Is there any way to get dual band to work correctly?

[Morris]

Looks like you beat me to this before I edited it. I did do the changes in that article but I'm wondering if there anything else that can be done to improve reliability.

Most IOT devices have terrible radios and antenna. Making matters worse, they are frequently placed where there are things shielding them from receiving or sending the signal. The first thing you need to do is look at the received signal strength for each device. The second is to look at the signal strength they device reports and if not possible use your phone to measure the signal on the 2.4Ghz band. With this information, you can decide if you need to place a mesh node closer to the problem IOT devices. The other issue may be interference on the 2.4Ghz band and/or cross channel interference from other networks. Also, if you are using Auto Channel, switch to the least busy channel. Auto will cause drops.

 

[Dav3]

Most IOT devices have terrible radios and antenna. Making matters worse, they are frequently placed where there are things shielding them from receiving or sending the signal. The first thing you need to do is look at the received signal strength for each device. The second is to look at the signal strength they device reports and if not possible use your phone to measure the signal on the 2.4Ghz band. With this information, you can decide if you need to place a mesh node closer to the problem IOT devices. The other issue may be interference on the 2.4Ghz band and/or cross channel interference from other networks. Also, if you are using Auto Channel, switch to the least busy channel. Auto will cause drops.

Making the changes in that article does not seem to have improved anything, unfortunately. I don't think signal strength is an issue, it's a small house and many of the devices are in the same room as the router. The light bulbs, for example, are only a few feet from the router but still fail to turn on and off with google commands most of the time "The device is currently unavailable". Or, one will turn on/off and the other won't, etc. I have the same problem with smart plugs and different bulbs so it's not just these bulbs.

I did set it to channel 1, which according to the app was the lease crowded. I don't remember having so many problems with our old Netgear router, it's really getting a bit frustrating.

 

[DocUmibozu]

So I disabled smart connect but my IoT devices are still not staying connected properly. I'm going to try some of the settings changes from that article. Are there any other changes I can make that might help?

Split the ssid, trust me

 

[Morris]

Split the ssid, trust me

For IOT devices that only work on 2.4 Ghz, that will do nothing.

I've dealt with problematic IOT devices and they are frustrating. If you still have the Netgear router, you might want to try connecting it to a LAN port on your Asus router and put it in AP mode and only enable the 2.4 Ghz channel. Also disable 2.4 Ghz on the Asus. You can use the same SSID for both devices or seperate them as you like. Your devices will figure out what they think is the best place to connect if both use the same SSID.

 

[Dav3]

For IOT devices that only work on 2.4 Ghz, that will do nothing.

I've dealt with problematic IOT devices and they are frustrating. If you still have the Netgear router, you might want to try connecting it to a LAN port on your Asus router and put it in AP mode and only enable the 2.4 Ghz channel. Also disable 2.4 Ghz on the Asus. You can use the same SSID for both devices or seperate them as you like. Your devices will figure out what they think is the best place to connect if both use the same SSID.

I really don't want to do that, lol It's all in the lving room and I want a clean setup. There's gotta be some way to get this working correctly.

 

[Morris]

I really don't want to do that, lol It's all in the lving room and I want a clean setup. There's gotta be some way to get this working correctly.

Most people don't have these problems. Which model router is it and how old is it? Possibly you have a bad 2.4 Ghz radio. If it's still in the return window, try exchanging it.

 

[Dav3]

Most people don't have these problems. Which model router is it and how old is it? Possibly you have a bad 2.4 Ghz radio. If it's still in the return window, try exchanging it.

It's the ax-82u, I'm pretty sure I'm outside the warranty period now. Here are my current settings, is there anything I can try?

 

[bbunge]

It's the ax-82u, I'm pretty sure I'm outside the warranty period now. Here are my current settings, is there anything I can try?

I have read through this post and have not seen what you are using for WIFI authentication. When I got my first AX router I set it up with WPA2/WPA3-Personal. Also used the Dual Band SmartConnect. I had issues with a couple of my older clients that did not like the WPA2/WPA3-Personal. To work around that I set up a 2.4 GHz guest WIFI for those older clients and it worked! Now I just use WPA2-Personal and all my clients are happy including a couple of G WIFI cams.

 

[Dav3]

I have read through this post and have not seen what you are using for WIFI authentication. When I got my first AX router I set it up with WPA2/WPA3-Personal. Also used the Dual Band SmartConnect. I had issues with a couple of my older clients that did not like the WPA2/WPA3-Personal. To work around that I set up a 2.4 GHz guest WIFI for those older clients and it worked! Now I just use WPA2-Personal and all my clients are happy including a couple of G WIFI cams.

WPA-2 Personal is what I've got it set to as well.

 

[coxhaus]

I have never used separate SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz in my house. I have one SSID for LAN and 1 SSID for guest and they both have 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I can't tell you what some of the devices use as I don't care as long as they work, and I don't see any slowdowns. I also use WAP2/WAP3.

I use 3 Cisco APs. I have used different Cisco APs over the last 15 years with basically the same setup.

 

[sfx2000]

I have one SSID for LAN and 1 SSID for guest and they both have 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I can't tell you what some of the devices use as I don't care as long as they work, and I don't see any slowdowns. I also use WAP2/WAP3.

I agree - common SSID on dual-band clients makes a lot of sense, as the SSID identifies the network it's attached to, so hopping from 5 to 2.4 is basically a resync without having to do the whole WPA2/3 handshaking...

Most should be using either WPA2 only, or WPA2/3 if the AP allows for this - WPA(1)/WPA2 TKIP should not even be an option, if you ask me...

And the clients usually have a better view of the network where they are located - note also that not all clients are created equal, so some might find their laptop camping on 5Ghz, where their mobile might be camping on 2.4 - the client decides...

Where common SSID starts to fall apart is with the 6GHz band (WiFi6e) - 6e requires the network to be either open or WPA3 only, so common SSID approaches here can run into problems with client devices that do not support WPA3 (there are still many that don't support WPA3, fwiw)

WiFi7 isn't really going to fix that particular problem...

 

[coxhaus]

I am not using WiFi6e only WiFi6. I don't really have any WiFi6e clients. I think my iPhone is too old.