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Forum Discussion
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 a...
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.