Hi Fae, as I wrote in another recent thread, it would be very helpful if the Omada Controller User Guide could go into more detail about the effects of settings.

For example, regarding 802.11 rate control I'm still puzzled by the setting »Require Clients to use rates at or above the specified value«. Does it mean the remaining settings are ignored and clients can still use lower WiFi rates if this setting is not enabled?

To be honest, the descriptin of the settings (in this example: »Selects whether or not to require clients to use rates at or above the value that the slider indicates«) is pretty useless since this information is contained in the setting's label already.

The remaining question is: If set to not require clients to use rates at/above the slider's value, what sense does it make at all to set the slider to any value? Still not clear to me.

LaboDJ wrote

I think that disabling CCK rates will disable 802.11b completely

Yes and no. The setting of 6 Mbps WiFi rate in your screenshot does not disable 802.11b. You need to set the minimum value for the WiFi rate to 12 Mbps. Disabling CCK rates forces the slider to be set to 12 Mbps automatically and the beacon rate to be set to 6 Mbps unless »Send beacons at 1 Mbps« is enabled also (I wish this important information would be described in the User Guide).

But if you set the slider manually back to 6 Mbps after disabling CCK rates, 802.11b devices are allowed to connect:

The limited range of the AP is caused by increasing the beacon's rate to 6 Mbps.

No connectivity is caused by setting the WiFi rate to 12 Mbps.

Note that setting only the slider manually to 12 Mbps will not change the beacon's rate, it still remains at 1 Mbps.

For the »Require clients to use rates ...« setting see my post #3. Still unclear to me what its effect is if unchecked.

Of course I want to require clients to use rates above the slider's value if changing the slider.

@LaboDJ, yes, you are right, I can reproduce that. It's clearly a side-effect of the GUI layout for rate control.

When disabling 1/2/5.5/11 Mbps, it's definitely a bug if the slider remains at 6 Mbps.

In my opinion, the slider/checkboxes mix in rate control with checkboxes forcing slider values, but slider values not affecting checkboxes is not very intuitive and – since implemented in Javascript – highly error-prone.

Pugs wrote

So, how would one limit to only AC devices on 5G?  

You can't and you should not do this either!

802.11n uses a compatibility mode to allow co-existence with 802.11a. Devices which allow to switch off 802.11a will cause interference with any other 802.11a device around, since 802.11n w/o 802.11a compatibility mode (the so-called »Greenfield« mode) would trigger radar detection in those APs around. Thus, an EAP disabling 802.11a completey would perform DoS attacks to other 802.11a networks around.

All you can do in the 5 GHz band is to limit minimum WiFi rate to 54 Mbit/s. This already excludes 802.11a legacy devices operating at lower rates, but still allows 802.11n and higher to use the 802.11a compatibility mode.

Settings in devices claiming to turn off 802.11a completely are fake settings. They just limit the minimum WiFi rate.

BTW, it's 5 GHz, not 5G, which refers to mobile networks.

Dear @R1D2,

• To be honest, the descriptin of the settings (in this example: »Selects whether or not to require clients to use rates at or above the value that the slider indicates«) is pretty useless since this information is contained in the setting's label already.

The remaining question is: If set to not require clients to use rates at/above the slider's value, what sense does it make at all to set the slider to any value? Still not clear to me.

 

• Disabling CCK rates forces the slider to be set to 12 Mbps automatically and the beacon rate to be set to 6 Mbps unless »Send beacons at 1 Mbps« is enabled also (I wish this important information would be described in the User Guide). 

I totally agree with you for providing more detail about the effects of settings here, I've written down and forwarded the feedback on rate control settings to the related departments for evaluation, will let you know if there is an update. Cheers!