2.4GHZ and 5GHZ Bands BT Smart Hub 2

[licquorice]

I believe the reasoning behind it is because of the Complete wifi black discs. I suspect if splitting the bands causes problems with the discs, BT don't want non tech savvy customers inadvertently splitting the bands and causing them  unnecessary support calls. I guess for the few customers that want to split the bands, there are millions that don't. It is , after all, a mass produced locked down ISP router configured for the majority.

I am currently on the old V0.24.0.4 11017-BT firmware. I will check again for connectivity when I get updated firmware.

[AndyM99]

Just for clarity I am not specifically bothered by the lack of split bands (though that is a pretty big omission and would have resolved my issue).  
My devices will all happily connect into the relevant band but my main issue here is that they then can not communicate between them and that is a pretty basic problem for any home network.

Most people these days have some type of smart device in their home that they will generally control from a phone or tablet app ... most smart devices will only support 2.4ghz (currently) whereas most phones and tablets will happily talk 5ghz. ... so your smart device connects to 2.4ghz and your phone connects to 5ghz and then the phone can’t talk to the smart device.

[licquorice]

I totally agree, the inability for 2.4Ghz connected devices to communicate with 5Ghz connected devices is a fundamental flaw. However, there are currently a number of variables in the equation. The 2 prime ones being whether it is firmware version related or specific devices related.

I don't currently have any smart devices so can't check whether they work with the old firmware. Can you check if, say, your printer communicates ok with the new firmware?

[AndyM99]

My printer is not wireless so I can’t use that for an additional test, it is hardwired to the Hub and happily talks to devices on both wireless bands.

I have several smart devices though including Sonos speakers and smart light switches that all connect onto 2.4ghz and when my phone goes on 5ghz it is unable to communicate with them at all - even down to ping level fails.

If I move my phone to 2.4ghz by shutting off 5ghz then the devices will all happily communicate.

I also dug out an old netbook that I haven’t used in years and hooked that up to 2.4ghz and again it was unable to communicate with any device on the 5ghz band but would talk fine with devices on the same band.

[licquorice]

I'll flag this to the mods to raise with the hub team. There have always been problems with Smart devices struggling with the same SSID for both bands but this appears to be a different problem.

[imjolly]

@licquorice 

I am on the new SH 2 firmware and have no problems connecting my phone on 5ghz with my 2.4ghz smart devices in my home including printing on my 2.4ghz printer

[licquorice]

Thanks @imjolly , that would appear to rule out the firmware as the problem.

[AndyM99]

Reading through the thread I don’t believe this is just me affected, others are reporting the same thing.

None the less I will try rebooting the hub and redoing the same tests later when I finish work, hopefully that cures it but didn’t have any effect when I tried it previously, not sure what else I can do at that point.

[ShaneA]

Just looking back on my posts regarding this see below. There was a setting on the router that allowed you to lower the compatability which helped devices talk acriss the bands during setup  . It may be worth trying to see uf it helps your device talk acriss bands.

ONly seems to be an issue when the device is not configured and the app is searching for it. I also had to lower the compatability level on the wifi router . So not sure what they are broadcasting at this point before they are configured via the app with wifi credentials etc.

[Warrior1]

You are definitely not the only one. You have described the exact same situation that I'm in from your previous post:

'My printer is not wireless so I can’t use that for an additional test, it is hardwired to the Hub and happily talks to devices on both wireless bands.

I have several smart devices though including Sonos speakers and smart light switches that all connect onto 2.4ghz and when my phone goes on 5ghz it is unable to communicate with them at all - even down to ping level fails.

If I move my phone to 2.4ghz by shutting off 5ghz then the devices will all happily communicate.

I also dug out an old netbook that I haven’t used in years and hooked that up to 2.4ghz and again it was unable to communicate with any device on the 5ghz band but would talk fine with devices on the same band.'

I recently upgraded to Fibre and found that devices don't communicate across different bands. This is a right pain as others have already said that different smart devices can only talk on certain bands. The sonos speakers (2.4ghz) and my smartphone (5ghz) is my immediate problem. Didn't have this issue on previous older BT routers.

What I don't understand is that some people on this forum is suggesting it DOES communicate across bands for them. What is the issue? It's to the point of it not being practical to use. I don't want to drop it down to 2Ghz and throttle the network to around 60mbps when it is consistently getting 200mps+ on 5Ghz. Any other recommendations?