5 GHz Wi-Fi

It's not necessarily best (or worst) practice. If you use the same SSID on both bands, the devices will decide for themselves which band to use, but if they're not very good at deciding, you can decide for them by splitting into an SSID per band, obviously some devices are not 5GHz capable, they'll stay on 2.4GHz whatever you do.

Thanks. What I mean is: if you set up two SSIDs, could you set up the iPad for both (same as you could set it up for Costa, Caffe Nero and Starbucks) and would it automatically choose the which band to use?

You could, but it might not be very good at deciding, some access points "steer" 5GHz capable devices to use the 5GHz SSID by delaying the response to 2.4GHz connection requests.

The device will often cling to whatever SSID it is using like grim death, even if switching to the other one would be better for it.

I prefer to separate them because otherwise, for devices I physically move around, they sometimes don't flip at the optimum point. For example, my 5GHz doesn't work reliably into the back garden, but 2.4 is acceptable. Therefore, I prefer to positively choose to connect my tablet to 2.4 rather than have it drop out when I carry it outside. Although it would most often switch over reasonably well, it can take a while, so I sometimes notice a gap.

What I would do is set it up separated and see if it helps your Zoom. Then try all the permutations and devices you use.

Thanks. That's exactly what happened here. We had a laptop that worked badly in one part of the building and it turned out it was trying to use 5GHz when there were too many obstructions. This is why I turned off the 5GHz. I am wondering if the iPad (usually nearer the router) would benefit from 5GHz.

This is just what I'll do. Do I need to change the name of the existing SSID or can I just leave it as it is and rename the new one as XXX - 5GHZ? If I rename the first as XXX-2.4GZZ would all the devices need to be logged in again or does the name make no difference?

Most modern dual band devices support band steering, and so will kick compatible devices up onto the 5GHz band when it makes sense to do so. So I normally configure both with the same SSID, and let the system sort it out.

Some access points support AP assisted roaming, that allows you to specify a minimum acceptable data rate (or sometimes signal strength). That can be handy for kicking off the clients that hang on to the connection they have for grim death even when there are much better options available.

As I mentioned above, there was a problem with one laptop. I know you can select the preferred band on the laptop, but for belt and braces can I also block the laptop from 5GHz at the router?

Most access points will let you do rudimentary "access control"[1] using a list of mac addresses - hopefully allowing a block list instead of a permit list.

That depends on the router. Probably not if you're just separating the SSIDs for 2.4 and 5, but some routers have a second or guest wifi option and you may be able to implement control that way by only allowing the laptop onto the 'guest' wifi or blocking it from the 'primary' wifi.

Owain

In article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> scribeth thus

Ofcom did a report on 2.4 and 5 G in a typical house and 2.4 G worked a bit better.

However the real problem is that there are too few channels to use at

I've seen both approaches. But for ease and simplicity, I'd leave the existing and just add "5" in some form to create a new SSID. Can't see any point in changing an existing working SSID - and, as you say, logging in again on everything.

In my place, we use two desktops, two phones, three or more tablets and several laptops. My phone is excellent at swapping with very little observable impact (including going to 3G/4G, if needed), but the others tend to be less good and, occasionally, connect to another SSID than the one I want.

My Iphone automagically switch to 5gig when I put a new router in with both. Older Amazon echos use the lower band, but the later ones use both and mine has automagically used the higher one on its own.

Brian

It probably would, but why make it complicated more than it needs to be? Brian

Thanks. This is the answer. I'm going to carry out some live testing. The whole thing is a bit of a mystery at the moment. My streaming TV (Netflix HD) works fine as it is. The problems with Zoom are intermittent. Maybe Zoom is overloaded at times but people seem to be blaming me and saying they can hear others okay. I thought I would try out the Wi-Fi link as a start. .My download speed is way in excess of what Zoom requires.

What is your upload link like?

Have you tried measuring your jitter and latency?