GT-AX11000 Smart Connect Rules - why can't Google Pixel and Philips Android TV not connect?

[nimnen]

I am trying to do something simple here:

• all devices that support WIFI 6 should be on 5GHz-2 (it has 160MHz enabled and all the bells and whistles)
• all the ones that don't support WIFI 6 but still support 5GHz should be on 5GHz-1
• all devices that don't support 5GHz or are too far away to get a good signal should be on 2.4GHz

This seems to work for most of my devices, but I have problems with the following:

• Google Pixel (the old kind) doesn't connect to WiFi at all
• Philips Android TV keeps disconnecting and reconnecting

Both of them work fine if I disable the PHY rate rules, rest of the configuration being identical. They go on 5GHz-1 as expected (but then so do my WIFI 6 things, and 5GHz-2 is empty)

I'm a programmer, so I'm still learning all the ins and out of networking and this router. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong?

 

[OzarkEdge]

I am trying to do something simple here:

• all devices that support WIFI 6 should be on 5GHz-2 (it has 160MHz enabled and all the bells and whistles)
• all the ones that don't support WIFI 6 but still support 5GHz should be on 5GHz-1
• all devices that don't support 5GHz or are too far away to get a good signal should be on 2.4GHz

This seems to work for most of my devices, but I have problems with the following:

• Google Pixel (the old kind) doesn't connect to WiFi at all
• Philips Android TV keeps disconnecting and reconnecting

Both of them work fine if I disable the PHY rate rules, rest of the configuration being identical. They go on 5GHz-1 as expected (but then so do my WIFI 6 things, and 5GHz-2 is empty)

I'm a programmer, so I'm still learning all the ins and out of networking and this router. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Maybe the rules are trying to force older clients to channels/frequencies they do not support. Plan B might be to disable Smart Connect and set different SSIDs.

OE

 

[nimnen]

Maybe the rules are trying to force older clients to channels/frequencies they do not support. Plan B might be to disable Smart Connect and set different SSIDs.

OE

Could well be. Is there any way to prevent it? Seems to work fine for other devices that don't support WIFI 6 but have high TX, it's just these 2

I had multiple SSIDs initially, but ran into a problem (bit of a 1st world problem tbh)
The thing is, I listen to news etc while I shower, and my bathroom is a faraday cage. 5GHz has super low signal out there. 2.5GHz is workable.
So I'd manually switch to the 2.5GHz while out there, and then forget to switch back. Or the phones connect to the 2.5GHz whenever I come home because that's the first network that gets in range, and then they're stuck there until I switch them. Or they randomly switch to the 2.5GHz while I'm at home for unknown reasons.
So I'm looking for a way to get it to switch automatically, if possible.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Could well be. Is there any way to prevent it? Seems to work fine for other devices that don't support WIFI 6 but have high TX, it's just these 2

I had multiple SSIDs initially, but ran into a problem (bit of a 1st world problem tbh)
The thing is, I listen to news etc while I shower, and my bathroom is a faraday cage. 5GHz has super low signal out there. 2.5GHz is workable.
So I'd manually switch to the 2.5GHz while out there, and then forget to switch back. Or the phones connect to the 2.5GHz whenever I come home because that's the first network that gets in range, and then they're stuck there until I switch them. Or they randomly switch to the 2.5GHz while I'm at home for unknown reasons.
So I'm looking for a way to get it to switch automatically, if possible.

Absent any 'preferred band' setting on the client that actually works, Smart Connect may be your only solution, and/or sticking to channels/frequencies/bandwidth(80MHz!) supported by all clients.

My shower solution is a JBL Flip 5 BT speaker... I set the streaming device down somewhere safe and carry the speaker around. Bluetooth has pretty good coverage and the Flip 5 sounds much better than my mobile devices. I bought a second Flip 5 for the second floor and for its party mode. If I'm listening on the first floor, I can press 'party mode' and go upstairs and turn on that speaker in party mode to continue listening... in the shower. They also work good outside although that's a much bigger acoustic space. Battery charge lasts many days. But I digress.

OE

 

[nimnen]

Absent any 'preferred band' setting on the client that actually works, Smart Connect may be your only solution, and/or sticking to channels/frequencies/bandwidth(80MHz!) supported by all clients.

My shower solution is a JBL Flip 5 BT speaker... I set the streaming device down somewhere safe and carry the speaker around. Bluetooth has pretty good coverage and the Flip 5 sounds much better than my mobile devices. I bought a second Flip 5 for the second floor and for its party mode. If I'm listening on the first floor, I can press 'party mode' and go upstairs and turn on that speaker in party mode to continue listening... in the shower. They also work good outside although that's a much bigger acoustic space. Battery charge lasts many days. But I digress.

OE

I'd love a "preferred band" on the router that I could assign to a particular mac address! Sadly there isn't one...

I guess I could just grab an old phone and make it "live" in the bathroom, always on the 2.5ghz network. It would also help with all those times where the cat meows at me to go turn on the sink, but is a silly cat and takes a forever to actually drink, so I'm stuck there without entertainment.

I just can't help but feel like I'm doing something stupid, with a router as expensive as this not being able to let me do something as simple as what I want to do.

 

[Invisible Boy]

Since you have a good idea on which devices should use which frequencies, disable Smart Connect and manually assign 3 different SSID and connect your devices to specific frequencies manually seems to make more sense. That's what I do with my AX11000 and never had any WiFi issue.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Since you have a good idea on which devices should use which frequencies, disable Smart Connect and manually assign 3 different SSID and connect your devices to specific frequencies manually seems to make more sense. That's what I do with my AX11000 and never had any WiFi issue.

Or maybe do something similar with a 5-1 guest WLAN with intranet access for just the few difficult clients... it seems you can enabled Smart Connect with same SSIDs but still have a guest WLAN with a different SSID (I have not tried this).

OE