How to Set Smart Devices on a two.four GHz Connection

Here's a handy workaround for smart home devices that crave a 2.4 GHz connection

Craig Hanks

YouTube Aqueduct Manager & Streaming Expert

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We talk most smart home devices quite a scrap, but there'southward an upshot that I ran into and I know a lot of y'all have run into it as well. And that's trying to set a smart domicile device that specifies that it needs a 2.four gigahertz (GHz) connexion.

But this device just isn't connecting and it won't seem to work. Well, I figured out a workaround that yous tin can utilise for that: If you're using a Wi-Fi organization that chooses automatically, you lot just need to get far enough away from the router to flip over to that ii.four GHz connexion.

Read on to find out how I got my Wi-Fi to stick with the correct frequency and learn more about the difference between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

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2.4 GHz isn't ever the standard Wi-Fi setup

So, sometimes the solution is as unproblematic as flipping a switch on your router so that it's transmitting in 2.4 GHz, and that'southward the connectedness you lot're using.

Merely that's simply available on some routers. Either older routers or kind of higher-end routers that have an actual physical switch, or they're highly customizable with software that lets you brand those changes easily in the background.

A lot of newer mesh systems and supposedly user-friendly systems (Google Nest Wi-Fi, Amazon eero), don't allow y'all brand that choice. They try to brand things easy past taking away certain choices like whether you want to connect via 5 GHz or 2.iv GHz. They just make that decision automatically based on the location of the device you're using—they will always default to five GHz if they can, and in that location's a reason for that.

Just yous'll need a workaround if you take a device that requires 2.4 GHz and yous can only seem to get a v GHz connexion.

The difference betwixt ii.4 GHz and 5 GHz

Offset, y'all accept to understand what the two types of connections are. With 5 GHz, it's a faster, more powerful connection, just the distance on it is a little bit express.

And two.4 GHz is kind of the opposite. It'due south a little less robust, but information technology tin can encompass a greater distance and piece of work amend through walls.

How to get the right Wi-Fi frequency

And how practise you brand your device connect to the 2.4 GHz? Well, pretty easily, actually.

So, whatever the device is—in this case it's a light seedling—I just need to get to the edge of my Wi-Fi coverage. And when I get to the border of that coverage, it'due south going to automatically flip over to that 2.four GHz connexion considering that's the simply 1 that's available at that altitude.

So in this example, like I said, I'g going to illustrate with a smart calorie-free seedling. It'south a cheaper off-make i (read: not the Philips Hue brand). So it doesn't utilize a hub. Information technology connects directly to your Wi-Fi, which is neat in some ways, only it has to be gear up on that 2.iv GHz band.

So I just plug it in out at the border of the Wi-Fi coverage. And and then I get through the setup process and in one case that'due south washed, once information technology's confirmed and I've gone through that whole thing, it'southward on the Wi-Fi network. Then I can get move it back wherever I want in the house.

As a matter of fact, you just demand that 2.iv GHz connection during setup because once it's on the network, it's on the network. So I was able to take 10 of these different light bulbs and prepare them all up kind of out in my driveway. And so I took them dorsum into my studio and they were ready to become.

You'll have to become creative for some devices

Now calorie-free bulbs are one affair. Other devices might be a little scrap trickier.

If it's a device that's not so portable, like a smart outlet or smart lite switches, you can't just take it out to the driveway. But just remember the principle that we're talking well-nigh hither of a ii.four GHz connection being on the edge of your router'south coverage.

So if I'k using a mesh Wi-Fi system, maybe I temporarily unplug the closest router so that the device has to connect with one a piddling further abroad. Or maybe I move the router itself as far equally possible from the device during the setup process. Or, hey, if you've got a router that lets you do information technology, just flip that switch.

Now this is but one trick I've learned for how to solve this problem. I know there are others. So if you accept whatsoever other tips and tricks to suggest, or if y'all have whatsoever questions well-nigh your state of affairs, tell us and let's help each other out with that.

Craig Hanks

Written by

Craig Hanks

Craig is a long-time writer, presenter, and podcaster, and he now runs the Reviews.org YouTube aqueduct, where he strives to be far more than charming and presentable than he is in real life. Inside the Reviews.org umbrella, he has accidentally get a streaming expert after covering the streaming wars for virtually three years. Craig is also the founder and host of The Legendarium Podcast, his outlet for his honey of fantasy and sci-fi literature.

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