Devices not connecting to 5 ghz whole home

[EVESS]

Hi 

apologies if posted elsewhere but I cannot find a clear answer. I recently bought a three disc while home mini kit to fix some Wi-Fi black spots. 

Whilst it has extended the Wi-Fi into the black spot areas, it also appears to have deteriorated the performance of devices that previously had a good connection. This seems to be because the devices are connecting to the stronger 2.4ghz connection instead of the weaker (but faster) 5ghz connection. 

as an example my wife and I are both working from home and previously our laptops both worked perfectly for video calls connected to my 5ghz virgin connection. 

since installing the discs video calls have been choppy and poor quality. I can see that the laptops are favouring a 2.4ghz connection. 

Before I return the discs is there anyway to force the device on to the 5ghz connection ? 

Thabks 

[Gary_C]

Most PC device drivers have a 'preferred band' option in their configuration

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/151786-how-change-preferred-band-wireless-network-adapter-window...

Though it must also be said, PC adapters tend to hold on to a signal like a leech so if it connects to 2.4 it tends to stay on 2.4

[EVESS]

Thanks. My laptop doesn’t seem to have that setting, or it’s disabled by the administrator. 

The whole home is going to have to go back, it’s so frustrating. I could see it connected to my living room disc this morning which is downstairs on the 5ghz band but by this afternoon it had locked on to the disc in the room next to me which is much closer but it’s connecting to 2.4ghz. There’s a noticeable difference on video calls between the two, when on 2.4ghz the quality is terrible. 

[Gary_C]

You 'might' also have an option to disable the 2.4ghz band on your laptop.

What is the laptop make & model and the wifi interface detail ?

[EVESS]

Hi, it’s a DELL Latitude 7280. My daughter is home schooling and has had the same issue. She is literally sat next to the disc (cannot use Ethernet and my wife’s laptop is connected to the Ethernet port) yet it still connects to the 2.4 ghz band and her home school videos buffer (I have 35mb fibre so that’s not the issue). I’ve resorted to turning the 5ghz back on from the main router and connecting to that and there are no issues. 

Frustrating as the discs have extended the network and fixed the black spot issue but caused a separate issue with devices not connecting to 5ghz. 

[Gary_C]

Try this
I think you have a Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 wireless adapter, so get into device manager (type device manager in the search box bottom left) then look for network adapters, click on that to see the list of adapters and double click on Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 wireless adapter (or very similar)
Select the Advanced tab from the box that pops up (note any original setting before you change them) and then select the 802.11a/b/g wireless mode setting and adjust the value to 5GHz 802.11a
then select the 802.11n/ac and set it to disable (I think this is unnecessary, but this is to ensure it doesn't use 2.4, you could also try 802.11ac) then click OK

This 'should' force the laptop to only use the 5Ghz band.

Fingers crossed.

[EVESS]

I don’t have an advanced options tab but it’s a company laptop so may be disabled by my administrator. 

Thanks for trying though, much appreciated. 

[Gary_C]

Thats annoying.

Can you talk to your IT department ?

[EVESS]

Yes I’ll get in touch with them. Cheers.