Google Wi-Fi Lack of Being Able to Select Wi-Fi Band

Kintarō Hattori · 05-03-2025 01:56PM #1

Hey Folks,

This has always been frustrating but is doubly so today. I bought a Lepro light for the porch with the view that when someone pressed the Ring doorbell, this would come on automatically. However, it is a 2.4Ghz problem which generally hasn't been an issue but it is today. The Lepro app won't pick up a 2.4Ghz signal and you can't specify which you want when using Google Wi-Fi.
I've had a look online and the solutions provided just don't seem to work, switch your wi-fi on/off quickly when the app is looking to connect, use your phone's hotspot etc.

Short of ditching Google Wi-Fi for something that allows a little more control, has anyone here experienced similar issues and if you did, did you manage to get around it?

Many thanks.

ted1 · 05-03-2025 02:08PM

Google has both bands turned on. Your device should connect to either band , Google shouldn’t decide

Kintarō Hattori · 05-03-2025 02:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234073#Comment_123234073

It's not connecting at all unfortunately. I can pick the network to connect to but it just looks me back to the network selection option afterwards.

Mickeroo · 05-03-2025 02:33PM

I think I might have had a similar issue with a smart plug and I got around it by being as far as possible away from the google wifi when setting it up, so it would only be able to use 2.4Ghz. Not the most elegant solution but worth a try maybe if you haven't already.

irelandrover · 05-03-2025 02:35PM

I had this with a robot vacuum. It will not connect to the 2.4GHz from the google router. I set up a 2.4GHz wifi hopspot on my phone with the same name, turned off the google router and set up the vacuum.

After it was initially set up it would connect no problem to the Google wifi.

Kintarō Hattori · 05-03-2025 02:59PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234201#Comment_123234201

I tried this (Pixel 7a) and it didn't seem to work. I'll have another go with the partners phone when she gets home.

Kintarō Hattori · 05-03-2025 02:59PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234194#Comment_123234194

How far away did you go? I went out past my front gate to a green that's about 30 feet away from the router.

Mickeroo · 05-03-2025 03:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234292#Comment_123234292

Hah! I just found a spot in the house where the wifi signal looked low ( I turned off all the google wifi routers apart from the main one).

Kintarō Hattori · 05-03-2025 03:35PM

I have a bit of a messy situation in regards to hardware. The Siro modem plugs into my Fritzbox which is in turn connected to Google Wi-Fi. I wonder if I head into the Fritzbox and turn wi-fi on, gave the same SSID and password as the Google Wi-Fi network, would that solve the issue? (networks are not a strongpoint!).

Kintarō Hattori · 06-03-2025 03:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234194#Comment_123234194

So this worked. I closed the front door, walked out onto the road and it found the light. Brilliant. I now have the light set to come on when the Ring doorbell is pressed, using an Alexa routine. I have to admit to not knowing a huge amount about Alexa as I've traditionally used Google. I couldn't see an elegant way to turn off the porch light once it had come on so set a customised action of turning off the light after a few minutes (once turned on). Is there any better way than this?

JamBur · 06-03-2025 03:28PM

For future reference, i had similar issues when I had Nest wifi as well. Set the device you are using to setup the Lepro to 2.4Ghz. (Set your phone to 2.4 only) Sometimes smart devices will use the network your setup device is on as the network to connect to.

I changed to Deco x50s with wired backhaul a few years back. Network has been rock stable since.

Mickeroo · 06-03-2025 03:30PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123237947#Comment_123237947

Glad you got the light set up, can't help with the alexa routines as I'm not familiar with them unfortunately but what you've done sounds like a good idea to me.

Snaga · 06-03-2025 04:05PM

Some "Smart" devices use extremely low cost wifi radios with out of date drivers that simply refuse to connect to a network if its both advertised on the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz radios at the same time. The distance thing above is a hilarious illustration of this, when the 5ghz signal is out of range the device connects just fine to the 2.4Ghz because it no longer sees the 5Ghz one.

Some wifi routers will allow an IOT or guest network and you can enable that and limit it to 2.4Ghz-only to get around this. Otherwise a cheap WIFI extender with just a 2.4Ghz network enabled can be plugged into the main router to do the same thing.

As wifi networks get more complex and mesh becomes more prevalent, the routers retain a lot more control and so give you less flexibility in configuring the network/channels etc... Most of these cheap IOT wifi chips are not even being made any more but it takes few years for them to get out of the supply chain, so it is a problem that will go away eventually.

Kintarō Hattori · 10-03-2025 09:34AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123238029#Comment_123238029

Double whammy as I use a Google Pixel and you can't split/select the network with them.

Kintarō Hattori · 10-03-2025 09:42AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123238032#Comment_123238032

After a bit of reading I discovered the wait command would be a good solution. The light comes on after being pressed, wait 3 minutes after that and then the next action is to turn off.

Google Wi-Fi Lack of Being Able to Select Wi-Fi Band

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