How can I clean up my menubar Wi-Fi menu?

Here's the issue: When updating my Time Capsule 3 TB (802.11ac), I changed the name of its primary SSID, which was equivalent to "Myfirstname Mylastname MyTown 5 GHz," and replaced it with "MyInitials 5.5 GHz." Of course, the SSID is broadcast on the 5 GHz band, not 5.5 GHz, so I edited it again, to "MyInitials 5 GHz."

Only the last of these currently exists as an SSID broadcast by my Time Capsule, but the other two still appear in the menubar dropdown list, and also show up on my iOS devices' "CHOOSE A NETWORK…" lists

I'm looking for some way to get rid of those defunct Wi-Fi SSID names on all my macOS and iOS devices.

I did that several times in System Preferences, but that didn't cause no-longer-active SSIDs to disappear from the dropdown menu beneath the Wi-Fi Chevron in my macOS Sierra (10.12.6) menubar. The proximate reason I have deprecated WiFi SSID public names is because I had used the same password for my Wi-Fi network and for access to a home security system from Nest, Inc., and that has been reported recently to produce scary results from people whose passwords have been breached on other servers. After recreating my usual and guest networks, with new names and new passwords, the old WiFi network names didn't initially disappear from the dropdown list. Just now I recreated those main and guest WiFi networks (not their real names), and for some reason the legacy names have disappeared.

However, now I have another issue: my Brother Laser Printer can't join my WiFi networks, and I'm wondering if perhaps my Time Capsule is not broadcasting on both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz band (the printer cannot "see" 5GHz signal).

On both my main and guest networks (each of which is password protected, the dropdown from the menubar shows the channel being used for 5 GHz but doesn't indicate anything at all about a 2.4 GHz signal.

How can I verify that my Time Capsule really IS broadcasting at both 5 and 2.4 GHz?

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson

The curious thing is that my initial reconfigurations of my Time Capsule DIDN'T include intentionally adding a 5 GHz SSID, but when I looked at the information for the network I'd created, it showed that the 5 GHz network was active (without 5 GHz appended to its name), and the channel information was also in the 5 GHz range. I do now see two separate SSIDs. Is it the case that having configured it this way, the 802.11ac Time Capsule won't talk to 2.4 GHz-only devices unless I manually select the network that shows a 2.4 Ghz channel? Or, will the base station automatically switch between the two bandwidths as needed?

Thanks so much.

Jim Robertson

I think I'm almost where I'd like to be. "Old" networks I've created, then deleted from my router no longer appear in the Menu Bar dropdown, but despite several attempts at ordering known networks in the positions I'd like them to appear in that menu (using the "Advanced" button in System Preferences>Network>WiFi and clicking the lock icon to permit changes), the available networks still don't display in the order I've selected.

I guess I'm close enough…

😎