Issue with ASUS Wireless PCE-AC68

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WillyMcFly

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Oct 14, 2014
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I just installed an ASUS PCE-AC68 in my Win7-64 desktop. My Access Point (Airport Extreme) broadcasts 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz using the same SSID which works fine with my laptop. When I am nearer to the AP I connect to 5 GHz AC; however when I'm far away I connect to 2.4GHz N which is normal and it happens seamlessly. However even though the ASUS (Win7 PC) is in the same room as the Access Point I can only connect to the SSID at 2.4 GHz. So to test a theory I gave the 5 Ghz a distinct SSID name different from the original SSID. After renaming the SSID I could then see both SSIDs (2.4 and 5 GHz) on the ASUS wireless card and was able to connect to 5 GHz with no problem. But when I switched back the 5 GHz SSID to the same name as previously I could no longer connect to 5 GHz on the ASUS. I'm not sure why this is the case but it's very odd behavior as the wireless card should be able to connect to 5 GHz even though the SSID is the same since it can connect when the SSIDs are different. Has anyone else experienced such an issue? Thanks.
 
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Windows tends to be too smart for its own good. It will connect to the strongest signal it sees the instant you tell it to connect for that SSID. It does not always choose well and tend to stay connected to a poor signal even when a better one is available. You might be able to force it to say connect to 802.11ac by changing your pc driver to only support 802.11ac but not all have that option. 2.4g tends to be stronger signal levels at the same distance from the router. But its hard to say when both are near maximum how it selects.

This tends to be the trade off. You can set the ssid to different and manually control it or let windows do the best it can. This is the same trade off you make when you have multiple AP running...
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Windows tends to be too smart for its own good. It will connect to the strongest signal it sees the instant you tell it to connect for that SSID. It does not always choose well and tend to stay connected to a poor signal even when a better one is available. You might be able to force it to say connect to 802.11ac by changing your pc driver to only support 802.11ac but not all have that option. 2.4g tends to be stronger signal levels at the same distance from the router. But its hard to say when both are near maximum how it selects.

This tends to be the trade off. You can set the ssid to different and manually control it or let windows do the best it can. This is the same trade off you make when you have multiple AP running in your house.

I normally set the 5g and 2.4g to different ssid so I can force the connection where I want it to be.
 
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WillyMcFly

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Oct 14, 2014
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Thanks for your response. You've described the issue quite accurately. As someone who has used mostly Mac OS laptops the last several years during the boom of WiFi this is the first time I've worked with Windows in a wireless environment. I wonder if Windows 8 would manage it better? At this point I'm content to let it run on 802.11n because my internet link is only 30 Mbps and I can saturate the link with traffic from the Windows workstation so connecting at higher rates isn't going to give me any advantage. It's interesting how all this works because with my MacBook I'd only connect to 802.11ac when i was in the same room as the AP or thereabouts but since I just upgraded tonight to Yosemite (OS X 10.10) I can connect 802.11ac in rooms pretty far away from the AP so it really underscores as you say that the software plays a very significant role in how you connect to the wireless network. Thanks again.
 
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