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I'm looking to buy this amazing router as it gets available in Spain, so I have read every review available, and I found one thing that could be very frustrating.
There's no option to set the same SSID on 2,4Ghz and 5Ghz band... So you will have to set separate SSID. I think this is a huge disadvantage, becouse, maybe the router has no band steering implemented? Becouse the Smart Connect feature, just works between 5Ghz Bands, but what about device that support 2,4Ghz and 5Ghz? It should provide band steering between bands using the same SSID, as this will reduce congestion on 2,4Ghz and force all 5Ghz enable clients to use this band.
I had also both setups in the past, one with different SSID and one with the same, and the same SSID is much way better, also as the people that does not have IT knowledge, they choose a band aleatory, and if they choose the 2,4Ghz band with a 5Ghz capable devide, they're congesting the band with no reason. With just one SSID, there's no option for wrong decission.
Is there a reason for that? All the other manufacturer routers with the same Broadcom chip, has band steering, so I think there should be no incompatibility issues.
Is there any option to set the same SSID?
Maybe Smart connect could work with all the three bands, instead of just the 5Ghz bands.
FWIW, Netgear is adding Smart Connect to the R7000. See here. That suggests that the limitation in R8500 is only in firmware and there is hope that they will add support for all three bands in the future.
I have a R7000, so I will probably try out Smart Connect. But I hope it is truly smart. I want to drop down from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz only if the throughput improves. My smartphone has a tendency to prefer the band with the higher signal strength, which will almost always be the slower 2.4 GHz band, even when the 5 GHz band is perfectly usable. I ended up locking my smartphone to 5 GHz because I got tired of manually switching. There are a few dead spots in my house, but the sacrifice was worth it.
I think so also, it should be firmware problem, but as the MU-MIMO is anounced for 2016 on this router and is not a deal breaker, rebuild all the Wi-Fi wich a big amount of devices to get different SSIDs for 2,4Ghz and 5Ghz is a nightmare.
So maybe there's a workaround to set the same SSID but with no Band Steering for the moment. This should be OK.
