topic Re: Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows in Wireless

Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

Gucamole — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 21:33:00 GMT

Hello,

I noticed that under device manager-->wireless card(intel). We can change the Preferred band to "Prefer 5GHZ band" on a Windows laptop.

Is it a good idea to configure this option in an enterprise to all machines or it's just to leave it "no Preference" and let the AP do the band steering?
Has anyone implemented this configuration in their organization before?

Re: Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

aleabrahao — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 22:31:28 GMT

I've already configured it in environments where the client was having a lot of problems regarding band selection, but generally I leave what comes standard in the system.

Of course, 5Ghz is much better than 2.4Ghz, so I suggest testing it on some machines first.

Re: Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

Gucamole — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 23:23:07 GMT

How can I really test it? I tested it on my laptop manually and it worked just fine. Is it best practice to just leave it as is and only mess with it if an issue comes up? Are there reports we can run to see daily 2.4GHz and 5GHz uses?

Re: Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

aleabrahao — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:36:19 GMT

There is no document stating whether or not it is a good practice, what I can say is, if possible, only use 5Ghz.

Re: Changing Wireless Band preference to 5GHz on Windows

danjns — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 05:35:13 GMT

I'd be careful changing things like this... honestly, the best option is just to disable 2.4 GHz band. If you NEED 2.4 GHz just create a separate 2.4 GHz SSID only. This is the only way to guarantee that 5 GHz capable devices use 5 GHz.