M4, band steering not always working

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M4, band steering not always working

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
M4, band steering not always working
M4, band steering not always working
2020-02-19 12:42:21
Model: Deco M4  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.1.8

Hi, I occasionally notice that my Nintendo Switch has switched to 2.4 GHz band instead of 5 GHz. Living in an apartment this gives me a horrible online experience. It has no problem using the 5Ghz band (a few meters line of sight away from the AP), but I need to temporarily switch of 2.4GHz to make it swap back to the better band.

 

I would turn off 2.4 if I could, but I still have a few devices that requires it. I've never had issues with band steering before, devices normally always prefer the 5 GHz band. Maybe the thresholds are off, I don't know, or the feature stops working. 

 

I would also like to see the option to disable 2.4 GHz between mesh access points. Right now it uses both bands, and somehow distribute traffic between them? Given the incredibly poor performance on 2.4GHz in a crowded area like an apartment building, I have no control over the transfer quality between mesh points, and packets would seemingly randomly travel over 2.4 GHz with increased latency and packet drops as a result. 

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#1
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Re:M4, band steering not always working
2020-02-21 01:49:29

@jishi 

 

Hello, the option to turn on/off 2.4GHz and 5GHz separately is not available yet, the new feature will be added with the firmware upgrade in the future. 

 

It appears that you are right that the signal from the 2.4GHz does not reach the threshold value, therefore it failed to trigger the roaming to 5GHz. You can move them further away from each other, and you can disable fast roaming to give it a go by connecting your switch to  the 5GHz first. 

 

May it help. 

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Re:M4, band steering not always working
2020-02-21 16:08:01

@Kevin_Z 

 

The option to turn off 2.4 or 5 ghz wifi is there, but that turns it off completely. I'm asking about turning it off for backhaul only. 

 

Band steering is supposed to move devices that support 5 GHz to that band assuming it has reception, so it is kind of beyond me why my switch would get stuck on the 2.4 GHz. I'll do some more tests when it happens again. 

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Re:M4, band steering not always working
2020-12-09 13:11:01
Since February, no more reply from TP-Link. I'm having same issue with my Deco M5. After few distance of the router, Decos are pushing back the devices to 2.4 Ghz instead keep them in 5.0 Ghz. When I disable 2.4 Ghz, all devices keep working well with high speed (3 times more than 2.4 Ghz) and satisfactory signal strenght. I would like to have a support from TP-Link in order to fix this issue.
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Re:M4, band steering not always working
2020-12-09 13:22:04

@IgorRJ I have since moved on, I gave up on the Deco system, both because of the lack of features and the poor support. 

 

I now run a wired netowrk with two access points (EAP245) which doesn't seem to be plagued with these ridiculous bugs. However, support for older devices are abysmal even on this line of products (the EAP245v1 got end of life after a year and are no longer compatible with their new controller) and that is somewhat a common theme for TP-Link. 

 

 

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#5
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Re:M4, band steering not always working
2020-12-09 13:41:28

@IgorRJ 

 

You should have an option to disable 2.4GHz in M5. I did that on my Main network and pointed devices that can't use 5GHz to my Guest network. 

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