Band steering yay or nay?

[yaypingworks]

Does band steering move 2.4ghz clients to 5ghz even if the signal strength of the 2.4ghz is better?

If thats the case, why would I ever want to use this feature?

[Mloraditch]

This is the Meraki explanation of how they run it: https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/Band_Steering

What you are saying is possible and in fact there is a note on the page that calls out specifically the behavior you are asking about and in general the thought is the benefits of 5Ghz (more bandwidth, less congestion) usually outweigh the signal strength issue.

[alemabrahao]

Personally, I never enable this feature. In the past, I've seen several problems related to user experience causing instability. So whenever possible, I prefer to create SSIDs in the specific band.

[PhilipDAth]

I'm with @alemabrahao .  I have had issues with 2.4Ghz only clients (especially IoT devices) that are unable to see the SSID when band steering is enabled (it prevents them from connecting to WiFi all together).  I have gotten sick of dealing with these edge cases, so I rarely use band steering now.

Meraki's documentation specially calls out this issue:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/Band_Steering

"When band steering is enabled on an SSID, APs will stop advertising that SSID in 2.4 GHz beacons. Since 2.4 GHz-only clients that rely on a passive scan will not “see” that SSID in beacons, they might not be able to join this SSID unless they do an active scan or have been pre-configured with the SSID name and security settings (for example, a pre-shared key)."

[KarstenI]

But the mentioned behavior is already quite old.

[PhilipDAth]

Old but still a problem (at least a problem I run into).  I would love it if every WiFi device would come with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz radios, but I don't see this happening in the IoT market, which is trying to manufacture to the lowest price point.

[KarstenI]

For IoT I also don’t always enable Band Steering. 2.4 is for IoT. And if I see a device in 5, I smile! My Dyson Vacuum robot is a device that is in 5GHz.

[DarrenOC]

Hi @yaypingworks - depends….

Do you have many legacy clients utilising the 2.4Ghz spectrum?  Band steering, as you’ve correctly pointed out, moves clients that are capable of 5Ghz to that frequency for a better user experience. Your wifi survey and respective design would provide a decent signal and coverage for both spectrums if required and band steering would be the icing on the cake with no compromises.

[Ryan_Miles]

I rarely (can't actually recall an actual time) I've seen in which band steering needs to be disabled. I typically only see things like 11r, 11w, or client balancing impacting legacy/poor performing clients.

[KarstenI]

At least on my Office SSIDs, I never enable Band Steering. I don't enable 2.4.