Feature Request - Smart Connect

[Ubil_M]

My Model: CAX80

Subject: I would like to submit a feature request involving Smart Connect.

Request: I love how Smart Connect works, however, it would be nice to be able to create an exception list and force a specific wifi device to connect to either 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

For example: With my smart devices (Google Mini, Nest Thermostat, etc.) and my legacy devices (Game Boy DS, etc.) having Smart Connect is amazing.  I don't have to worry about my legacy or general devices not being able to find their wifi network and be able to connect.  I can use the same SSID with all devices.  However, in one-off cases, like my primary desktop, it's not ideal to have it connect to the 2.5GHz band.  I pay for 600Mbps and I generally only get a fraction of that over 2.4GHz.  It would be nice to be able to designate my desktop as an exception to Smart Connect and force Smart Connect to only allow it to connect to the 5GHz band, while still allowing other devices to be auto-assigned.  This would be similar to how IP addresses can be reserved to specific devices by MAC address.  It should be rather easy to implement as an exception list under Smart Connect with the drop-down option to select which band to use for a specific device based on MAC address, similar to how the "Address Reservation" list is under "LAN Setup"

Considerations: While enabling the guest network and relegating one-off devices to it is a valid workaround, it eliminates the convenience of using a single SSID for all wifi devices, which is the whole point of Smart Connect.

Conclusion: While Smart Connect works fine for most devices, there are cases where being able to force devices to connect to a specific frequency band to take advantage of connection type and/or bandwidth speeds would be preferable to random selection.

[plemans]

There's a forum for ideas. 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home

Your idea might already be submitted. You can search for it and add your thoughts/opinions to it. 

[Razor512]

While that is not a feature yet, for desktop PCs, as well as laptops, this is an area where you have control. While smart connect is a really good feature, and over the years, Netgear has put in a massive amount of development into, but there are times when it is good to have direct control over a specific device.

Since band steering and roaming is still largely reliant on the willingness of the client device to move, the ultimate decision on roaming and band steering is still up to the client device, and if the client device does not want to move, then the wouter will not have may ways of forcing it.

On your PC, you can use the preferred band option to exercise some control over the band steering.

Link to image as often attached images will fail to load on the forums for some reason: https://i.imgur.com/HRglKG8.jpg 

By default the WiFi adapter from pretty much all major brands willl not have a preference in which band is preferred. In your case, you would chance the WiFi settings to prefer the 5GHz band, and thus the router will have a harder time putting you on the 2.4GHz band while the 5GHz band is in range.

Aside from that, be sure to benchmark the performance to make sure that the 5GHz band can offer a higher effective throughput given the distance. If you have a modern dual band 5GHz capable client device, then typically smart connect will try repeatedly to band steer the device to the 5GHz band, though if the signal is quite weak, then it will push it to the 2.4GHz band for more consistency and a lower error rate.

[FURRYe38]

Dual band devices pick and choose where they connect too. CAX only provides the platform to connect too.