Wifi Router and SSID's - Selective between B/G/N and AC on same SSID?

[deathman20]

So right now for the network I have the B/G/N(2.4Ghz) using a separate SSID and my N/AC(5Ghz) running on another SSID. Pretty straight forward been doing this for a while since 5Ghz came out.

So ran across this function on my Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) the other week when I was re-working my setups, reflashing / reseting the router.
"Enable Smart Connect - Let the router intelligently select the best WiFi band 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz for your WiFi connections. Smart Connect requires the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks to use the same WiFi network name (SSID), security options and password."


Now that being said before I attempt to screw up my network playing around with it and freaking out the wife... if I combined them into 1 SSID it should select what is appropriate for the device and not slow down the network am I understanding this correctly?

 

[EarthDog]

I do not believe choosing the improper one will slow down the network (as a whole I assume you are saying because of the wording). IIRC, 5 GHz is faster, but the range is shorter while 2.4 GHz is slower with better range????

 

[deathman20]

I do not believe choosing the improper one will slow down the network (as a whole I assume you are saying because of the wording). IIRC, 5 GHz is faster, but the range is shorter while 2.4 GHz is slower with better range????

Well I just remember in the past back when only 2.4Ghz was here, that if I had a B, G or N device on the same network it would throttle the speed overall on the network to the lowest device type. So if I had a G and N device it would default to G speeds. If I had a B and N device it would default to B speeds. Now I don't think I have anything slower than an N device in the house now typically so I don't think it will be an issue but just want to check. Maybe I'm overthinking this...

And yes 5Ghz is faster than 2.4Ghz.


Guess I should maybe just ask this, does anyone use 1 SSID for both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands in your places? Like mine i have House (2.4Ghz) and House2 (5.0Ghz)

 

[ATMINSIDE]

if I combined them into 1 SSID it should select what is appropriate for the device and not slow down the network am I understanding this correctly?

This is correct and is what I do with my Ubiquiti AP, works fantastic.

 

[deathman20]

This is correct and is what I do with my Ubiquiti AP, works fantastic.

Perfect thanks.

 

[chop_wood]

so ifis the drawback not being able to choose range vs speed if the router makes a bad decision? can you tell which band its on without running a speed test? Wondering if I should try it on my r7000.. i usually just stay on he 5 band while my roomate in the farther room use 2.4

 

[ATMINSIDE]

so ifis the drawback not being able to choose range vs speed if the router makes a bad decision? can you tell which band its on without running a speed test? Wondering if I should try it on my r7000.. i usually just stay on he 5 band while my roomate in the farther room use 2.4

Yes, the only drawback is that the router might not auto-change you to the 2.4GHz band if your 5GHz signal starts to get iffy.
Give it a shot, see how it goes. It's not hard to undo.

 

[petteyg359]

Yes, the only drawback is that the router might not auto-change you to the 2.4GHz band if your 5GHz signal starts to get iffy.
Give it a shot, see how it goes. It's not hard to undo.

In the vast majority of cases, the router has absolutely nothing to do with it. There are 802.11 protocols that allow the client to talk to an AP to assist without losing connection while switching, but the client is always in control. The client will switch to another AP if and when it decides to. The SSID is actually rather irrelevant, being just a name. If you want to use a dozen different SSIDs for a dozen routers in a mesh or the same SSID on every one, it makes no difference. Unless Netgear is running some proprietary protocol on top, and both the router and client are Netgear hardware supporting said protocol, that checkbox is a placebo.

 

[BigZ1981]

In the vast majority of cases, the router has absolutely nothing to do with it. There are 802.11 protocols that allow the client to talk to an AP to assist without losing connection while switching, but the client is always in control. The client will switch to another AP if and when it decides to. The SSID is actually rather irrelevant, being just a name. If you want to use a dozen different SSIDs for a dozen routers in a mesh or the same SSID on every one, it makes no difference. Unless Netgear is running some proprietary protocol on top, and both the router and client are Netgear hardware supporting said protocol, that checkbox is a placebo.

Not necessarily. I have seen issues arise from using the same SSID for both the 2.4GHz band & the 5GHz band, mostly being the inability to distinguish between the two, like which one should I connect to because both show up on the list. Now you're also going into Mesh setups for multiple APs, which is a whole other monster I am not very familiar with.

For the SmartConnect option, it should be fine. Honestly, the biggest issue I've seen for wifi is being on the least used channel on each bandwidth for minimum interference. However, I would concerned about the range. Would SmartConnect automatically switch to 2.4 if you were close the edge of 5, but not far enough to be dropped?

 

[habbajabba]

The name is nothing. The hardware and how it reacts is all that matters as it should be able to switch automatically if at all. It's not like you merged the signals.