How to connect to smart switch operating only at 2.4HGz?

What is this switch?

 

What happens when you try?

 

Most IoT things work on 2.4 GHz. They will not see, and cannot connect to, 5 GHz.

 

Unfortunately, many makers of Iot devices require people to use an app on a mobile device to set up the thing. This often connects to the 5 GHz wifi. Poorly designed apps then fall over because they cannot handle a device connected to the 2.4 GHz wifi.

 

A widely used strategy that works for many people is to forget about separate SSIDs and to follow this strategy:

1. Go into Orbi's wifi set up
2. Disable broadcast of the 5 GHz SSID
3. Tell the mobile device to forget the connection to that SSID
4. Reboot the mobile device
5. Connect to the SSID
6. Set up the IoT device
7. Go back and reverse step 2

You may actually be able to miss out steps 3 and 4, depending on your phone and the app.

 

This approach has worked for many people. The advantage is that it does not break one of the whole points of the Orbi's Mesh system, a single SSID that devices can connect to seamlessly.