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RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
I have a bit of a different reasoning for wanting to split SSIDs. It appears as though my bedroom as somehow become a spot that will only allow devices to connect on 2.4ghz (specifically, my Galaxy S10 and my iPhone 11). My router is only down the hall (~30ft or more) and the satellite in the attic is, at a diagonal, probably around the same distance or more. Somehow, my bedroom has become the Bermuda Triangle of 2.4ghz hell. I never had an issue with receiving 5ghz everywhere in my house with my previous router. Any suggestions here? I've tried turning down the 2.4ghz signal to 25%, but no such luck there. I do need to leave 2.4ghz on for my numerous IoT devices, but at least they play nicely with the singular SSID. Any suggestions, gents?
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
V3.2.16.6_1.4.4
This is not a traditional attic, it is a half floor, HVAC, etc. No interference up there that would be any different than any other floor of the house. So, ignore the term attic and consider it to be a third floor. Unfortunately, I cannot move the satellite much further or closer given the setup. Both of the phones always connect to the router, which is just down the hall. I tried changing the channels as well, but not much luck. Tomorrow, I am going to double-check and see if I had the same issue or not with my old Netgear 5ghz router.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
So do the phones connect to 5Ghz when near the RBS or RBR?
Possible the signal in this area is not good for 5Ghz thus the phones are picking 2.4Ghz. It's up to the phones to pick and choose which signal they connect to.
You can't put the RBS in the bed room or near the bed room?
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Yes, they connect just fine to the 5ghz as I even approach the bedroom door. I didn't have this problem at all with my old Netgear Nighthawk with 5ghz where it was in the same position. And no, the point of the RBS on the floor above is for coverage up there. I'm not sure why my old NG AP can cover this whereas the Orbi cannot? That's odd.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
What's even more peculiar is that I have a device in the basement that bypasses the first floor RBS and connects directly to the RBR over 5ghz with no issues. I am so confused...
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Do you have any IoT light fiture devices by chance?
Seems like something is going on with the RBS maybe. I would move the RBS from its location and place in the bed room.
Then turn down the Power output on the RBR from 100% to 25%. Then switch off the wireless radios on your devices for 5 seconds then back ON. Then test while your closer to the RBS in the bed room.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
I'm wanting to see first if there is a problem at the RBS. I'm also wondering why the devices are picking the RBR signal vs the RBS if the RBS is closer to these devices. Maybe a problem with just the RBS not working right.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Gotchya. It's all so haphazard. When I check to see what devices are connected to what, all of them between all four floors say that they are connected to the router on the second floor. Also, there are devices such as my phone and my IoT devices that are randomly left off from the list. Other times, the devices on the floor with the attic RBS, they all connect fine. I'll try and test a few devices again up there to make sure that they roam to that RBS just to ake sure that one is at least functioning.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Be carefull or roaming. Some devices don't roam well. Why I ask users to turn OFF the wifi radio on the decices for 5 seconds, move hear the RBS or RBR to test, then turn on the wifi radio. This should force the device to pick the nearest signal.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
I was speaking in reference to my phone. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose if a device such as my phone didn't switch to the new satellite? Otherwise, I'm not quite sure what the point of a mesh network is.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
The S10 had (about a year ago at least) some bad reputation for sticking to the 2.4 GHz BSSID ignoring the stronger and faster 5 GHz BSSIDs announced while working with various consumer Mesh resp. business class 802.11k/v/r WiFi systems from various vendors. Effects varied a little bit depending on optimisation features anybled on the infrastructure. One would assume Sammy would have addressed these problems sitting down on the WiFi radio firmware and driver level with Android 10 (Q) on top of it in the meantime.
Sorry, it's out of my comfort zone - lack of enough current experience on the various S10 models - to provide some binding feedback.
When near to the satellite, and quickly disable and re-enable the WiFi again, will it pick up the 5 GHz BSSID?
Use the WiFi Analyzer to see the current BSSID the mobile is connected to.
While in the bedroom, what does the WiFi Analyzer show (with "Group mode for list" ticked) for the SSID and all the BSSIDs on open the SSID "tree"? Will it see the 5GHz and the other 2.4 GHz BSSIDs?
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Need to address two things:
1. My test that I described before was a good idea, because the RBS's needed to be rebooted. Once I did that, my phone seamlessly navigated from one point to the next, instantly. We've confirmed that the RBS is not the issue.
2. Good points that you brought up, schumaku. It's just as I thought, where there is a fine dBm line that Netgear is making (or maybe the S10 is making, as well as my iPhone 11), deciding if it should be on 2.4ghz or 5ghz. The RBR, which is 7m away according to Wifi Analyzer, is at -64dBm with my bedroom door shut, on channel 48. The RBS above me is 17m away, and -72dBm. I think that basically the threshold is -60dBm, since it remained connected on the 2.4ghz band at -58dBm.
With the above information, either the RBR or the phones (both, mind you) are making the conscious decision of prefering 2.4ghz at that point, which can be an abysmal speed. Regardless of the push/pull here as to what is dictating what (I suspect both phones are preferring the 2.4ghz and both have that -60dBm threshold for continuing to accept 5ghz), my problem unfortunately reminas the same.
When I had the 5ghz DEDICATED band, it may have been -64dBm as well, but it was far faster than this (as my speed tests prove, anywhere from 50-70mbps with my ISP connectivity), as opposed to 2-7mbps (if that) when it makes the decision to hop on 2.4ghz instead.
If nothing else, possibly this is another reasoning why people may want split SSIDs, assuming that is indeed the phones making the decision to change to 2.4ghz due to whatever hardcoded values dictate the switch.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Yeah, I actually tried that last week and it would still go for the 2.4ghz. I understand that this is for testing purposes, but I do need to have the 2.4ghz at 100% as well for all of my IoT devices.
It really does feel like my room is the Bermuda Triangle of wireless signal. I wish I could either set the RBR or my phones to prefer 5ghz...
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
I would try some placement with the RBS then. Seems like you phone likes 2.4ghz as well. Something you might get with Samsung about and see if there is any help there.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Unfortunately, it's the same issue with the iPhone 11, so it doesn't sound like an issue isolated to one phone manufacturer, but rather, a standard dBm cut-off as I was saying before.
Seriously though, having the ability to split the SSID is kind of my last hope here, given that dBm cut-off seems to be the issue (given all prior provided evidence).
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
You mentioned initially that your old router provided certain 5 GHz coverage, while the Orbi AX satellites don't make it to the bedroom.
The point here (well, under FCC regulations) is that your old router most likely operated on the U-NII-1 band where the 5 GHz AP radio was operating on up to 1 W. To reach reasonable wireless backhaul coverage and throughput in a building, Netgear does reserve this band for the wireless backhaul. The higher channels used for the Orbi AX fronthaul on U-NII-2A and U-NII-2C allow 200 mW only. This is a loss of over 20dB...
The only answer to this would be deploying smaller cell sizes resp. deploy more satellites - not cripple the Mesh.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Or split the SSIDs, which is what I will be doing. Just need to set the attribute to not writable if it doesn't survive the reboot, and I should be good. I already got it to work last night, and the signal was great and the speeds were again, similar to my old Netgear.
Re: RBR750 provides only 2.4ghz to my Galaxy S10 when in the bedroom
Lol, that would be nice. But maybe I wasn't clear, the speed is 10 fold of the 2.4ghz one, and I didn't spend an extra penny. It works and is far faster that before 😉
