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Forum Discussion

milomilomilo's avatar
milomilomilo
Follower
Dec 28, 2020

orbi ax4200

Hi is there a way to force my my iMac on my orbi satelite to use the 5GHZ band?

It keeps going to 2.4 even though it's literally right next to it.

The whole reason I bought the system was to speed up my connection for heavy data transfer while working so it's annoying it keeps going to 2.4.

Thanks!

3 Replies

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru
    Dec 28, 2020

    there's not. 

    If its literally right next to it, why not just connect an ethernet cable. much faster connection and takes a burden off the wifi for other devices to have bandwidth. 

  • FURRYe38's avatar
    FURRYe38
    Guru
    Dec 28, 2020

    Distance should be a factor and it's up to devices to pick and choose which frequency they connect too. 

     

    Get some distance in between the devices and RBR. 

    Then try turning down the 2.4Ghz radio output power from 100% to 50% and see if this changes anything. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

    • ekhalil's avatar
      ekhalil
      Master
      Dec 28, 2020

      You can also force iMac (MacOS) to use a specific channel (Orbi's 5GHz channel), as follows:

      1. In your iMac's terminal, type:

        sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport -s
        This command will only work under administrator account so make sure that you are logged in as an Administrator.

      2. Turn Wifi off on your computer

      3. In your iMac's terminal, type:

        sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport --channel=**num**

        where **num** is the 5 GHz channel number to set.

      4. Turn Wifi On and connect to the network again

      5. You can check your active connection by Alt+Clicking on the WiFi icon on the OSX menu bar, re-scanning with Wireless Diagnostics or using the terminal (step 1 above).

      Good luck!