Dual band WiFi SSID's

[Jonny Wright]

Just had a new VM Superhub (V2) installed so now have the option for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections. I have had a read around on some of the pros and cons of both but was wondering what the thoughts were of the Neowin community. Personally I will be trying both options, starting with the same SSID for both frequencies.

 

Which way do you swing? Feel free to add any reasoning if you like.

[Noir Angel]

Different SSID's on my SH2, but the same password for both. The potential to confuse some devices when making connections leads me to believe giving them a different SSID is best, and I like to know which of the networks I'm connecting my devices to.

[myxomatosis]

Different SSIDs for me too:  Linksys (2.4GHz), Linksys+ (5GHz), Apple (Airport 2.5GHz), Apple+ (Airport 5GHz)

The 5GHz band is faster, but the signal tends to degrade faster then 2.4GHz when there's walls and obstacles.  My home has brick walls so when I use my laptop on the patio outside, I prefer to use the 2.4GHz band, it gives me a stronger and more reliable connection. Otherwise, I use the 5GHz band.

It helps to have different SSIDs, to know what you're connecting to

[Carbon Fiber]

Different SSID's, easier to identify when troubleshooting or just so I know :)

[Roger H. Veteran]

I do different SSIDs but i'd prefer to keep them the same if devices were smart enough to always prefer one. In the Intel drivers you can set it to prefer 5Ghz but if it switches to 2.4Ghz because you are far away, it doesn't switch back to 5Ghz, ever. My phone is pretty much the same too so I've just resorted to doing it the "SSID-5G" way.

[majortom1981]

Use different ssids. Some devices get all sorts of confused and cause slowdowns. This happens with the optimum wifi / cablewifi access points that cablevision has setup. the new ones are dual band and both bands are setup as optimumwifi. So when my cellphone connects to one of the newer ones it slows down to a crawl.

[primexx]

definitely different.

 

however, if you have multiple APs on the same frequency (but different bands) then you can use same SSID to allow automatic roaming.

[The Evil Overlord]

I can't use both bands on my vm superhub, but I used to have the old Scientific Atlanta modem (before virgin bought telewest) so I bought a dual band router

Now I use the superhub purely as a modem, (it helps as I don't have to use the reset button once a month because it becomes glitchy)

if you need both bands then I'd recommend a dual band router and a bridge, that way you can keep the same ssid on both bands (my bridge runs on the 5ghz, and everything else on the 2.4)

[trek]

At home, separate SSID's but that will change when I get my cisco WLC. At work, same SSID with Cisco Band Select enabled on the controller.