Wifi 2.4ghz vs 5ghz - Watch

[douglasf13]

I love my network.

I did a quick series of Ookla Speedtests with my iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2.

I started in my living room, which is one room above and a couple interior walls away from my basement access point and the opposite end of the house from my upstairs access point. This is probably my worst coverage room in the house. Both devices were on the basement AP at 2.4GHz. They got about 50 Mbs download and 12 Mbs upload (all the tests got around 12 Mbs upload).

I walked upstairs near the other, and both devices flipped to the other AP at 5GHz. They got 90 Mbs download.

I walked to the other side of the upstairs, and they stayed on 5GHz and got about 80 Mbs.

I walked down to the basement by the main router (the original AP hosting the first test) and both devices flipped to the local AP at 5Ghz. They scored 85 Mbs on that one.

Then, I went back to the living room and they both stayed on the basement AP but flipped to 2.4Ghz like originally. I disabled 5GHz on the basement router, and re-ran a speed test there. I got about 38 Mbs.

So, not only did my devices dynamically flip between access points and bands, but they intelligently choose the best AP and band that gave the best throughput. I love science!

Does the fact that responses from lap-people that contradict an alleged (former) Apple WiFi Engineer make it dubious? The article is describing a standard WiFi network configuration.

Not only in those comments, but in lots of other Mac help forums and blogs. There is a lot of debate as to whether separating 2.4 and 5 with the Airport is the right way to go. I'm not saying he's wrong, but I'm not sure it works as well as he thinks in all situations.

 

[profmjh]

Despite being a control freak, I've decided to give both bands the same SSID. I'm trusting that my Apple devices know what's best more than I do. It means less faffing with manually choosing a band. And as I get really good 4G signal in my house (which can be faster than my broadband) if I'm ever unhappy with the WIFI, I just turn it off. (Which doesn't work for my MacBook, obviously, but is fine for my iOS devices.)

I just tried my MacBook in the room next to the router and in the bathroom, which is as far from the router as I can get. Both gave pretty much the same speeds.

 

[exxxviii]

So, I think all of the comments and experiments above distill down to this...

There is a three-way clash between:
1) Apple AirPort Extreme Router
2) Optimum WiFi Performance
3) Apple Watch Compatibility

You can get two of the three, but you cannot get all three.

 

[barjam]

Despite being a control freak, I've decided to give both bands the same SSID. I'm trusting that my Apple devices know what's best more than I do. It means less faffing with manually choosing a band. And as I get really good 4G signal in my house (which can be faster than my broadband) if I'm ever unhappy with the WIFI, I just turn it off. (Which doesn't work for my MacBook, obviously, but is fine for my iOS devices.)

I just tried my MacBook in the room next to the router and in the bathroom, which is as far from the router as I can get. Both gave pretty much the same speeds.

On 2.4 I get 5-10mbps. On 5ghz I get 50mbs. This is anywhere in the house even right on top of the router. Either mine is defective or I can't trust Apple devices.

 

[tombiscuit]

How can I find out what Wi-Fi network my Watch is connected to?

 

[JT2002TJ]

How can I find out what Wi-Fi network my Watch is connected to?

You can check your routers menu, go to network, and look for something that shows active connections. Look for the name of your watch, or apple watch.

 

[bluechipBMW]

So, I think all of the comments and experiments above distill down to this...

There is a three-way clash between:
1) Apple AirPort Extreme Router
2) Optimum WiFi Performance
3) Apple Watch Compatibility

You can get two of the three, but you cannot get all three.

Any update on this? I'm still not able to get the apple watch to connect to the apple airport extreme router. I have no issues for the AW connecting to the Optimum router. I have tried all of the recommendations - to unpair, forget network, use only 2.4 but no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer to connect using the apple airport extreme. Thanks!

 

[exxxviii]

Any update on this? I'm still not able to get the apple watch to connect to the apple airport extreme router. I have no issues for the AW connecting to the Optimum router. I have tried all of the recommendations - to unpair, forget network, use only 2.4 but no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer to connect using the apple airport extreme. Thanks!

The OP set up his home WiFi network with a separate SSID for each band, and he only had a single access point. It sounds like you have two access points. Is that accurate? Do you have all your access points and bands set up with the same SSID and password?

