I don’t understand what this all means. I have my main router and I have 2 outdoor wifi antennas. They all have same SSID for 2.4 and 5 across both devices. But should they be on the same channels as well. Meaning that the main wifi router and outdoor wifi antenna 2.4 should be on same channel 6? Please Help.
Hello jamesjmay23,
I have my main router and I have 2 outdoor wifi antennas. They all have same SSID for 2.4 and 5 across both devices. But should they be on the same channels as well.
It’s actually recommend that your APs use different channels from each other so that they don’t compete with each other! In your screenshot, I can see you have two APs on different channels in the 5 GHz band. This looks good!
Meaning that the main wifi router and outdoor wifi antenna 2.4 should be on same channel 6?
Can you send a screenshot of your Networks tab? In your screenshot I can only see your 5 GHz radios, I want to see why your 2.4 GHz radios aren’t highlighted…
To answer your question, it’s still best for your APs to use different channels in the 2.4 GHz, e.g. one AP on channel 1 and the other on channel 11.
How do i clean up the red marks to get everything alined up so the they communicate more accurately?
Thanks for sending that screenshot! It appears that your 2.4 GHz SSID is labelled jmay and your 5 GHz SSID is labelled lmay. This is why they aren’t grouped together in inSSIDer. You may want to consolidate those into one SSID so that the device can decide when to steer from the 2.4 to 5 GHz band, and vice versa.
How do i clean up the red marks to get everything alined up so the they communicate more accurately?
I see that you are using a Netgear router and two TP-Link routers. You would need to login to the router configuration on each of those routers in order to see if you can make these changes. Keep in mind that not all routers allow you to make the recommended changes that you see in inSSIDer. If you aren’t sure, feel free to send screenshots of the router config options and I may be able to help!
Keep in mind that if you dive into the Radio details by clicking the binoculars icon next to the SSID, it will break down each of those radios and tell you which one has the mismatch. Would you mind sending a screenshot of that screen too?
so the 2.4ghz and 5ghz should have same SSID as jmay? I am using 1 netgear router and 2 Omada EAP225-Outdoor.
so the 2.4ghz and 5ghz should have same SSID as jmay?
That would be my recommendation! I would also consider disabling the 2.4 GHz radio on that Netgear router if you can. No need for 40 MHz and you should have good coverage from the two TP-Link 2.4 GHz radios.
With all that said, what type of WiFi issues are you experiencing?
I have DSL 12-16mbps. Should I be using QoS?
I get a lot of disconnects, slow internet and it just seems like my wifi freezes up.
OK, this makes sense. As you can see the 2.4 GHz radio that you have set-up on the Netgear router has 11 WiFi devices on it, which isn’t a good thing. These devices would perform better on your 5 GHz radios.
It is also competing for the same space as your other two 2.4 GHz radios. My recommendation again is to disable this 2.4 GHz radio entirely.
I have DSL 12-16mbps. Should I be using QoS?
If you see an option to enable or disable QoS, it should probably be enabled. QoS simply prioritizes certain WiFi traffic such as audio in a video call.
Only issue with that is smart devices like the plugs, locks, and lights only work with the 2.4ghz.
OK, then you might want to consider giving your 5 GHz radios a different SSID name than your 2.4 GHz radios (like you had before) and then be sure to associate your dual-band devices like your laptop to the 5 GHz SSID. This way your 2.4 GHz only devices are only on the 2.4 GHz band, and your 5 GHz capable devices are only on the 5 GHz band. I discuss this a bit more in this video here.