The question: how do you decide which band a given device belongs on, and how do you handle the older gadgets that only speak 2.4 GHz? I would like to compare methods, because most advice I see says "use 5 GHz for everything" and stops there.
My short answer is that the band is a trade between range and capacity, and the device's needs should pick it, not the other way around.
What each band gives you
- 2.4 GHz: the longest reach and the best penetration through walls and floors. It has only three non-overlapping channels in most regions (1, 6, 11 in North America), and it is shared with Bluetooth, microwave ovens, and every neighbor's router. It is crowded, but it goes a long way.
- 5 GHz: far more channels and wider channels, so more capacity and less contention. It loses more signal through walls, so range is shorter. Some channels share spectrum with radar and may require the access point to move off them. Check your own regulatory domain, because the rules differ.
- 6 GHz: requires Wi-Fi 6E or newer on both ends. Lots of clean spectrum, no legacy devices, and the shortest practical range of the three. I have limited hands-on time with it, so I will leave detailed claims to those who run it daily.
Think of it as road types. 2.4 GHz is the old two-lane country road: it reaches everywhere, and it is slow when busy. 5 GHz is the highway, and 6 GHz is a new highway with no entrance ramps for old vehicles.
How I sort devices
- Laptops, phones, and streaming boxes that sit within decent range of an access point go on 5 GHz, or 6 GHz if they support it.
- Anything far from an AP, or behind several walls, may do better on 2.4 GHz. Look at the signal level before you decide, not after.
- Anything that only supports 2.4 GHz stays there, and I do not fight it.
Why the IoT network should stay boring
Many older plugs, sensors, and thermostats have cheap radios and simple firmware. They tend to be fussy about things a phone ignores: a name shared across bands, mixed security modes, newer protocol features, or channel changes. When they fail, they often fail quietly and need a reset.
So the pattern I follow is a separate SSID for IoT, 2.4 GHz only, on its own VLAN, with these settings:
- A fixed channel (1, 6, or 11) rather than auto, so the AP is not changing it under the devices.
- WPA2-PSK rather than anything newer, unless the devices are known to handle it. Test one device before you move all of them.
- A 20 MHz channel width.
- No band steering on that SSID, since there is no other band to steer to.
Then leave it alone. A network nobody touches is a network that keeps working.
What I would check first when a device drops off
Signal strength at the device, then channel congestion, then settings. Physical problems come before configuration ones, and a weak signal looks like a dozen other faults.
Two questions for the group: do you use one SSID across all bands or separate ones, and why? And for those running 6 GHz, which devices have actually moved there, and which did not benefit?
Report back.