 

[bluechipBMW]

The OP set up his home WiFi network with a separate SSID for each band, and he only had a single access point. It sounds like you have two access points. Is that accurate? Do you have all your access points and bands set up with the same SSID and password?

My service provider is Optimum so I have a modem and a router from them. I also have a Airport Extreme Base station (802.11a/n - 802.11b/g/n)) wired to the Optimum router. The optimum wifi router has a different SSID and password then the Airport Extreme. The Airport Extreme is set up on WPA/WPA2 Personal with the 5GHz unchecked so only using 2.4. By the way I also keep the airport extreme hidden but I did try with it unhidden but the apple watch does not connect to it. The apple watch has no issues connecting to the optimum wifi router but when I click on forget device and then connect my iPhone to the Airport I notice the apple watch says disconnected.

Are you suggesting to set up the optimum wifi router and airport extreme with the same said/password?

Update: When I update the 5GHz name to be same as the 2.4 I noticed when I go back to the setup the 5GHz is unchecked so it doesn't look like it allows me to save them as the same name.

 

[exxxviii]

My service provider is Optimum so I have a modem and a router from them. I also have a Airport Extreme Base station (802.11a/n - 802.11b/g/n)) wired to the Optimum router. The optimum wifi router has a different SSID and password then the Airport Extreme. The Airport Extreme is set up on WPA/WPA2 Personal with the 5GHz unchecked so only using 2.4.

Yours is a different problem from the OP and other contributors. Setting aside the Optimum and 5GHz for now... you have an Airport Extreme set to use only 2.4GHz. The iPhone will connect to it, but the watch will not.

How are you testing that the watch is not connecting to the WiFi router?

(And for a future post, I would not recommend an Apple router in your environment. And you want to make sure that the Optimum IP address range is not conflicting with the Extreme's IP address range.... But, we can tackle that after we at least get the watch connecting.)

 

[bluechipBMW]

Yours is a different problem from the OP and other contributors. Setting aside the Optimum and 5GHz for now... you have an Airport Extreme set to use only 2.4GHz. The iPhone will connect to it, but the watch will not.

How are you testing that the watch is not connecting to the WiFi router?

(And for a future post, I would not recommend an Apple router in your environment. And you want to make sure that the Optimum IP address range is not conflicting with the Extreme's IP address range.... But, we can tackle that after we at least get the watch connecting.)

Curious why don't you recommend an apple router? Not sure if it matters but I confirmed I have A1354 so it's 4th generation.

Basically here's what I did to test my connection:
1 - first before anything was unpaired and then paired it back and restored from a backup.
2 - I forgot all networks on my iPhone 6 - so it would not access any wifi
3 - verified bluetooth is on and watch is connected
4 - Turned on Wifi on iPhone and then connected to my airport extreme
5 - Verified the iPhone was able to access the internet using wifi by surfing on safari
6 - I then turned off bluetooth but left the wifi connect on my iPhone
7 - I then navigated to the watch and confirmed I see a red symbol so i checked my glance and confirmed it says disconnected. The phone is still connected to the airport with bluetooth off and just to be sure i tried to make a call and send a message but neither worked

 

[savagewatts]

That doesn't work as iOS isn't smart enough to favor the frequency with the higher bandwidth it only favors the highest signal strength.

I have no problems here.

 

[exxxviii]

Basically here's what I did to test my connection...

This is a mystery. I seems like a defect in the watch, but then it connects to the other WiFi router. So, my guess is that something in either the phone, watch, or Extreme is getting confused by the nested networks.

I have an idea. First, it is not ideal to have a network-within-a-network like what you probably have. You have the Optimum device acting as your edge router with its own DHCP server and range of private IP addresses. Then, the Extreme is connected downstream to the Optimum, but the Extreme thinks it is the edge router with its own redundant DHCP server and private network. Try this...

1. Disable the WiFi on the Optimum.
   
2. Reconfigure the Airport Extreme as an Access point (I think this is bridge mode in Apple-speak). This should disable the DHCP server and router function on the Airport Extreme.
3. Setup the AE with just the 2.4GHz band and see if you can connect.

If you can get to the Internet over WiFi and get the watch to connect with the above configuration, then you know the problem is Apple network confusion.