Just curious about Smart Connect - does it cause interruptions

[TheLyppardMan]

I'm not intending to switch on Smart Connect, but I'm just curious to know if it causes any loss of service, however brief, when a network device is bumped onto the alternate Wi-Fi band, or is it completely seamless?

 

[Tech9]

Not seamless since the client has to disconnect from one radio and re-connect to another. How much time it will take depends on the client. The process will disrupt time sensitive applications like voice and video calls. Seamless - in advertising only.

 

[Crimliar]

Usually it's so fast that you wouldn't notice. If for some bizarre reason, let's say your HP printer decides for no good reason to jump from one band to the other halfway through, it can cause the print job to fail! So if that's likely to be an issue I'd use the guest networks to set up band specific SSIDs and if you have any mesh units another 5GHz SSID that only connects to the router and not the mesh!

 

[Tech9]

In my own experience with my own clients switching between 5GHz radios (roaming) is faster than switching between 2.4/5GHz bands (band steering). For that reason on my own system 2.4/5GHz bands range is set approximately equal (-7dBm on 2.4GHz) and my APs have "Prefer 5GHz" setting enabled. In result I have single SSID, but whatever is capable of 5GHz stays there and never switches bands.