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Definitive Guide to Splitting 2.4 & 5ghz bands plus questions

MartJ
Fibre optic

In order to resolve issues with current setup for Smart Plugs and other devices that only work on 2.4ghz I am looking to split the bands on my Hub4 into 2 SSID's. I have looked through the settings in the hub and can see where to rename them, but what other boxes need to be ticked so to speak is there a definitive guide on what needs changing.

In respect of name changes is it better to rename one or both of the bands?

I have VM Wifi Extenders, which show up at Ethernet Connected, what band will they use following any split?

I also wanted to rename some of the devices that come up unknown, under the Connected Devices Tab an information pop up says

"To change the names of your devices return to the Home screen and make the changes by clicking the device name in the Modem Status Overview"

First there is no Modem Status Overview, there is a Hub4 Status Overview, but that doesn't allow device name changes.

Thanks

Martin
6 REPLIES 6

jbrennand
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
Here is what I usually post. See if it helps
___________________________________

Go into the Hub’s settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless signal >smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  May be different pathways and wording on the 3 Hub types
Then, go to advanced>wireless signal>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just type over to change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Billybob2 & Billybob5) Try to avoid spaces and periods in the SSID names as they can cause issues with certain devices. Use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.
All things being equal, 5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less congestion/interference (and is better for iDevice speeds than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and will be needed when the 5 GHz drops out of range and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

--------------------
John
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I do not work for VM. My services: HD TV on VIP (+ Sky Sports & Movies & BT sport), x3 V6 boxes (1 wired, 2 on WiFi) Hub5 in modem mode with Apple Airport Extreme Router +2 Airport Express's & TP-Link Archer C64 WAP. On Volt 350Mbps, Talk Anytime Phone, x2 Mobile SIM only iPhones.

I have split the bans into 2, just renamed the 2.4ghz one, less changes to make. Smart Plugs now connected to 2.4ghz and now work properly and connect to Alexa Skill. Fire stick connected to 5ghz, for some reason it would use the5ghz band before splitting, everything works well these No slow internet connection message yet, will wait to see what this evening brings.

Thanks John for your help and advice on this.

Martin

Hi @MartJ

 

Thank you for your post and welcome back to our community.

 

I am happy to hear the advise from @jbrennand has helped 🙂

 

Please pop back to us if you have any further questions or concerns. 

 

 

Vikki - Forum Team


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Mike_67
On our wavelength
Thanks for the explanation on splitting the bands. I could see how to disable the smart wifi but expected the SSID names to appear as options on the same page and didn't even look in security for them.

Hey Mike_67, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry you are struggling to change the bands.

Has the advice given helped at all, or do you need some assistance still? Thanks 

Matt - Forum Team


New around here?

Hi,

I’ve managed to split the bands as per the advice on the forum. I’ve tested both bands and my phone really doesn’t work properly with the 5GHz Wi-Fi band. Not sure why as the model (Samsung Galaxy A53 5G) is only a year old or less. Because of that I’ve disabled auto reconnect on my phone to the 5GHz Wi-Fi band and it now just uses the 2.4GHz band. It’s a much slower connection but it’s fairly reliable.

Everything else seems to work ok so far which is good. Just a pity my phone can’t use the quicker connection.