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Router Log-in
Hi, All of my devices but one seem to be on the 2.4gh band. Consequently the connection to the Roku stick is not great. I am trying to log into the router to change to Smart Choice so it will autom...
PlayaGal wrote:
All of my devices but one seem to be on the 2.4gh band.
Reads to me like a problem with the 5 GHz reach in your environment... SmartConnect won't help much.
- Thanks for the reply Schumaku (Sensei).
I just don’t know. The first few days only one iPhone was on the 2.4gh band and everything else on the 5gh. Now it’s the opposite. I figured that the router was choosing the best band for each device even though the slide is off (in the Nighthawk app) for Smart Connect. As I mentioned in a prior post, when I moved the slide to “on” I lost device connection to the router and had to start over. So, I thought I would try it through routerlogin. I thought I was going to love the router and in fact it works much better than our 10 year old Netgear. But without this community there is not a lot of help for new users or infrequent users. What concerns me is that the Roku box is 8 feet from the router yet I am getting only a “good” signal strength and that was after raising the router 10 inches higher onto another table. One of the reasons we got a new Router was all the buffering and stopping on DirecTV and Roku.
I am aware that our DTV receiver is known for issues but their solution is to charge for a new one. So far better reception than before but I have no idea how I would know if the router is working properly, is faulty or other issues are going on. It’s discouraging. Sorry to whine! Thanks so much for all your help!Some of what you say makes no sense to me?
First, Smart Connect, and what is does when set. With it on, ALL SSID's share the SAME SSID and PASSWORD. You MANUALLY connect to that ONE SSID. The router 'supposedly' knows enough to put the proper devices on the proper band. Unfortunately, that is in theory. NG's implementation seems to be a 'load leveling' method. That means it will try to keep the same number of devices on each SSID. It is not a 'switching' implementation either, that it would dynamically load level. Once on a band, the device stays there.
In theory, all the devices the senses is faster will go to the 5Ghz band, and the slower to the 2.4Ghz band, until the number on the bands are uneven than it doesn't care, a device will be put on the band with the least devices.
That is what I discovered on the R8000 and so did SMALL BUILDERS NET that reviewed that router. More than likely all NG routers act like this.
Now you said Smart Connect was off. With that being true, it can get 'dicey'.
You have to MANAULLY connect to an SSID the first time. If you had previously connected to both SSID's, that is where you can run into the devices being not on a band you want. Especially mobile devices vs. a desktop PC on a desk. The reason being the device usually will connect to the STRONGEST SSID signal. This means it might depend on where it was turned on and if it moved to the outer range of the SSID signals. The 2.4Ghz signal will generally travel farther than the 5Ghz. However, towards the outer limits of the SSID's, the 5Ghz will be stronger but not as far reaching as the 2.4Ghz SSID. Once on an SSID devices will usually stay there until it sees the signal to weak to use and will switch when it finds a stronger signal.
Basically Smart Connect will not solve this.
Best way to keep the devices on the specific bands you want. On each device you have determine which SSID you want to be on. Then on that device FORGET the other SSID. That will fix it, again, assuming the 5Ghz band is working properly. Note, house construction can change the strength of the signals, and the 2.4Ghz band is more likely to have interference weaking the signal as well.
- Thank you for the reply and helpful information IrvSP. It does not surprise me that what I posted doesn’t make sense. This is way more than I expected to have to do to set up a new router and connect everything. Now posters are discussing corrupt firmware updates. Our previous NETGEAR Router seemed so much less trouble. Or maybe we just didn’t know about or understand these issues. It too was a dual band however only one SSID or choice showed when we were connecting printers or phones or other wireless devices. This Router appears as Netgear07 and 5g. Or at least it sometimes does. My husband connected to 5g with his iPhone. Not knowing 5g was also our router I selected Netgear07 which apparently is the name/choice for the 2.4gh band. Setting up the Router I didn’t realize the bands could or should have two SSID so they both use the same SSID and password. There was not a good explanation in the start up guide of what Smart Connect is. Looking at it on the NIGHTHAWK app I can see it is not turned on. When I did turn it on My devices lost their connection, I got errors saying the router could not be found. I ended up rebooting the modem and router and reconnecting devices one at a time as I originally did. This is when I noticed I could not connect my phone to 5g. Since then most times when I check to see what is connected to which band printers, DirecTV, my phone and now the Roku Stick are all using the 2.4gh band and my husbands phone is on 5g. Even when I disconnected my phone by “forgetting the network and then reconnecting to 5g when I letter checked connected devices through the Nighthawk App my phone was back on 2.4gh. Oddly enough running slows tests through the Nighthawk App the speeds reach 10-12mbps (we have DSL). If I check my iPhone while it’s connected to 2.4gh and use the ookla speed test it reaches about 1/2 that speed. Connected to 5g it reaches the same speeds as through the Nighthawk App. I am thinking about contacting our DSL provider to ask if our DSL supports 5g. I hope that makes more sense or is clearer. I apologize for any confusion, I am still learning. I appreciate everyone’s patience and kind assistance!
