Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

RLNG
Getting noticed

Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

Hello, 

 

I noticed that under device manager-->wireless card(intel). We can change the Preferred band to "Prefer 5GHZ band" on a Windows laptop.

 

  1. Is it a good idea to configure this option in an enterprise to all machines or it's just to leave it "no Preference" and let the AP do the band steering? 
  2. Has anyone implemented this configuration in their organization before?
  3. 5GHz.png
4 Replies 4
alemabrahao
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I've already configured it in environments where the client was having a lot of problems regarding band selection, but generally I leave what comes standard in the system.

 

Of course, 5Ghz is much better than 2.4Ghz, so I suggest testing it on some machines first.

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.
RLNG
Getting noticed

How can I really test it? I tested it on my laptop manually and it worked just fine. Is it best practice to just leave it as is and only mess with it if an issue comes up? Are there reports we can run to see daily 2.4GHz and 5GHz uses?

alemabrahao
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

There is no document stating whether or not it is a good practice, what I can say is, if possible, only use 5Ghz.

I am not a Cisco Meraki employee. My suggestions are based on documentation of Meraki best practices and day-to-day experience.

Please, if this post was useful, leave your kudos and mark it as solved.
UKDanJones
Building a reputation

I'd be careful changing things like this... honestly, the best option is just to disable 2.4 GHz band. If you NEED 2.4 GHz just create a separate 2.4 GHz SSID only. This is the only way to guarantee that 5 GHz capable devices use 5 GHz. 

Please feel free to hit that kudos button
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