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Forum Discussion
Separate WiFi 2.4 and 5ghz bands
I am no longer able to separate my WiFi bands on the most recent Orbi firmware versions. It worked for over a year fine, but after updating firmware they are no longer separate. I have tried the Te...
My point is the Orbi works great for me as long as I can determine the band my devices connect to. Keep in mind all of the potential camera and baby monitor traffic as well as the microwave oven interference that all happens on the 2.4ghz band.
Just because the 2.4ghz signal is stronger doesn’t mean it’s faster!
Just because the 2.4ghz signal is stronger doesn’t mean it’s faster!
Have you disabled the 2.4Ghz SSID broadcast temporarily under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings. This would be a simple way to get what you need directed to 5Ghz.
Speeds are based on the client connection rate as well. 2.4ghz on Orbi does support up to 866Mbps so the pipe is there for fast speeds. Not all 2.4Ghz clients support those speeds.
sclawrenc wrote:
My point is the Orbi works great for me as long as I can determine the band my devices connect to. Keep in mind all of the potential camera and baby monitor traffic as well as the microwave oven interference that all happens on the 2.4ghz band.
Just because the 2.4ghz signal is stronger doesn’t mean it’s faster!
- I understand what your are saying.
My point to all of this is when I am able to choose what bad my devices connect to, everything works fantastic. As soon as I was forced to only have one ssid for both bands, I noticed slow downs on some of my devices. I can no longer separate my ssid per band after a recent firmware update took away that ability. If I change via telnet now, it goes back to a single ssid on Orbi reboot. Do you have MIMO enable when using a single SSID name? Some older devices may not support MIMO thus not behave well when it's enabled on the RBR. Might disable this and see if this helps any.
Did you do a "commit" in telnet to save the changes? I think this is needed to retain changes in telnet.
- The devices in question are newer and fully support ac.
I did do the commit but reverts back after reboot.
Thanks. Supports AC is fine however they may not support MIMO which is a different feature that not all AC supporting devices may support. Just trying to confirm this. Somethign to ask the Mfr of these devices?
What are these devices that your having issues with? Phones, Pads?- To be honest, the issues are not to prevalent. It only happens sometime but that is more than I used to split the ssid per band. Mainly it’s streaming 4K or other higher bandwidth that I notice the issue if it presents.
I really appreciate your time and effort, but I really just want the ability to split the bands. If not, I will have to look at other alternatives or try some other tweaking to the Orbi such as what you’ve mentioned. The Roku streaming stick + refuses to stay on the 5 ghz band. It is in 2.4 all the time even with router or satellite in the next room. If I had to point to one device frustrating me, it would be the Roku. Even if near a wifi singal, if the device is changing to 2.4Ghz, then this maybe a device issue rather then Orbi. Seems like the Roku is not handling the SSID frequencies well for some reason and just defaults to 2.4Ghz. This would be someting to approch Roku about and ask them if they have any information or experiences with there products running on Orib systems with single SSID names. Ask them why there product is changing to 2.4Ghz from 5Ghz while near a wifi single.
I would try some of the suggestions and see if it helps. If this only seems to be one of a few devcies that has issues, I would approach the Mfrs about this. They should be made aware of this. You maybe just hidding a problem that maybe a device issue rather then a Orbi one.
- Thanks.
I will contact Roku although I still wish I could separate the ssid per band. :) So I have just updated my Orbi Router (RBR50) and Satellite (RBS50) to the latest firmware (on October 6, 2019) which is v2.3.5.30
(Note: I had to manually update the Satellite firmware because it would not auto update.)
I changed the SSID for 2G and 5G without any issues and the changes did stick after reboot and it works fine.
One thing to make sure is that you are telnetting into the Router and not the Satellite. The settings in the Router will propogte to the Satellite, so using telnet to change settings in the Satellite (I know because I tried it) will cause it either (1) not work properly, or (2) get reset to the settings that are in the Router.
