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RAX80 Smart Connect connecting devices incorrectly
I set up my RAX80 yesterday (V1.0.1.64_1.0.27 firmware) and enabled Smart Connect. All of my devices are connecting, but some (media streamers and laptops) that support and require 5GHz connections are connecting as 2.4GHz.
Is there a way to force certain devices onto the 5GHz band (and vice versa)?
21 Replies
Not using smart connect. To force it, seperate out the ssid's. Many prefer this option so they can ensure their high bandwidth devices are using the 5ghz. i know they're refining smart connect so it might be better in the next firmware version.
plemans wrote:Not using smart connect. To force it, seperate out the ssid's. Many prefer this option so they can ensure their high bandwidth devices are using the 5ghz. i know they're refining smart connect so it might be better in the next firmware version.
It's odd. This is the first router I've used with similar functionality that's had this problem. My previous Asus and TP-Link routers handled this perfectly -- devices that could make use of 5GHz connected to 5GHz and otherwise they connected to 2.4GHz.
Hopefully this is something Netgear will fix, and soon. It's a rather basic capability with modern routers and should be bulletproof.
The device might switch from 2.4ghz to 5ghz based upon usage. Not sure the exact mechanism within the RAX devices but my orbi devices would switch from 2.4ghz to 5ghz based upon bandwidth needs. Provided the device was close enough to the router/satellite.
I know they adjust the formula that decides which radio they connect to based upon bandwidth, rssi, and device load. not sure exactly how.
I'm hoping a future software arrives soon...right now my experience with "Smart Connect" makes it an oxymoron.
Smart connect works fine on my EX8000 Netgear extender (and on my non-branded IAP modem/router).
It is clearly broken on the RAX80 along with all Wifi functionality in general.
I have no confidence it will ever be corrected on this router as the same issues have been around for many many months without any fix..
Yup, after much testing I've come to the conclusion that Smart Connect is a hot mess on this one. I'm sure part of the problem is that its a "black box" in terms of whatever voodoo Netgear is using to handle the allocation.
Signal dropouts (likely as a result of band steering), an inability for my HomePod to find my iPhone, even when they're clearly on the same network, and peformance that's sometimes inscrutable are just a few of the problems that disappear once you turn off Smart Connect.
Band steering like this is a function of the router, however, not the client. Yes, the client decides which band to connect to initially, but then a router that supports features like Smart Connect can direct that client to switch to a different band. The RAX80 doesn't handle this well at all. On my network, pretty much everything sits on 2.4GHz, even though there are about two dozen devices on that band, and the occasional times that something appears on the 5GHz band, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why.
By comparison, while Asus' GT-AX11000 doesn't handle it flawlessly either (I agree with the point that somebody else made about the AX chipsets, as it works brilliantly well on Asus GT-AC5300), at least Asus offers you the ability to customize the rules that steer traffic to each band, so you can tailor it to your preferences and get a better idea about why it may not be working the way you expect.
close Smart Connect,
Set the same SSID (2.4G & 5G), perfect.So when you say "perfect," does that include connecting to different 5GHz channels? So there's some kind of distribution? Seems like that's certainly worth a try, thanks!
coppockm wrote:So when you say "perfect," does that include connecting to different 5GHz channels? So there's some kind of distribution? Seems like that's certainly worth a try, thanks!
No, it wouldn't be. Without Smart Connect, there's really no way that devices could be steered to the appropriate channels.
Most client devices should still try to connect to the 5GHz channel if it's a stronger signal, but unfortunately that's up to however their Wi-Fi chipsets are implemented, and many of the ones I've worked with tend to connect to the stronger signal, not necessairly the faster one. In many cases a weak 5GHz signal still offers better performance than a solid 2.4GHz one, especially when there's a lot of congestion in the lower frequency range (which there usually is).
In extreme cases, this can be frustrating, as I've had laptops lock on to a "strong" 2.4GHz signal that's only providing 5Mbps of throughput, and yet if I connect to the 5GHz deliberately (e.g. by using separate SSIDs) I can easily get 100Mbps+.
That said, however, it wouldn't surprise me if client devices themselves still do a better job of figuring it out than the badly broken Smart Connect does.
