Archer AX50 - Smart Connect & Alexa Qestions
Archer AX50 - Smart Connect & Alexa Qestions
Hi - got a new Archer AX50 (running the latest firmware) to replace my aging Verizon Fios Actiontec router. My Fios is 200/200. I live in NYC in about a 1,000sqft apartment.
Couple questions:
1. Smart Connect seems to put most (but not all) of my 5ghz capable devices on the 5ghz band as I would expect and I get the full 200/200 speeds at every corner of my apartment. However, it does seem to routinely switch my Vizio P75-F1 TV and my wife's work laptop (she works from home) to the 2.4ghz network even though they both support 802.11ac 5ghz bands. No reason for it to do this since the speeds are always faster on the 5ghz AC network and the range of 2.4ghz N isn't necessary. The Vizio is even in the same living room as the router. All the other devices (Apple Macs, iPads and iPhones seem to stay on the 5ghz). My Sonos setup needs to be on 2.4ghz and my original PS4 and bedroom Sharp Smart TV are all only 2.4ghz devices
If I turn off Smart Connect and just name both the 2.4ghz and the 5ghz bands with the same SSID will my 5ghz devices consistently stay connected to the 5ghz band or will the clients try to move between the two just like on Smart Connect? I like having one SSID vs. 2 seperate ones so Smart Connect is appealing but if there is no way to get optimum throughput using the 5ghz AC channel on devices that support 5ghz AC then I would rather just seperate the SSID's so they consistenyl stay connected to the AC 5ghz band.
Alternatively, I don't believe there is but is it possible to bias Smart Connect to the 5ghz band if the device supports 5ghz bands?
2. This router is advertised as working with Alexa but then the compatability list here (https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/alexa-compatibility/) doesn't show that to be the case?
Thanks!
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@RaverCWB I just turned the feature off. I manually connected the ones I want on 5ghz to be there and 2.4ghz for the other like smart home devices. Just got to do it once as opposed to worrying about whether smart connect will route it to your preferred choice. To be fair I believe most brands implementations of it are similar and do things people don't expect so best to ignore it and manually handle.
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@RaverCWB @Carl Hey, I have to join in. I own an AX20 router that I purchased last week. I tried running it with smart connect but it seems that its 2.4 biased still. Which I don't mind that much.
The biggest issue I found is that it disabled the AX(WiFi 6) feature on the 2.4 band. And the downside is that it kept all my WiFi 6 capable devices on 2.4 so no WiFi 6 for them.
It's very confusing how it works to me, just seems like there has not been enough attention to detail. Which is a shame. Since it's 9 months after the first post.
The way I resolved it is to turn off the smart connect feature and manually turn on what I need, BUT, to keep both 2.4 and 5ghz ssid same! So I guess then it falls onto my devices to choose the right band?
So now it works as expected, but with a kind of a weird setting. Is there an issue I can cause with this? Same name on two ssid. So far it works great. I just fear I might be missing something?
Thanks!
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