Reminder for telnet settings changes to stick, you would do the following:
telnet 192.168.1.1
config set wl_ssid='New_SSID_2G'
config set wla_ssid='New_SSID_5G'
config commit
reboot
I am also running the v2.3.5.30 firmware on the RBR40 Orbi setup and have tried to separate the 2.4 and 5 bands multiple times with no success. When I telnet in and check the SSID names, they are different, even after a reboot. But it is only broadcasting the 2.4 SSID and devices on my network are connecting to that SSID at the 5ghz speed. It doesn't make any sense. Any ideas?
notepro wrote:I am also running the v2.3.5.30 firmware on the RBR40 Orbi setup and have tried to separate the 2.4 and 5 bands multiple times with no success. When I telnet in and check the SSID names, they are different, even after a reboot. But it is only broadcasting the 2.4 SSID and devices on my network are connecting to that SSID at the 5ghz speed. It doesn't make any sense. Any ideas?
Yeah - You're not alone seeing this problem with these later firmware iterations. It seems that NG has already begun to lockdown custom configs. I also have a need for separate WiFi/SSIDs and my solution is Guest Network, which still works with the latest FW v2.5.1.8 on RBK53. If you must have separate WiFi/SSIDs, you can look into these options and see which one will work for you.
- Revert to an older firmware version prior to lockdown
- Take advantage and enable separate WiFi/SSIDs on Guest Network
Check out this post on how to separate WiFi for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands on Guest Network.
Good Luck!
So basically the workaround is to separate the 2.4 and 5 bands on the Satelittes instead of the main Orbi router? Then connect the device that I want on the 5ghz band to the new SSID given off from the Satelittes I just changed?
notepro wrote:So basically the workaround is to separate the 2.4 and 5 bands on the Satelittes instead of the main Orbi router? Then connect the device that I want on the 5ghz band to the new SSID given off from the Satelittes I just changed?
Exactly. :smileyhappy:
Think of Guest Network as the new Main Network with these benefits:
- The ability to separate WiFi bands
- Force devices to connect to closet Router or Satellite
- Isolating IoT traffics
- Etc.,
I followed your post about separating the 2.4 and 5G bands on the satellites. The post mentions just setting the wlg1_ssid to show its 2.4G, it doesn't mention anything about setting the 5G band. Did I miss something? Also is the wlg1_ssid change it for both Satellities? If not, what is the name of the second satellite? Thanks.
notepro wrote:I followed your post about separating the 2.4 and 5G bands on the satellites. The post mentions just setting the wlg1_ssid to show its 2.4G, it doesn't mention anything about setting the 5G band. Did I miss something? Also is the wlg1_ssid change it for both Satellities? If not, what is the name of the second satellite? Thanks.
To have different 5GHz SSID instead of 2.4GHz SSID, just change wla1_ssid on the target Orbi/Satellite instead of wlg1_ssid. For example, replace wlg1_ssid with wla1_ssid as seen in the example. Take a look at the before and after pictures to confirm.
It might be clearer to me once I understand the naming system. So does wlg1_ssid refer to Satellite 1 on the Guest Network? Does wla1_ssid refer Satellite 1 on the Main wifi network? If so, what is the designation for Satellite 2 on both the Guest and Main networks? Sorry for my confusion.
notepro wrote:It might be clearer to me once I understand the naming system. So does wlg1_ssid refer to Satellite 1 on the Guest Network? Does wla1_ssid refer Satellite 1 on the Main wifi network? If so, what is the designation for Satellite 2 on both the Guest and Main networks? Sorry for my confusion.
These two variables are used by Guest network only. wla1_ssid is just a variable to store Guest SSID name for 5GHz, similarly wlg1_ssid stores Guest SSID name for 2.4GHz. Each of these 2 variables will tell Orbi/Satellite what Guest SSID to broadcast. By default, both stores the same Guest SSID for both bands. The Main WiFi network uses a different set of variables to store its SSID i.e., wla_ssid and wl_ssid.
Think of it as two different WiFi networks. Whatever changes we make to Guest SSID (wla1_ssid/wlg1_ssid) won't affect the Main nerwork SSID (wla_ssid/wl_ssid) at all.
For examples:
- To force Satellite-1 broadcasting unique 5GHz Guest SSID name, telnet into Satellite-1, and set its wla1_ssid="Satellite-1-5GHz"
- To force Satellite-2 broadcasting a different Guest SSID from Satellite-1, telnet into Satellite-2, and set its wla1_ssid="Satellite-2-5GHz"
- To force Orbi broadcasting a different Guest SSID, telnet into Orbi, and set its wla1_ssid="Orbi-5GHz"
Hope this helps!
Wow, thank you for that. So much clearer and I appreciate your help.
