Connection Issue with the Router: After all Smart Devices are not that Smart!

Recently, we upgraded our router and purchased Netgear Nighthawk AX6. We set it up, connected all our devices (laptops and phones) and totally forgot about to it. Since it was holiday time, we didn’t care much about connecting other “smart” devices — such as printer, iRobot, among many others.

Now, one day I needed some print outs. We don’t usually keep the USB cable (I know we are the culprit!) since we rely on the WiFi connection to connect to these smart devices. I started setting up my printer assuming it to be a five minute job, however, ended up wasted four hours in connecting the printer to the router. I followed the Canon guide instruction by instruction and tried all ways to troubleshoot the issue, with no success. That was frustrating! Eventually, I gave up and visited OfficeDepot to get things done. I tried again on the weekend (I should rather say wasted my weekend) and ended up buying a USB cable for my printer (yes, we lost!).

A few days later, we thought of setting up the Roomba! Guess what, even Roomba didn’t connect. But that was a good news for me. I now knew that the problem is in the router and not the device itself. And it turns out that the router is actually too smart for these “smart” devices.

Let’s understand the issue. Today (actually for a long time now), routers have been using two frequency bands to connect to a WiFi enabled device: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. While 2.4 GHz is to access the WiFi from a distance, 5 GHz signal is powerful and typically used to access WiFi in smaller vicinity. Since 5 GHz signal is powerful, that means it also consumes more power than 2.4 GHz band. Therefore, low-powered, microcontroller based “smart” devices typically use WiFi modules that can only connect to 2.4 GHz. I know that some of you might be jumping the gun at this point and thinking: com’n Milan, how could you not know such a basic thing? Sorry to disappoint you, I knew this and this was not the problem! :)

Since these “smart” devices only support 2.4 GHz, they won’t even provide you an option to connect to the 5 GHz signal. The problem was somewhere else. Within these bands, there are smaller bands which are referred to as WiFi channels. For instance, the 2.4 GHz band has 11 channels of 20 MHz overlapping with each other. Certain channels yield better performance because they are non-overlapping — for instance 1, 5, and 11. Now, at any time, router automatically chooses the channel that can provide maximum network throughput. In my previous router, the channel was fixed, however, the channel selection was set to auto mode in this new router!

Now, for some reason, these “smart” devices don’t like the auto mode. So, I went on to the router settings and fixed my 2.4 GHz band to channel 1. Voila! Everything started connecting seamlessly. That feeling of satisfaction!!

So, if you are facing a similar solution, try this and see if it works.

• Connect to your WiFi network.
• Open the browser and enter http://192.168.1.1 and hit enter. A login screen (like below) should pop. If it doesn’t, either you are not connected to your router, or your router might be using a different address (check on the back of your router), or a firewall or antivirus might be blocking it. Try to debug this and get to this login screen.

• Once you enter the username and password (again you can find this information on the back of your router), you will see a dashboard.
• On the dashboard, find Wireless Settings and go to your 2.4 GHz band settings. For me, the Wireless tab was right there on the dashboard. If you are using Netgear, the dashboard will be more or less same.

• Under the channel, if in auto, select a channel number (higher doesn’t mean better). I chose Channel 1 for no specific reason.
• Click Apply Settings (or Save) on the bottom of the page and now try connecting your “smart” devices to the WiFi network. That’s it!

You must note here that Channel 1 (or any channel you select) might not provide the best network performance all the time and therefore auto mode is the thing. But I only use 2.4 GHz network to connect to these devices. For all my other devices, I anyways use the 5 GHz signal. So, I am cool with it!

So, if you are facing issues in connecting your “smart” devices to your “smart” router, I hope my small experience and troubleshooting guide will help you. If not, I will look forward to your experiences in the comments.