5Ghz SSID extended network

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5Ghz SSID extended network

I use an airport extreme as my primary router, with two airport express units as repeaters (or extenders). One airport express is single band only, so it should be disregarded for any diagnostic questions related to my question.

How can I set up both my extreme and my dual band express to use the same 5Ghz SSID? Whenever I try to make them both use the same 5Ghz SSID, the airport express returns an error that the network cannot be extended - and then, nothing except resetting both devices to default can get them to work together again.

Now I can say, that using different SSIDs for the 5Ghz band does work - but that's just stupid, why should I have a different 5Ghz SSID for every unit extending my network in the 5Ghz range, given that I do not want my 2Ghz and 5Ghz channels all under the same SSID? There must be something I'm not doing right here, or a bug.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Dec 5, 2015 10:32 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 6, 2015 12:03 AM in response to SneakySpency

Interesting..

I used to use 5ghz to extend between older Apple routers.. but testing it with the newer AC unit I cannot extend on 5ghz.. it will not allow it to work.

If you use the AE in normal apple mode the two bands have identical names.. so when you extend the two bands will also have identical names.. this is how apple intend you to run it. It will always now connect on 2.4ghz. If you use a different name for 5ghz it will fail.

I can show you.. with TC and Extreme. (I have no expresses)

It fails automagically.

Click on the Other WiFi Devices to do the setup.

2. The newly reset AE shows up;.

3. With no wires it will attempt to extend wireless from the existing unit. All good up to this point.

4. It actually auto decided to extend 5ghz.. this wasn't such a great choice. SInce in the next step it failed.

5. And the inevitable fail.

Now let me do it the manual way.

Configuring wireless by wireless is like sawing off the branch you are sitting on.

I can manually select 2.4ghz by plugging into the Extreme with ethernet.

If I select 5ghz for extend wireless it fails.

If I select 2.4ghz for extend wireless it succeeds..

Fun ey??

So this will work with a pair of older units.. and it might work on a pair of AC units but it will not work now between AC wireless Extreme and an Express or Extreme that is N wireless.. I suspect the linking is not compatible.

There is another way around your problem.. use your old Express in client mode infront of the new express plugged in by ethernet.. then in the new express you create a wireless network of the same name as the Extreme on 5ghz but it should be different on 2.4ghz to not mess up the other express doing the client mode.

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Answer 2

Dec 6, 2015 11:36 AM in response to SneakySpency

If you are intereseted in top performance, the only way that you will be able o achieve that with two routers is to connect them in a roaming network configuration using Ethernet between the two devices.

Even if you could extend 5 GHz wirelessly, there is going to be a 40-50% potential speed throughput drop over the network due to the overhead requirements for extending a signal using wireless.

Here is what Apple says in their support document on extending a network, which pretty well sums things up:

In the case of a wirelessly extended network, throughput may be reduced to less than 60 percent of that of a single device. The general rule is to keep the Wi-Fi network as simple as possible. You can accomplish this by using the minimum number of Wi-Fi base stations required to service the physical network area and by using Ethernet wherever possible.

Extending the range of your Wi-Fi network by connecting Wi-Fi base stations together using Ethernet is always the best option, and will provide the best throughput.

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