How to set a separate SSID for the 5 GHz network on your Orbi

[Pfredd]

I am still having problems with my CBR40.

The "config" command is not recognised:

admin@CBR40:# config
/bin/ash: config: not found
admin@CBR40:#

Any suggestions?

[st_shaw]

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@Re-natus wrote:

So my question is this. Does anyone know a way to edit the Orbi settings from a Mac, without installing these programmes? 

Thanks, Alan

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Apple removed telnet.  

Use "nc 192.168.1.1 23" instead

[Kmaan]

Hey Khad, Awesome article. I am just wondering how to set different passwords for 2.4 and 5 GHz networks using telnet. If you know the commands, please share.

[jwalt1953]

How do you separate the guest ssid also ?

[Walhalla]

@Kmaan

to set up different passwords for the 2.4g and 5g networks the commands should be the following:

for 2.4g:

config set wl_wpa2_psk="PASSWORD"

for 5g:

config set wla_wpa2_psk="PASSWORD"

or

config set wla_2nd_wpa2_psk="PASSWORD"

just check which variable is set:

config get wla_wpa2_psk
config get wla_2nd_wpa2_psk

to apply the changes you need to commit the changes and reboot as already known:

config commit
reboot

@jwalt1953

to set up different SSIDs for the 2.4g and 5g guest networks the commands should be the following:

for 2.4g:

config set wlg1_ssid="SSID"

for 5g:

config set wla1_ssid="SSID"

or

config set wla1_2nd_ssid="SSID"

just check which variable is set:

config get wla1_ssid
config get wla1_2nd_ssid

to apply the changes you need to commit the changes and reboot as already known:

config commit
reboot

[jwalt1953]

Perfect ............... worked great.  I had enough DOS command line exposure that it wasn't intimidating but I would imagine may folks may find it a little scary.  Thank you !

[Donna741]

Picked up the RBK53 at Costco a couple of weeks ago and finally set it up yesterday.  I already knew we needed separate SSID for our particular home setup and I was so disappointed that the option was not available in the UI 

After some searching I stumbled upon this thread and it worked like a charm.  Thank you very much for taking the time to share the steps to rename the SSID, if it weren't for that we would have boxed it up and taken it back.

[Only1was]

Hi, I just wanted to know would I be able to revert the changes back to factory settings if I did separate the ssid?

Thanks in advance

[khad]

@Only1was,

You can easily revert things. Just set the SSID in the GUI, and it will apply to both frequnecies. 

[Only1was]

Thanks

[virtualj]

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@aaz wrote:

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@thenighthawk wrote:
@..

The next challenge now is how do I configure my 5GHz SSID to use "wifi-AC" only and for 2.4GHz SSID to use "wifi-n" only?   ..

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Do you think by doing this that you will increase the speed of your devices, or what is the purpose? Why? 

I think doing something like this just sets you up down the line for a whacky time when you start having issues.

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I'm interested too in disabling 802.11a/b/g.

I see that sometimes my card connects at 144mbit 5Ghz that is 802.11a maximum rate. I'm near the router and it doesn't come back to ac 866 mbit unless I manually disconnect and reconnect wi-fi.

Looking at the "config show" I think that we can change the operational mode of wifi using this two fields:

wla_operation_mode=4 (for 5GHz)
wlg_operation_mode=9 (for 2.4GHz)

someone tryed to change them?

[SimonGT007]

Hi khad - thanks for this workaround.  It's transformed by Orbi into something usable now.   My iphone X and most of our more modern devices kept on choosing 2.4GHZ channel even when they were only a 20 feet from the Orbi router and there was no way for force them onto 5GHZ.    Crazy thing is that signal strength on 5GHZ around the house is nearly as good as 2.4GHZ so no idea why the devices get going for the slower option.

Agree Netgear should make this a simple change in interface as it's such a common request and in my experience has improved performance, not reduced it (which I guess would be the only argument Netgear have for hidiing the capabilty behind complex telnet commands).

All we need Netgear to do now is get them to allow you to use more than 4 of the 5GHZ channels as in where I live they are already highly congested (wifi explorer picks up over 20 networks in my street of which nearly half have a signal strength over 50%).   I've put in an idea to add this function so you can get into more bands.  If you come across this thread then please give this idea Kudos at Please provide more 5GHZ wifi channel options

Thanks

[Schmak01]

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@st_shaw wrote:

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@Schmak01 wrote:

Thanks for this thread, I'm going to give it a whirl tomorrow.  I posted in another that the switching from 2.4 to 5 is driving me nuts.  I have a Macbook Air sitting right next to my Surface Book 2  and the Mac will connect to the 5, the SB2 to the 2.4...  Add to the fact the 2.4 won't go above 20 Mbps and it's a giant pain.  I was hoping this would give me an easier setup and not have to go back to 2 SSID's but I guess that isn't the case. 

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Client devices make the final decision regarding which band to connect to.  You might check to see if you can select 5 GHz from within Windows.  This might not be possible on your hardware though. See this:

https://anderson.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014906108-Change-Preferred-WiFi-Band-for-Windows-C...

OR

https://superuser.com/questions/872956/setting-5-ghz-and-2-4-ghz-networks-with-same-settings

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Sorry I haven't responded to you, but the issue I have is using my Micrsofot Wireless Display adapter, which uses 2.4 ghz, so I cannot disable 2.4 for my wNIC on the laptop.  The two separated SSID's work great though.  I am not trying to figure out why the 2.4 is so damn slow.  No matter what device I never get above 50-60 Mbps, where on the 5 I get up to 600 Mbps.  I am highly handicapped by the lack of channels to chose from due to the backend to the satellite even though I have it hardwired.  

