On 12-16-2024 04:21PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
I have classified the post as OT because it is not about Linux, but the consequences of doing what these IoT tell us to do affect our Linux machines.
Excuse possible spelling errors, aspell crashes (locks in black, actually).
Long ago I got a router that has the 2.4 Ghz band and the new 5 Ghzx band. The ISP had it configured with two similar but different SSID. Here someone recomended to change to the same SSID and leave it to automatics to choose which band to use. He was right, laptops and phones are happy.
Then a few months ago I had installed a remote controller for a water heating system for a house, from Daunier Duval. The technician, when setting up the internet connection for the device, which is done from the phone app, not from a setup menu on the gadget, said that the double band WiFi I had was not compatible, that I had to separate them. OR, we can use the guest band, that typically is separate. We did that and it worked.
Yesterday I was setting up a weather station (<https://www.amazon.co.uk/ gp/product/B0DDTG79J2/>). The setting up is done in the phone. You have to download an app, register, and follow the instructions. When it reached the WiFi part, it complained that the phone was on the 5 Ghz band, and the gadget is 2.4 only. The instructions warned that double band is not compatible, and that possibly I'd have to separate the bands. I sat there, puzzled, for a while. I thought about setting up the guest band. But at the end, I told the app to continue, it asked for the SSID password, and the thing worked just fine.
Bullet avoided, this time.
Why are these IoT gadgets telling us to separate the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands? What does it matter to them that there is also an SSID with the same name in another band, that the actual gadget can not even see because it is on 5 GHz, and they do not have hardware to receive that band? It is only the app on the phone setup tool which can see the double band and complain.
Obviously, sepparating these bands is a bad thing for our (Linux) laptops. But if this happens to you, you have two posibilities: ignore the warning and try, and if it fails, setup the guest WiFi with separate SSIDs or even with no 5Ghz band.
-- Cheers
Carlos E. R. (from 15.5 x86_64 at Telcontar)
Thank you for writing this out, It was informative.