Mixed Radio Wi-fi?

[lavster]

Hi I’m using the LEDE 7 on Sky Fibre on the Bt HH 5a. Other than giving both radios the same name is there a way of using the 2g and 5g radio under one SSID?

[lleachii]

@lavster

Other than giving both radios the same name is there a way of using the 2g and 5g radio under one SSID?

• I'm not clear on what you're asking. There is no requirement that the 2.4 and 5.4 use the same SSID to work together. And "giving them the same name" is giving them the same SSID.
• If you're referring to auto pick of 2.4 or 5.4, OpenWrt does not include any "band steering" capability by default.

See:

Dual-band SSID Best Practices?

What's the best practice for setting SSIDs on a dual-band access point? For example, on a router with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios, should I: Set both SSIDs to the same value, and have clients connect to that SSID, leaving the choice to the client OS. Set a different SSID for each band, and configure the client OS to connect to exactly one of them. Set a different SSID for each band, but configure the client OS with both of them in order of preference (if the OS allows it).

[lavster]

Sorry yes thats what i was asking, See i have both the 2g and 5g radio with the same SSID and my phone / computer etc pick up only 1 SSID if its not band steering then how do my devices know which one they are connecting too?

[lleachii]

@lavster

if its not band steering then how do my devices know which one they are connecting too?

They pick based on whatever the devloper of the WiFi software decided (i.e. Android, Apple, etc.). See:

"Bind" client to specific SSID vs "band steering"

The client decides what to connect to. "Band steering" schemes at a dual band AP are based on kicking a client (which is known to be dual band capable) off of the non-preferred band and banning its MAC there until it ends up connected to the preferred band. This functionality is not built into OpenWrt. If you are dealing with only a few clients, you could manually build your own MAC ban lists.

Hope this helps.

[lavster]

Thank you all

[mk24]

Ideally the only clients you'd have on 2.4 GHz are those that do not have a 5 GHz radio. So I suggest different SSIDs, such as adding "-2" to the 2.4 GHz. This emphasizes that 2.4 is a second choice to the 5 for someone who can see both.

[slh]

It's not as easy as that, considering range as well. 2.4 GHz has much better indoor range (wall penetration) than 5 GHz, giving you better performance one or two rooms down than 5 GHz. While in an ideal (office-) scenario you would have enough APs to avoid this being an issue, you might want to save on power consumption for multiple devices at home and opt to live with some weaker spots instead (respectively don't have a good enough wired backbone to connect one AP per 1-2 rooms anyways).

At least android devices seem to prefer 5 GHz while being in range of good reception, enabling 802.11r can also help.