Re: Connecting iPhone to 2.4 Ghz band ?

pskerry · ‎2017-09-20

I need to perform a one-time setup on my network between my iPhone 6 (app) and a weather station. The Weather Station only utilizes the 2.4g band.

Any Ideas? thanks, Pat

Hydro130 · ‎2017-09-20

Have you actually tried the setup yet (assuming your iPhone is on 5Ghz)?

I'm not familiar with that particular weather device, but I have several 2.4-only devices (printers, monitoring devices, etc) on my network that I can access & manage with no issues via my iPhone when it's connected to 5GHz.

martyfp · ‎2017-09-20

To get it onto 2.4, you could try to move the phone some distance from the Orbi, it should automatically drop back to 2.4GHz. (You can check this from the orbi attached devices page if you're running 2.0 firmware). When you move back towards the Orbi, the phone will normally stick to 2.4GHz unless you disconnect/reconnect to wifi.

martyfp · ‎2017-09-20

I actually needed to do the opposite trick to get My Samsung R1 speakers to connect to 5GHz instead of 2.4 (it seemed to always adopt the band that the phone was on when setting it up via the app).

pskerry · ‎2017-09-20

Yes, I have tried the setup. Both devices need to be on the 2.4g band. After the one-time setup, I will be able to manage the device no matter what network my Phone is on.

rhester72 · ‎2017-09-20

@pskerry wrote:
Yes, I have tried the setup. Both devices need to be on the 2.4g band. After the one-time setup, I will be able to manage the device no matter what network my Phone is on.

I'm still quite confused by this.

If a client doesn't have a 5GHz radio, it isn't going to know whether the AP does or not.

Rodney

martyfp · ‎2017-09-21

I think that in some cases, when setting devices up via a phone app, the phone's BSSID (MAC address of AP the phone is connected to) is also used to determine the connection. The Orbi's 2.4g and 5g bands have different mac addresses (as do router and sat). If the phone is connected to 5GHz then the device might not be able to connect since it is unable to "see" the same BSSID as the phone.

So, if you want the device to connect to a specific band, and/or to a specific device (router or sat). Then you need the phone to be on that connection in order to pass the correct MAC address to the device. That is certainly my observation from setting up the Samsung multiroom devices.

morrisseysb · ‎2017-09-21

I believe the nest protect devices might function this way also...however I have not had to set one up since I got the orbi. Have you tried knocking you 5k signal down to 25%. There are a lot of devices out there that require both the phone and the decice to connect to 2.4 and I know exactly what you are experiencing. It would be nice to have a radio button to simply turn off the 5 band when we need to.

rhester72 · ‎2017-09-21

I have 7 Protects and all have connected (and remained connected) without issue.

Rodney

NestoMS3 · ‎2017-09-21

I used this guide to create seperate SSID's for the the 2.4 and 5ghz channels so I could pick and choose. Works flawlessly

https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/5svxmy/howto_configure_different_ssids_for_24_and_5ghz/

FYI, if you do the above, do the router first, then the satellite (yes you have to do it on both) and make sure the SSID names are identical.

morrisseysb · ‎2017-09-21

Just curious Rodney were they originally installed with the orbi or did you have a different router at the time? I was using a different router, at that time I connected my phone to the 2.4 because it was separate from the 5. When i switched to the orbi i just named my network the same as the old 2.4 name was. I amcurious to know if anyone has set up a new protect or other device that requires the phone with the app to be on the 2.4?

aaz · ‎2017-09-21

I have an Airplay speaker that would only work on the same band as the phone (2.4) on the previous ISP provided router. With the Orbi I can connect to it from devices that are on either band.