Wi-Fi & connectivity

[udance4ever]

I’ve read a few related posts on this and confirming I have a Roku Streaming Stick+ which is dual-band and capable of connecting at 5 Ghz.

The Roku connects on 2.4 Ghz (Network->About reports 36 Mbps)

The Roku is literally right next to two devices connecting at 5 Ghz by default at high bandwidth from the Eero 6+ in the other room:

1. iPadPro is reporting 350 Mbps down and 317 Mbps up
2. Pixel 6a is reporting 304 Mbps down and 426 Mbps up

Both these are acceptably close to the 511 Mbps down and 507 Mbps up on our wired server.

So I have a model that is dual-band, I have two mobile devices right next to it (not more than a foot away) that connect at 5 Ghz with speeds exceeding 300 Mbps up and down and we have speeds on our local wired server exceeding what we pay for (500/500 Mbps).

How do we get our Roku Streaming Stick+ to connect on 5 Ghz and join the party?

EDIT: The issue I’m trying to address is our Prime Video app won’t reliably stream UHD and most often falls back to HD at this speed.

[AvsGunnar]

@udance4ever 

Roku cannot see or use DFS channels (52-140) on the 5ghz band.  Verify within your router than either DFS compability is "disabled", or manually assign a wireless channel 36-48, or 149-151 on the 5ghz band, rather than using "Auto". (if using Auto, the router can select a DFS channel, unless specifically disabled).

[udance4ever]

DFS sounds great but it’s only offered on Eero Pro models (we only have a Eero 6+)

https://blog.eero.com/eero-now-supports-dfs/

[AvsGunnar · Accepted solution]

@udance4ever 

If you disable the 2.4ghz, can you get the Roku device to connect to the 5ghz?  If set to 160mhz, can also try lowering the bandwidth/channel width of the 5ghz to see it that helps.  If using high bandwidth on the Eero, normally a router will have less channels to choose from, settling often on channel 36 (the low band).  If you lower the bandwidth to 80, and even 40, more channels should become available that can get you in the high band of the 5ghz channels (149-161). 

Sometimes with mesh systems a bit of a balancing act.  The router is automatically trying to place devices on preferred bands depending on firmware settings.  Sometimes have to tweak a bit in order to help steer them where you want.  Some users do not want to change the automatic settings and leave everything default/optimized.  Kind of need to tweak and experiment to try and narrow down the connection issue and then determine if the necessary tweaks are worth the new settings in order to have the Roku connect on that band.

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Not able to check currently if the Eero 6+ is capable of WPA3. (some Eero received via firmware update this capability a couple of years ago).  Perhaps verify that WPA2/WPA3 is enabled as well under the security settings if you are using WPA3.  (Roku unable to use WPA3 currently).

Will be able to look a little more in depth this evening to possible culprits if the above didn't seem to help you. 

[udance4ever]

> If you disable the 2.4ghz, can you get the Roku device to connect to the 5ghz? 

this sounds like a very good thing to try but I don't see anything in the admin interface to disable just 2.4 Ghz right off the bat.

There is a way to suspend 5 Ghz to help 2.4-only devices connect.

> Sometimes with mesh systems a bit of a balancing act

if it makes it any simpler, we only have one node so it's not trying to do anything too fancy on the mesh front.

> Perhaps verify that WPA2/WPA3 is enabled as well under the security settings if you are using WPA3.

Yes - we enabled the "lab" feature to allow WPA3 devices to connect.  it is definitely in hybrid mode as we have quite a few devices that are WPA2 only (like the Roku)

In the event we don't have an option to turn the 2.4 Ghz network off (only) on the Eero, we still have our previous AX1800 router I could play with creating a 5 Ghz only network to connect the Roku too & see how it behaves.

I've got limited cycles on this front & it might take some time & will circle back around when I can.

Thank you very much for all the input to help get to the bottom of this!