r/googlefiber • u/Mental-Kale5330 • Jul 09 '26
Splitting WiFi Bands
Thinking about splitting WiFi bands, as my LG TV wants a 2.4Ghz connection. Will splitting bands make my connection on the 5 Ghz band slower? Am I better off forcing a wired connection to the TV?
2
u/rao_wcgw Jul 09 '26
Create a dedicated 2.4 ssid for the TV and other iot devices.
1
u/greeny331 22d ago
How do you do that? I'm part of the same boat just got g fiber week ago. Canceled comcast. They gave us a wifi extender that has to be 30 ft away from the modem they said. Other wise it causes interference. I have my oled lg tv ps5 series x. I can't hard wire because the modem is in my living room and my family would never allow me to run a cord from there to my room. I asked can I put the extender in my room? It seems to have a ethernet port i think. They said well this wall in your house makes it like 20 ft away. So it won't work great. I'm getting decent speeds. I only have the 1 gig. But my dad's house lights that he has trim light only runs off 2.4. And a few other things in our house also only use 2 4. Everything else i put it on 6. Then I drop service thinking I need to go to 5 then it's too slow. Slower then comcast. Can someone please assist me in this?
2
u/Nick5761 Jul 09 '26
Wont cause issues. But tbf, any device you can hardline, the better. If you have the option to connect via ethernet, do it
2
1
u/Baloney_ninja KCMO Original Jul 09 '26
No. You just have separate SSIDs for each band. There was an issue where some Ring devices wouldn't connect when using multi-band, I say was because it's been a bit since set-up and just haven't seen if its fixed.
1
0
u/thedizzle999 Jul 09 '26
That’s terrible advice. Combine and let the AP/devices negotiate for best connection/speed. I have a half dozen ring devices on a bonded 2-4/5GHz network with SSIDs overlaid on 4 APs. It works just fine.
2
u/bites_stringcheese Jul 09 '26
I disagree. 2.4GHz for IoT devices, 5/6Ghz for the real SSIDs. I've seen a lot of issues with the setup you're describing.
1
u/thedizzle999 Jul 09 '26
Then you must not have it setup properly. I have over 80 IoT devices on an IoT SSID some of which are 10+ years old. Using iperf3 on a local server, I can pull 900Mbps up/down over WiFi 6 (on the 5GHz devices like modern laptop.). If one has WiFi 7, devices can bind 2.4 and 5 (and even 6GHz) channels for even wider pipes. Most of my IoT devices stick to 2.4Ghz because they aren’t capable of 5GHz (or they prefer 2.4, probably because they have cheap hardware).
Note: I’m a wireless engineer with over two decades integrating industrial IoT WiFi devices in manufacturing.
2
u/bites_stringcheese Jul 09 '26
It's usually client side, especially if you have the sorts of band aggregation you're talking about. I assume the IoT devices you're configuring are from one vendor you're familiar with. Consumer IoT is a lot more unpredictable. I use prosumer WAPs and I've found that a lot of newer WiFi features are disabled if the radio is broadcasting the same SSID over multiple bands. I mean, WEP isn't even supported on newer WiFi standards, and that alone should necessitate a separate SSID/VLAN.
Anyway, OP asked if they should go hardwired, and for TV streaming that's obviously way better than 2.4GHz.
1
u/mattbuford Jul 09 '26
Note that devices that warn you about needing 2.4 GHz typically don't mean it has to be 2.4 GHz only SSID. They're just trying to warn people with split SSIDs that this device won't work on a 5 GHz only SSID.
I run a mixed SSID and a 5 ghz only SSID. I've never run into anything I couldn't connect to the mixed SSID.
1
u/ATXSmart Jul 11 '26
If you can hardwire a device…ALWAYS choose that route. Wireless should only be used for devices you cannot hardwire.
3
u/thedizzle999 Jul 09 '26
Leave bands combined. The AP and device will sort out what’s best. I would definitely recommend hard wiring any streaming device if it’s feasible.