[spas]

FYI. I just updated to firmware version 2.2.1.210 on my RBR50 and 2 RBS50s., Everything is working fine. However, I discovered

that the Separate SSIDs no longer show up in ADVANCED GUI TAB as they did in previous firmware verisons.

I had separated the 2.4GHZ and 5GGHZ Wireless Networks a long time ago and did verify (via Telent | config) they still exits and do show up when scanning local wireless networks. 

Anyone else expereincing the this???

[khad]

@spas,

Yep. Everything works fine. The GUI just isn't showing the separate SSIDs. I am literally connected to the Internet on an SSID the GUI seems to imply doesn't exist.

Hopefully they leave it at that.

[shavidg]

I was having issues after the recent upgrade with my RBS50Y continuing to reboot. After several calls to Netgear and my own process of elimination, I found that the issue the RBS50Y was having is with the seperate networks. Once I changed the config to use only one SSID it started working. Just a heads up that it seems that this fix is no longer working - if you have a RBS50Y.

[AverageCanadian]

Just logging in to say it seems like Netgear might have removed the ability to separate SSID's with newer firmwares. 

I can change the name of wla_ssid but that ssid is never broadcasted and I still see devices with my original SSID connected to teh 5GHz SSID. 

I found a post saying the command has been changed to wla_2nd_ssid but it doesn't appear to stick after a reboot so it's kind of useless. 

I've been having significant issues with my Amazon FireTV and conneciton speeds so I was hoping to try forcing it to 2.4 or 5 if one of those worked better but seeing as I can't even do that any longer I'll just be returning this set to Costco for a refund and try a different system instead. 

[Adventuneer]

Ok, this is the 2nd time now I have run into a frustrating limitation of the Orbi admin interface (other was not being able to monitor traffic/connections for my connected devices).  I just purchased a weather station that only uses 2.4 ghz network and I need to use an app on my iphone 7 to configure it. I can't connect to it via the app because my phone will always choose 5ghz and I can't force it to 2.4 ghz network (that I know of) because I can't advertize a 2.4ghz specific network from my Orbi.  How am I supposed to resolve this?  I think this is a very normal use case - there are still devices being made that only use 2.4 ghz so I would like to be able to manage this via dedicated SSID.  As of right now I can't configure my weather station. Now I am in search of an old iPhone or iPad that only does 2.4 so I can configure my weather station...  Unless anyone has other tricks to try.

[khad]

@Adventuneer,

Did you try following the step-by-step instructions I provided in the first post of this thread? Separate SSIDs for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are precisely what the steps will give you.

[virtualj]

I had similar problem with sonoff Smart switch, but the limit is of the app that want only 2.4 GHz on the phone, but the 5 and 2.4 are the same network! You can try to go away from the orbi, your phone should go in 2.4 automatically when the 5ghz signal is too low

[schumaku]

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@Adventuneer wrote:

Ok, this is the 2nd time now I have run into a frustrating limitation of the Orbi admin interface ... 

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This is not a limitation - it's the only useful and meaningful approach. 

@Adventuneer wrote:

I just purchased a weather station that only uses 2.4 ghz network and I need to use an app on my iphone 7 to configure it. I can't connect to it via the app because my phone will always choose 5ghz and I can't force it to 2.4 ghz network (that I know of) because I can't advertize a 2.4ghz specific network from my Orbi. 

Aehm, it's a network - it should not matter on which band (even on with Orbi device, router or an satellite) the device used for the discovery of the (undefined - provided details please) weather station, or any other wireless IoT toy. For example, you can discovery any media player (say Chromecast or Apple TV) or wireless printer (many different ones) and run the initial configuration as well as using these from any network interface, any radio, any switched LAN port, ... unless this weather station is really something very crappy. There must be another problem but the inability to have a dedicated SSID on the 2.4 GHz band, or worst case even on a single Orbi device only. 

[Adventuneer]

Thanks for giving me the hint I needed, I just had to configure my guest network so that guests could see each other.

[schumaku]

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@Adventuneer wrote:

Thanks for giving me the hint I needed, I just had to configure my guest network so that guests could see each other.

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All right, and for my curiosity, does this create a meaningful configuration having the weather station (make and model would be nice to know) on the guest network (with the client isolation disabled) while I guess your usual devices (like the iPhone) are normally connecting to the standard WiFi SSID? Can the mobile devices (assuming there is a related weather station app or just a weather station based Web UI) on the normal WiFi SSID connect to the weather station then?

[Deihmos]

I just picked up the orbi yesterday and I am very dissapointed. Sometimes my 5g devices are connected at 2.4g an issue I don't have with my other router because it has a seperate ssid. I have to keep disconnecting and connecting to get it to connect at 5g. That's just ridiculous for such a costly router. 

[schumaku]

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@Deihmos wrote:

Sometimes my 5g devices are connected at 2.4g an issue I don't have with my other router because it has a seperate ssid. I have to keep disconnecting and connecting to get it to connect at 5g. That's just ridiculous for such a costly router. 

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No. It's a very clever and smart decision by your clients to connect to the best AP (on router or satellite) and using the best band for the current connection situation, and change accordingly when moved and roamed around - a process that works pretty much seamless thanks to 802.11k. There is no reason to connect and stick on a poor 5 GHz connection if 2.4 GHz does provide better signal, better reach, more coverage, ...  There is no reason, absolutley none to hard link a device to a specific radio, AP, or band.