Wi-Fi & connectivity

[HazelGrace]

The Stick+ is dual band, but it seems to only connect to the 2.4 GHz band.  I have the same SSID for the 2.4 GHz and the 5GHz radios. (I know they can be different SSID, but my ISP said to use the same for both.)  Is there any way to get the Stick+ to prefer 5 GHz?

[StreamerUser]

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@HazelGrace wrote:

The Stick+ is dual band, but it seems to only connect to the 2.4 GHz band.  I have the same SSID for the 2.4 GHz and the 5GHz radios. (I know they can be different SSID, but my ISP said to use the same for both.)  Is there any way to get the Stick+ to prefer 5 GHz?

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Your ISP is wrong/giving bad advice:  You should separate those SSIDs so that you can know/verify/allocate band usage accordingly per device.

You aren't required to configure your network how your ISP wants/says/prefers/requests.

(As you discovered, with just the one SSID it can be very difficult to know/control which band is being used)

Some devices do have user-configurable band-preference settings, many do not - like Rokus.

So, if you want to have better control over your devices' band usage on your network, separate the SSIDs per band.

[StreamerUser]

The Stick+ is dual band, but it seems to only connect to the 2.4 GHz band.  I have the same SSID for the 2.4 GHz and the 5GHz radios. (I know they can be different SSID, but my ISP said to use the same for both.)  Is there any way to get the Stick+ to prefer 5 GHz?

[makaiguy]

I don't know for sure, but I've always suspected that when the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands use the same SSID, the Roku will connect to whichever has the stronger signal. Since 2.4 GHz travels farther and penetrates walls, etc. better, it will always be the stronger signal for any given router.

As mentioned, the way to defeat this is to assign different SSIDs to the different bands so you can choose which one to connect to.

[AvsGunnar]

Echo both @StreamerUser and @makaiguy.  Best solution is two completely SSIDs.  The only real method to try and manually steer a device to a preferred band when single SSID is to either disable the 2.4gz , or to manually adjust the Transmit Power(tx) of the radios within the router settings for the bands.

Normally, by default all transmits are set to high.  Can try to lower 2.4gz to med, or low. (some routers use numbers here ie. 100mw=high on 2.4gz, etc).  Then the Roku may "see" the 5gz first and choose that band.  Really depends on your layout and how close the device is to the router.

Often adjust the transmit settings when a lot of devices are competing for network space on a single access point, or to try and prevent/minimize neighbors from seeing your network, while not hiding it from yourself.  Also, sometimes too much tx power actually causes interference in the network. 

Ideally, splitting your SSID as suggested above by others gives you the most control over your network and assignment of devices if you want them to "stay" where you put them.

If your Roku device isn't seeing the 5gz at all, then most likely your router is using a channel range not recognized by Roku.  Only channels 36-48, and 149-161 will be seen and used by a 5gz Roku device.