Forcing the BT Smart Hub 2 to allow 5 GHz by a single device, denying 2.4 GHz?

[callous4567]

Hi all;

Currently upgraded from the old 60/10 down/up to 130-ish/20-ish down/up- not sure if that's Fibre (I'm quite sure there's copper still around but aye) but in any case, this question is more about the new Hub I received.

The new hub is 5 GHz capable (and I have a 5 GHz antenna on my desktop.) The 5 GHz signal definitely reaches it- I can connect to it. However, after connecting, +- a minute, the desktop is bumped down to 2.4 GHz. Unlike with the old hub, I can't just tell my antenna to prefer using 802.11ac- the WiFi card will fail to connect to the hub. I have no clue why- all I do know is that there aren't separate SSIDs or anything for 2.4 GHz/5 GHz, and the hub self-allocates whether to use 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz on each device that connects, and that I can't connect if I only have my desktop try with 5 GHz.

I have various devices at home- many of which rely on 2.4 GHz. I can only get about 70-80 mbps over 2.4 though- not the 130-140ish which I otherwise get over 5 GHz. Is there any way I configure the hub to force 5 GHz only for my desktop, and not for any other devices? (the "dual-band" feature notes my desktop is only 2.4 GHz capable or 5 GHz capable- it does not recognize the devices as the same.) 

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

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@callous4567 wrote:

Hi all;

Currently upgraded from the old 60/10 down/up to 130-ish/20-ish down/up- not sure if that's Fibre (I'm quite sure there's copper still around but aye) but in any case, this question is more about the new Hub I received.

 all I do know is that there aren't separate SSIDs or anything for 2.4 GHz/5 GHz, and the hub self-allocates whether to use 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz on each device that connects,  It is the device that selects which one to use, not the hub.

I have various devices at home- many of which rely on 2.4 GHz. I can only get about 70-80 mbps over 2.4 though- not the 130-140ish which I otherwise get over 5 GHz. Is there any way I configure the hub to force 5 GHz only for my desktop, and not for any other devices? No . You may be able to disable the 2.4Ghz on your PC which would force the PC to connect on 5Ghz (the "dual-band" feature notes my desktop is only 2.4 GHz capable or 5 GHz capable- it does not recognize the devices as the same.) 

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[callous4567]

Alright.. thanks for confirming. I will have to figure out why the WiFi card is refusing to connect to 5 GHz if I have 2.4 GHz disabled...

[gg30340]

See my edit above re your PC only using the 5Ghz.

[rbz5416]

Find the wireless adapter in Device Settings, double-click on it & then the Advanced tab (if there is one). In there you may have a Preferred Band option where to can tell it to prefer 5GHz over 2.4.

[callous4567]

Thanks rbz5416; 

I tried this but it didn't have any effect sadly. I even tried the more aggressive option of disabling the 2.4 GHz band entirely- no effect either.

The adapter can only use 5 GHz when both 2.4 GHz/5GHz are enabled for some reason- no luck otherwise. It's an ASUS PCE-AC88, notorious for being ****y when it comes to this sort of thing... 

[rbz5416]

Have you tried manually setting the 5GHz channel rather than leaving it on auto?

[callous4567]

Aye- I've tried every possible channel (for 2.4 + 5, permutations included... took a damn long time!)

I found a quasi-fix... there's an option under Device Manager to specify "WFD Channel Number" that suspiciously only goes up to 11, like the max WiFi 2.4 GHz channel. I set WiFi 2.4 to Channel 11, and set WTF Channel Number under Device Options to 1... that initially worked, but suspiciously my WiFi card found its way back on to 2.4 GHz after a while (albeit with horrible speed) implying this is a software thing...

Tomorrow I'm going to try to reposition my antenna to see if it helps- maybe the PC is stuck deciding whether to use 2.4 or 5 based on signal strength- though I see no issue with using 5 GH with 3/4 bars the PC probably doesn't know that.