Wifi Router question

nyrangers241 · March 20, 2021

I know this may seem stupid but i tried linksys and they were no help. I just got a new modem and router as i wanted to knock the 10 dollars off my internet bill by renting their equipment. the modem is an arris surfboard 32 x 8 and the router is a linksys mr6350 dual band mesh. I now only have one wifi network to sign onto there is no more 2.4 ghz and then 5 ghz. however i noticed on the linksys app that it seems to be choosing which device is on which band. my ipad and samsung are on 5ghz however my pc is only using the 2.4ghz. I cant seem to find a way to choose even though i prioritized my pc on the app it is still on the 2.4 ghz.it is also capable of 5ghz so that is not the issue. any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Donut417 · March 20, 2021

11 minutes ago, nyrangers241 said:

I know this may seem stupid but i tried linksys and they were no help. I just got a new modem and router as i wanted to knock the 10 dollars off my internet bill by renting their equipment. the modem is an arris surfboard 32 x 8 and the router is a linksys mr6350 dual band mesh. I now only have one wifi network to sign onto there is no more 2.4 ghz and then 5 ghz. however i noticed on the linksys app that it seems to be choosing which device is on which band. my ipad and samsung are on 5ghz however my pc is only using the 2.4ghz. I cant seem to find a way to choose even though i prioritized my pc on the app it is still on the 2.4 ghz.it is also capable of 5ghz so that is not the issue. any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Im assuming the router is choosing the best band for the device. 5Ghz doesnt have the same range as 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz doesnt move thru walls that well. So it could be a matter of the signal strength is better on the 2.4 Ghz band for your computer. Keep in mind not all WiFi adapters are created equal. It could be a simple as the signal has to travel thru your computer case to get to the WiFi adapter, depending on the orientation of the WiFi router vs your computer. Other times it just the WiFi radio in the adapter you have sucks, especially if your using a USB adapter instead of PCIe or M.2.

I dont have this mesh system. I did some poking around in my sisters Google Mesh system, and if the Linksys system is as restrictive as Google's there might not be a way to force devices on certain bands. OR there could be a setting that does this automatically. I think most devices call it band steering. I personally turn that setting off as I rather manually decide what band each device use. Id do a deep dive in to the settings and see what you find.

Also have you verified that the PC in question does have 5Ghz capabilities? Keep in mind that Wireless N had 5Ghz has optional, incase your using an older standard. It wasn't until Wireless AC that 5Ghz became mandatory.

R4M_Gummi · March 20, 2021

Try logging in with your web browser and making the SSID's different for the two bands. It looks like you do have that option from what I can see in this YouTube video under Connectivity or Wireless.

Linksys Dashboard

I personally let my Asus router pick the band for me, it does a great job

nyrangers241 · March 21, 2021

Well first off thank you guys for your help. So i was able to change the settings from the browser of my pc to separate the 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz. The linksys app they want you to use on the phone doesnt have that option. This is the first router I have bought that had the option or ability to change on the fly from 2.4 to 5. which is what i think now was causing the issue like donut said is it was choosing while i was in the middle of cod games it was changing the speeds of everything in my house. As much as that is a neat feature id say that its an issue. especially since in a effort to fix it i made my pc the only prioritized device on my account and it still messed with the speeds. now that i have two separate networks and my more demanding devices on the 5 and the phones and such on the 2.4 everything is going really well. so thanks again, that would have taken me forever to find out, if i did not return it before then.