SSID design considerations with multiple band access point
I have a Netgear WNDAP360 ap which is pretty hard core for home use. It was an upgrade from a previous netgear prosafe ap that just 802.11b/g. The WNDAP360 is 802.11a/b/g/n and supports dual radio data pathing for much faster throughput.
When I had just the single radio AP I used 2 different SSIDs, one for the trusted wireless network at home and one for the untrusted. Why 2 for home? Well, when family members visit with Microsoft boxes they clearly get put on untrusted, while Linux and Apple generally go on the trusted side.
So when I implemented the dual radio AP, I initially created SSIDs with the same name on each of the different radios. So for the A radio, I used untrusted and trusted SSIDs. Then on the B radio, I used untrusted and trusted. I figured that devices would happily discover both untrusted and both trusted and pick the radio that was the fastest. In practice however, that was not the case. Devices seemed to lock the SSID name to a particular band which resulted in terrible wireless performance in the house.
Finally the straw that broke the camel's back was buying a Roku 3. It has the annoying habit of creating an ad hoc network on the same band and channel as the Wifi access to the internet in order to communicate with its remote. Since the Roku was configured with untrusted, it chose 802.11b for its band and stuck there. It would create an ad hoc 802.11b network in the middle of my house reducing every device's speed.
I realized that I really needed the SSIDs to be different so I could force the Roku to be on the A band (the ad hoc network on A would hurt me less than on B since I need B to reach the remote corners of my house).
So I created 4 SSIDs, 2 per Radio, one trusted and one untrusted.
Wireless has been working flawlessly since.
Update:
I had a number of Cat6 runs installed in my house and added another WNDAP360 to the other corner of the house to get better coverage throughout. As a consequence of deploying the cable, I was able to move the Roku 3 to wired. The remote's ad hoc network stayed on the last radio channel (3 -- I think) that it had been using. I moved the two WNDAP360 B radios to different channels and everything worked well for quite a while with no problems.
Then this weekend I started having really bad wireless connectivity in one part of my house. Enabling the trusty wifi analyzer on my phone showed that the $#%(* Roku had changed Ad Hoc networks to match one of the APs. WTF. My best guess is that either it rebooted or there was a short power outage and when the thing came back up, it said: Hey, I remember when I used to be Wifi, let's just use that channel for my Ad Hoc.
So, I went on one of the WNDAP360s and added a brand new SSID, something like "ROKUSUCKS". I change the Radio to use the most congested channel in my neighborhood. I went back to the Roku 3, changed back to Wifi and configured the new SSID. I let the unit sync up, the ad hoc network change, and then I configured the Roku 3 back to wired. Finally, I went back and deleted the temporary SSID. So far the Roku has stayed on the last channel it was connected to.
I periodically check to make sure that ad hoc network stays off of my data networks. Fun times.
Update:
This Roku3 is frustrating as *#&%*#. Apparently even when on a wired connection and a fake SSID being the last one it was connected to, it still puts its ad hoc network on the same as the old SSID. I decided a factory reset would fix this but would be inconvenient because I'd have to setup up my Netflix and Amazon logins again. But this trampling on my real SSID was too much of a problem to not try.
Even after a factory reset, and never having wifi configured, the Roku3 ended up on my channel again. Oddly, immediately after the factory reboot it went to channel 11 and only followed my AP some weeks later to channel 7. So I updated my AP to use channel 11.
I'm operating under the hypothesis that the Roku3 follows the strongest channel. My next plan is to configure the fios router's wifi on a channel that is already overloaded in my neighborhood with a dummy SSID and connect the Roku3 to it. Then switch the Roku3 back to wired. If it operates like before, any resets of the unit should cause its ad hoc network to go to the dummy SSID.
Who on Roku3's design team thought this was a good idea? Seriously?
When I had just the single radio AP I used 2 different SSIDs, one for the trusted wireless network at home and one for the untrusted. Why 2 for home? Well, when family members visit with Microsoft boxes they clearly get put on untrusted, while Linux and Apple generally go on the trusted side.
So when I implemented the dual radio AP, I initially created SSIDs with the same name on each of the different radios. So for the A radio, I used untrusted and trusted SSIDs. Then on the B radio, I used untrusted and trusted. I figured that devices would happily discover both untrusted and both trusted and pick the radio that was the fastest. In practice however, that was not the case. Devices seemed to lock the SSID name to a particular band which resulted in terrible wireless performance in the house.
Finally the straw that broke the camel's back was buying a Roku 3. It has the annoying habit of creating an ad hoc network on the same band and channel as the Wifi access to the internet in order to communicate with its remote. Since the Roku was configured with untrusted, it chose 802.11b for its band and stuck there. It would create an ad hoc 802.11b network in the middle of my house reducing every device's speed.
I realized that I really needed the SSIDs to be different so I could force the Roku to be on the A band (the ad hoc network on A would hurt me less than on B since I need B to reach the remote corners of my house).
So I created 4 SSIDs, 2 per Radio, one trusted and one untrusted.
Wireless has been working flawlessly since.
Update:
I had a number of Cat6 runs installed in my house and added another WNDAP360 to the other corner of the house to get better coverage throughout. As a consequence of deploying the cable, I was able to move the Roku 3 to wired. The remote's ad hoc network stayed on the last radio channel (3 -- I think) that it had been using. I moved the two WNDAP360 B radios to different channels and everything worked well for quite a while with no problems.
Then this weekend I started having really bad wireless connectivity in one part of my house. Enabling the trusty wifi analyzer on my phone showed that the $#%(* Roku had changed Ad Hoc networks to match one of the APs. WTF. My best guess is that either it rebooted or there was a short power outage and when the thing came back up, it said: Hey, I remember when I used to be Wifi, let's just use that channel for my Ad Hoc.
So, I went on one of the WNDAP360s and added a brand new SSID, something like "ROKUSUCKS". I change the Radio to use the most congested channel in my neighborhood. I went back to the Roku 3, changed back to Wifi and configured the new SSID. I let the unit sync up, the ad hoc network change, and then I configured the Roku 3 back to wired. Finally, I went back and deleted the temporary SSID. So far the Roku has stayed on the last channel it was connected to.
I periodically check to make sure that ad hoc network stays off of my data networks. Fun times.
Update:
This Roku3 is frustrating as *#&%*#. Apparently even when on a wired connection and a fake SSID being the last one it was connected to, it still puts its ad hoc network on the same as the old SSID. I decided a factory reset would fix this but would be inconvenient because I'd have to setup up my Netflix and Amazon logins again. But this trampling on my real SSID was too much of a problem to not try.
Even after a factory reset, and never having wifi configured, the Roku3 ended up on my channel again. Oddly, immediately after the factory reboot it went to channel 11 and only followed my AP some weeks later to channel 7. So I updated my AP to use channel 11.
I'm operating under the hypothesis that the Roku3 follows the strongest channel. My next plan is to configure the fios router's wifi on a channel that is already overloaded in my neighborhood with a dummy SSID and connect the Roku3 to it. Then switch the Roku3 back to wired. If it operates like before, any resets of the unit should cause its ad hoc network to go to the dummy SSID.
Who on Roku3's design team thought this was a good idea? Seriously?
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