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Hans Sluiman

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Dec 17, 2009, 4:49:44 AM12/17/09
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I have an Airport Extreme (simultaneous dual-band II) broadcasting on
802.11a/n (5 GHz) and 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz). Nobody else in my area is
using the 5 GHz band whereas there are four (occasionally five) other
networks using the 2.4 GHz band.

At the location of my Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, the 5 GHz signal is
stronger than the 2.4 GHz signal, yet on booting the iMac it invariably
connects to the 2.4 GHz broadcast. Why is this? It will connect to the
stronger 5 GHz channel only when I briefly turn Airport off and back on
again. Is this not weird?

Hans

Mark Ingle

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Dec 17, 2009, 7:18:59 PM12/17/09
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Hans Sluiman <n...@this.address> wrote:
>
> At the location of my Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, the 5 GHz signal is
> stronger than the 2.4 GHz signal, yet on booting the iMac it invariably
> connects to the 2.4 GHz broadcast. Why is this? It will connect to the
> stronger 5 GHz channel only when I briefly turn Airport off and back on
> again. Is this not weird?
>
How far away is the iMac. At work we have dual band access points but
the 2.4Ghz signals always seem stronger - I believe the 5Ghz has a
shorter range due to the higher frequency, assuming the transmit power
is identical.

Do you have separate SSIDs for each band (assuming this is possible with
the Airport Extreme), and in the Airport prefs, which one is the 'most
preferred'

Hans Sluiman

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Dec 18, 2009, 4:52:07 AM12/18/09
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The iMac is in the same room as the Airport Extreme, about 3 meters
away. It is not possible to set separate SSIDs for the two bands, only
when you enable the guest network on the Extreme (I've just done this)
you can give it a separate SSID. The guest network appears on both
bands. On the iMac the normal network is set as 'most preferred'.

Before I set up the guest network, there was a significant signal
strength difference (according to AirMonitor) between the two bands
(forgot the exact figure, ISTR at least 5%) and I could force the Mac to
connect to the stronger 5 GHz signal as I described.

With the guest network enabled the difference is less, about 2%. But the
iMac never ever locks onto the stronger signal, not even by switching
Airport off and on.

Hans

Marco Bakker

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Dec 18, 2009, 11:37:45 AM12/18/09
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Hans Sluiman <n...@this.address> wrote:

> It is not possible to set separate SSIDs for the two bands, only
> when you enable the guest network on the Extreme (I've just done this)
> you can give it a separate SSID. The guest network appears on both
> bands.

I don't have a guest network enabled but I do have two seperate SSID's
configured. You will find the option to give the 5GHz network a
different name (SSID) in Airport Utility > Airport > Wireless > Wireless
Options.

--


marco

Hans Sluiman

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Dec 18, 2009, 5:44:42 PM12/18/09
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Indeed, thanks for that. You discover something new every day (well,
almost).

Hans

Hans Sluiman

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Dec 18, 2009, 6:11:56 PM12/18/09
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On 18/12/2009 16:37, Marco Bakker wrote:

I've given the 5 GHz network a different name, but when trying to
connect, I get a time out error when entering the WPA password. In
Airport Utility there does not seem to be an option to set a WPA
password for the 5 GHz network, so presumably the same password is used
as for the 2.4 GHz network. The 5 GHz SSID does show up in AirRadar. Any
idea why I can't connect?

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