3Specify if a device should be steered to 2.4 or 5ghz
I have a problem with Hunter Douglas Powerview wifi blinds, but I've seen plenty of other device problem complaints when their smart home device is only capable of 2.4GHz but their mobile device usually gets steered to 5GHz and cannot communicate with the 2.4GHz devices.
Various smart home companies are just way too slow to react to improving their tech, waiting for them to fix what the component does they bought from some other tech company isn't an option, that will take forever, it would make more sense to just go back to another wifi that allows a 2.4GHz SSID if you want to use your smart home devices.
I've seen people requesting a 2.4GHz SSID and I understand that adds a level of complexity that EERO probably wants to avoid for the average simple user to whom they market
An alternate solution would be to allow in advanced settings a way to reserve for a MAC address an option to steer it to either the 2.4 or 5 GHz band if necessary for problems with some devices unable to bridge communications across the bands. If I could tell EERO to just let my mom's ipad use 2.4GHz, she would never have to call me every time she us unable to roll up or down her wifi blinds. And frankly even though I have 30 years in IT, I still have a hard time achieving any success because I have no reliable way to get her iphone or ipad to use 2.4GHz, only luck sometimes. Before EERO I just had a router that had a 2.4GHz SSID. Now I upgraded her house to EERO mesh and I can't make her blinds work most of the time.
I need a fix like either having a 2.4GHz SSID I can force her ipad to use to control her 2.4GHz devices, or I need to be able to tell EERO to steer her ipad to 2.4GHz band. Or I am going to be forced to go to an alternative wifi solution for her.
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AP's can't instruct a client to connect to a particular AP. Contact your client's manufacturer and ask them to allow connection to a specific AP.
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How does band steering work then if the AP can't direct a device to a band? Isn't that what band steering is?
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sirbasku Band steering poisons one band to "encourage" the client to connect to another band. Band steering is not AP steering.
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txgunlover I'm not sure the problem is wanting to direct to a specific AP, are you suggesting the AP is the problem and not difference in band? I supposed there are two possibilities. Either A. the problem is that the ipad used to control the device is having trouble because the device was on 2.4GHz and the ipad was on 5GHz which seemed to be the case, because her iphone was connected to 2.4 GHz luckily that time and it was able to communicate with the device which is on 2.4GHz. Or B. the problem is that the device and the controlling ipad were connected to two different AP's AND the device being on 2.4 GHz and ipad on 5 GHz was a red herring. Since they were all very close to the same AP, I didn't double check which AP they were using, I only saw that when the 2.4 GHz device and controlling mobile device were on the same band they could communicate and when on different bands they could not communicate.
Do you think if they were on same AP and different bands they would still communicate?
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sirbasku I really think though, they were on same AP, at one point I had the 2.4GHz device, the 5 GHz ipad and the 2.4GHz iphone all very near each other and farther away from the other EERO APs.
I just saw this post:
Additionally, in app versions 3.9.0 for iOS and 3.5.0 for Android, you can temporarily disable the 5GHz bands by tapping on Settings > Troubleshooting > 'My device won't connect', then tapping on the "Temporarily pause 5GHz" button. This will disable 5GHz for 10 minutes, which can help with setting up some 2.4GHz only devices.
So it will be interesting to see if that would solve the problem if for only 10 mins. It won't help my mom much if she has to fire up the EERO app, go to advanced settings and do all this every time she wants to raise or lower her blinds throughout the day. But it would confirm what the actual issue is.
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sirbasku Ultimately, you're getting bands and AP's confused. What AP you connect to is 100% up to the CLIENT's code... an AP can't say "connect to another AP" to a client.
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txgunlover Ok I thought AP referred to the physical unit and each unit has discrete band antennae. Well then I guess the only solution would be for EERO to provide an optional 2.4GHz SSID so legacy equipment could be forced to the same AP via a unique SSID. Let's face it, there is a ton of 2.4GHz out there that depend on a mobile device for setup/config/monitoring. In my mom's case I have no choice but to return the EERO and buy some other WiFi that has a configurable 2.4GHz only SSID. Thanks for clarifying my confusion regarding what the AP actually is.
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Like I said, the manufacturer in this case is a window blinds company, they don't even know what any of this means. You could tell them this and wait until the end of time to get a windows blinds company to implement a solution, or microwave oven company, or whatever the million device manufacturers there are trying to get their devices connected to wifi. In the meantime, either a solution is needed by EERO on their products to be able to force clients to the same network (by band steering or providing an optional 2nd SSID for 2.4GHz, or people using these smart devices will just have to revert to other WiFi's that allow an SSID for 2.4GHz so that we can force our 5GHz capable controller devices to 2.4GHz by only allowing connection to the 2.4GHz SSID, which worked on my mom's previous old WiFi. Now I spent $200 for a EERO that won't work for her.
