install it whenever you can!
- illiac786 4y agoLet's not forget that the client (phone, tablet...) also must support 802.11k for it to work.
- jon_adler 4y agoMy Ubiquiti WAPs support band steering with a minimum signal strength setting for 5Ghz. Perhaps you could upgrade to get a better experience?
- vetinari 4y agoThe decision is always client side, just like with roaming. There are ways to influence the client, which is basically what Ubiquiti is doing (and the client can ignore), and the last resort is to always kick the client once the signal is below some threshold.
- fullstop 4y agoThey can be configured to kick the client off if rssi falls below a given level. It's a poor man's 802.11r.
- mijoharas 4y agoI outlined some problems with a client when doing this [0]. Very frustrating. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32288095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32288095
- NickRandom 4y agoIt is often the _device_ that needs better band steering abilities and the Access Point can't do much to force the issue. Or did you mean that the GP should upgrade both their WAP AND all of the their connecting equipment?
- geoduck14 4y agoI use that feature on my Dream Machine. It doesn't really help. My laptop will still hop on the wrong band or AP, or my phone will drop off if I'm in the back yard. Meh
- presto8 4y agoIn addition to band steering (which is moving between bands on the same AP), there is also Wi-Fi EasyMesh[1] which allows multiple APs to coordinate with each other (over wired or wireless backhaul) to steer STAs (clients) between APs. However, the Ubiquiti AP is not certified for EasyMesh[2]. [1] https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-easymesh https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-easymesh [2] https://www.wi-fi.org/content/search-page?keys=ubiquiti https://www.wi-fi.org/content/search-page?keys=ubiquiti
- mijoharas 4y agoI had a minimum rssi set for an ubiquiti access points 5ghz channel. The client would just keep reconnecting to the 5ghz channel and getting kicked immediately. I had to manually lock that device to a specific band and access point. Insanely bad software on the client and very frustrating.
- illiac786 4y agoThese are the kind of devices which drag the entire network down...
- yakkers 4y agoI've had mixed results depending on devices -- my Apple devices tend to hop between bands and APs quite excellently. On the other end, I've got a Nintendo Switch which stubbornly sticks to the first AP / band (I'm running a few APs with the same SSID/PSK) combination it grabbed onto during network setup. Even if I move completely out of range of the AP/band it grabbed onto it'll refuse to acknowledge other APs/bands until you run network setup again. Everything else I deal with tends to be much closer to the former than the latter, thankfully. I don't use non-standard stuff like UniFi band steering, as it is known to cause issues due to non-standard behaviour.
- andix 4y agoNintendo Switch wifi is the worst. Mine is places 2m next to the router and can only do around 25 mbits. All other devices I own do at least 200-500 mbits.
- germinalphrase 4y agoThe entire Nintendo wifi/online experience is so poor.
- andix 4y agoYeah, I only use it for downloading games. I think the Switch is the wrong console if you want to play online. It's made for playing offline/mobile and playing with friends on split screen. And it's awesome for that.
- ArtWomb 4y agoAnd what's this Wifi 6 business? Am still upgrading devices to 5! Is there a new 802.11x standard? If service is (barely) 1 gig, and most end users dont notice degrading, why bother? Everyone also recommends the eero wifi mesh. But I'm hesitant. There's probably a hack to turn a jetson nano or rpi4 into a repeater ;)
- oneplane 4y agoRepeaters and meshes are generally a bad idea, repeaters specifically. Unless you live in a large concrete bunker, having 1 or 2 well-placed access points with wired connections is all you really have to invest in for most personal living scenarios.
- xyzzy_plugh 4y agoWiFi 6 makes a big difference in congested environments, in my experience. In an urban office, clients of our WiFi 6 APs get roughly 2x throughput (~200-300mbps) than peers on 5. It's borderline impossible to saturate the uplink at max speeds for any network when there's congestion, but the improvements to client isolation are substantial IMO.
- Avamander 4y ago> If service is (barely) 1 gig, and most end users dont notice degrading, why bother? Because there's really more to it than just raw bandwidth. Either with the new protocol itself or with the new hardware that supports the protocol, you'll get other improvements besides raw bandwitdh. A WiFi 6 AP in this case should in theory provide you better security (WPA3, PMF¹), antenna design², power savings³, lower latency and lower interference⁴. There are other improvements as well that might now be included with new AP's, but as they're not mandatory to implement it depends on the AP. Just like PMF was an optional feature with previous WiFi. -- 1 - Protected Management Frames (802.11w) simplified protection against deauth attacks. Could also mean it is enabled for WiFi 5 devices, previously a very enterprise/high-end only feature. 2 - The higher requirements of WiFi 6 will most likely mean that WiFi 5 clients will also reap some benefits. Lower packet loss, better range, actual MU-MIMO and better beamforming even individually might be a large step-up for some. 3 - Target Wake Time - scheduling better when targets wake up 4 - BSS coloring
- andix 4y agoI usually have the opposite issue, devices staying on (slow) 2,4 GHz directly next to the router. I would like to copy some files, and switching to 5 Ghz would vastly improve performance. But the device just doesn’t. I solved it by just disabling 2,4 ghz and adding enough repeaters/APs so I have coverage everywhere.
- xuki 4y agoThis is the way. Everything on 5GHz, unique SSID for 2.4Ghz IOT devices and buy enough APs. Life is too short to debug wifi problems.
- andix 4y agoExactly. While I was using 2,4 GHz I had a lot of random issues. Probably faulty/bad WiFi devices from neighbours. Since I switched to 5 GHz they are all gone. The higher frequency is probably blocked by the walls enough, not to interfere.
- spookthesunset 4y agoI just create a dedicated 5ghz SSID and then a “mixed” SSID I can dump all the low bandwidth crap onto. All the laptops and phones live on the 5ghz and the rest can figure it out on their own.
- t0bia_s 4y agoI solved few issues by disabling 5 Ghz. It won't work in next room anyway, walls are to strong. So there is no reason to have 5 Ghz on.
- rektide 4y agoIt's not out-of-the-box perfect, but I've had decent luck using DAWN, which targets openwrt, to get decent bandsteering. I can always ssh in (I personally havent been interested in installing/trying the "luci" web interface) & move someone between bands if I need to. My understanding is it's typically thr network nit clients that is supposed to be in charge of bandsteering & that devices hanging on to what they lock on to is the norm, typical. Also, this setup works across & steers clients between my multiple access points! It's amazing being able to ssh in and see a map of what signals each AP sees. DAWN periodically asks clients to help map, so even if the AP's are on different bands, you can still compare what the signal would be if the node moved. We'ee finally living in a pretty good time for open source wifi. A pity how only a couple chips have support (select MediaTek and Qualcomm) but wow things have gotten much better. https://github.com/berlin-open-wireless-lab/DAWN https://github.com/berlin-open-wireless-lab/DAWN
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Saris 4y agoMy Unifi APs have a minimum RSSI of -80dBm set on the 5ghz band, which helps a lot. Maybe your router/ap has that setting somewhere?
- reaperducer 4y agoCanon printers also can't handle 2.4 and 5 networks with the same SSID. The workaround is to give a spare 2.4 router the same SSID as your real router. turn off your real router. Connect the printer to the 2.4 router so it can be configured. Then put the spare router back in storage and turn your main router on again. The printer will then connect to the 2.4 signal of the main router. Really disappointed in Canon not being able to handle multiple SSIDs, and eero for disabling the feature of having different SSIDs for different frequencies.
- stordoff 4y agoFor Eero, there is now an option to disable 5GHz for ten minutes in order to connect some troublesome devices. It might work for connecting such a printer.