Smart Connect Not So Smart?

[TheLyppardMan]

I decided to try Smart Connect again, but it was a failure. My Amazon Fire TV stick decided at some time yesterday that it would swap over to the 2.4GHz channel, resulting in audio stuttering when watching a video later in the day. I've switched it off again and gone back to manual allocation. Anyone else had similar problems?

 

[adampk17]

I decided to try Smart Connect again, but it was a failure. My Amazon Fire TV stick decided at some time yesterday that it would swap over to the 2.4GHz channel, resulting in audio stuttering when watching a video later in the day. I've switched it off again and gone back to manual allocation. Anyone else had similar problems?

I’ve turned that particular feature off on my varied Asus routers for several years after not having a good experience with it. I use aimesh now and it seems ok.

With aimesh I’m wondering if it uses smart connect in some form or fashion or if the two are not related. It would be interesting to find out.

 

[ChatmanR]

Running 384.15 with no issues. 3700sf 2 story, with 40 devices online.

 

[Andy1932]

Running 384.15 with no issues. 3700sf 2 story, with 40 devices online.
View attachment 22412

How did you arrive at these settings? Be nice if there was a guide out there for this.

 

[ChatmanR]

How did you arrive at these settings? Be nice if there was a guide out there for this.

I mostly just followed this guide: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac5300-performance-security-guide.45710/#post-393463

But there are other detailed ones out there.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

It seems rather sillly of ASUS to provide this feature and then not provide any instructions, in layman's terms, about how to set it up. Something simple like:

1. The desired aim of the user (assuming it can be set to achieve different end results).
   
2. What Wi-Fi paremeters to measure and how best to do it.
3. Any other relevant information to consider and where or how to obtain it.
   
4. How to set up the Smart Connect parameters, based on the results of the measured parameters and any other relevant information.
   
5. How to test that everything is working as expected.
6. How to make minor adjustements if things aren't quite working as desired.

 

[L&LD]

I don't see it like that. Their defaults seem to work for most users. The ones that want to invest more time can get it working too. For some, simply turning off the advanced feature(s) that don't work for them is okay too as long as the router/network is stable.

That is the other side of the coin with advanced features. Sometimes, they force us to become advanced users too.

 

[Andy1932]

I had to abandon my 3 day smart connect experiment. My 86u was constantly switching channels — like every 20 min, which caused disconnects. Too bad. I really liked the idea of it.

 

[zackattack784]

I’ve always had very good success with smart connect. It does exactly what I want it to do, put my devices on the 5 GHz band when they are within range (which is pretty much every 5ghz capable device inside my house) and bumps them over to 2.4ghz when I need the extra range such as when I’m outside or in my shed.

 

[Andy1932]

I’ve always had very good success with smart connect. It does exactly what I want it to do, put my devices on the 5 GHz band when they are within range (which is pretty much every 5ghz capable device inside my house) and bumps them over to 2.4ghz when I need the extra range such as when I’m outside or in my shed.

Yes, that aspect works great. It’s just the constant channel hopping that didn’t for me.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

But some proper and easy-to-undersatnd instructions from ASUS would be a welcome addition. I think I may send them a message to see what they have to say.