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Forum Discussion
Forcing a device to 2.4 ghz
I am not seeing this an option in the settings, so may not be possible - that is, have a number of devices that i am sure can handle 2.4 & 5 ghz, so can i assign 2.4 to a specific device or am I stuc...
sethm1 wrote:I am not seeing this an option in the settings, so may not be possible - that is, have a number of devices that i am sure can handle 2.4 & 5 ghz, so can i assign 2.4 to a specific device or am I stuck with the router automatically choosing 5 ghz?
When devices connect to a WiFi access point, there is a dialog between the device and access point describing what capabilities each has. The device then makes a connection request for the type of service it wants to establish.
Other products have an option to create separate network names (SSIDs) for the 2.4G and 5G WiFi bands. Orbi does not.
A major point of mesh systems is that the network and the devices determine for themselves which connections are best and leave the user out of it. This avoids the complexity of previous WiFi plus bunch of random "extenders" where the user has to be alert to how each device is connected and manually change the connection if needed. If every WiFi device is fixed in place and never moves, the older system works fine. Once smartphone, tablets, laptops enter the mix, a mesh becomes much more "User Friendly."
Anyway, the answer is (a) no, and (b) it is the device (not the router) that determines the connection.
Thanks crimpon for the explanation. I came from the R7000 nighthawk and there yes had 2 ssid's. Makes sense now.
If it has the feature, You can disable the 5G network on the device and force it to connect 2.4G only. I have a Windows 10 laptop that has issues with 5G. I went into device manager and disabled 5G by changing a few settings.
How can I determine if my router (RBR50) is broadcasting btoh 2.4G and 5G simultanously? My smartphone and laptop can only locate the 2.4G network. I added both networks to both devices and only the 2.4G net can be located. I am a novice network user. Thank you for your prompt reply.
rayr6900 wrote:How can I determine if my router (RBR50) is broadcasting btoh 2.4G and 5G simultanously? My smartphone and laptop can only locate the 2.4G network. I added both networks to both devices and only the 2.4G net can be located. I am a novice network user. Thank you for your prompt reply.
Login either using the app or orbilogin.com. Check your settings. Grab a known supported 5Ghz device. You should see the one SSID for your Orbi. Connect and if the device supports 5Ghz it will connect 5Ghz.
The other possible reason may be you need to forget the network on your smartphone and laptop, then re-login to the WiFi again and see if that corrects the connection.
rayr6900 wrote:How can I determine if my router (RBR50) is broadcasting btoh 2.4G and 5G simultanously? My smartphone and laptop can only locate the 2.4G network. I added both networks to both devices and only the 2.4G net can be located. I am a novice network user. Thank you for your prompt reply.
I thought we had established that Orbi broadcasts only one SSID. I am confused by "added both networks".
There are tools that will report exactly which channels are being broadcast by the Orbi.
For Android, I use one of the "WiFi Analyzer" apps. It will show by MAC address every radio that is broadcasting every SSID that the app can pick up. In the case of the Orbi, there will be one radio at 2.4G and one radio at 5G for the Orbi router and for every satellite. So, for one router and one satellite, there will be a total of four radios broadcasting the Orbi SSID.
For Windows, my favorite is WifiInfoView (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html )
