Issues with 2.4GHz and 5GHz selected

[Dirkgently25]

Good evening all, first time poster.
I have an EE Smart Hub 2 (ground floor), an extender disk (1st floor - PC), another extender disk (2nd floor - Bedroom TV). The router is set up with 2.4GHz and 5GHZ turned on and smart channel selected for each band.

When gaming, I was noticing a lot of lag and used co-pilot to diagnose the problem. After a lot of false starts, it suggested that turning off the 2.4GHz band might improve performance. I did, and it did.

However, my printer/scanner, ring doorbell, etc all run on 2.4GHz only. I have re-enabled 2.4GHz and am immediately back to the original problem.

I turned back to co-pilot and it suggested forcing the router to have separate SSIDs for each band, but looking at the router settings page, that doesn't seem to be possible.

I would rather not replace my router, as I have 2 EE Essentials Digital Voice phones, that I believe will only work wirelessly with the EE router.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[licquorice]

As you have discovered, you can't give the bands different SSIDs.

The simplest answer is to buy a third party 2.4Ghz wireless access point that you can give a different name  to and turn off the 2.4Ghz on the EE hub. It will need to connect to the hub via Ethernet.

Or a third party wifi powerline adapter rather than WAP.

If you are only going to use the 2.4Ghz band for low bandwidth application this would be ideal 

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa4220/

[WSH]

If you have an old hub to hand, like from the days when you didn't have to return them, that can also be re-tasked to act as a wireless access point. 

Essentially you turn off everything except the 2.4GHz wireless.  Give it a separate SSID.  Give it a new static IP address, (something under 64), so it doesn't clash with the other hub.  Then connect the two with an ethernet cable, LAN port to LAN port.

[Dirkgently25]

I think that I might actually have a pair of these powerline extenders in a box somewhere.

Thank you - I'll give it a try. I take it that I don't need the 2nd homeplug box to make the 2.4GHz WiFi, just the first box?

[licquorice]

Powerline extenders consist of a primary device which is connected to the hub via Ethernet and multiple secondary devices which provide Ethernet and WiFi connectivity.

[Dirkgently25]

So, just plugging one into the power and router (via LAN) won't provide a WiFi signal in itself? I would need the second part to generate the 2.4GHz SSID?

[licquorice]

Correct, the one connected to the router doesn't supply anything, it just converts your mains wiring into an Ethernet cable put simply. The secondary devices can be placed anywhere.

The diagram in the link I posted shows the connectivity 

[Dirkgently25]

I'm sure that I have a pair of these somewhere. Assuming that I don't manage to track them down, could you recommend a pair to pick from amazon. I though that TP-Link TL-PA4010 KIT AV600 Powerline Adapter Starter Kit, HomePlug AV Powerline Network Adapters, U... would be ideal, but it looks like that is Ethernet only and box #2 doesn't produce a WiFi signal. The important bit is the ability to isolate a 2.4GHz signal. (although if the system works well enough, I suppose there is no reason that I couldn't ditch the EE Extender disks and just have a powerline box on each floor)

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

The ones I linked to (tl4220)  provide Ethernet and WiFi, I have 3 of them through the house providing WiFi.

[Dirkgently25]

Thanks again. I have bought a set from Curry's and split out the 2.4GHz band. All seems to be working.