So now we are nearing 2021 and what is the situacion re ‘Bandsteering’.
We started to install 30€ costing Tenda AC21 Wifi routers that have Bandsteering working like a charm… (amongst many other features like 6 high gain antennas, MU-Mimo, Beamforming and Gigabit ports and a powerful CPU.
We make clients to pay for them but those that do are over the moon with the increase of Wifi in and around their house.
The band steering works like a charm.
Any device that has dual band immediately connects to the 5Ghz radio, the rest to the 2,4Ghz radio. Out of the box! No configuration needed.
According the manual the device knows/senses which device has dual radio and if it has 5 Ghz it arranges de device to connect to the 5 Ghz radio. No user actions needed. It works.
Now off course these Tenda’s don’t have all the nice features ROS is giving me. For troubleshooting of bandwidth tests from within the Wifi router. So if Mikrotik would get all these nowaday ‘normal’ features working on there Wifi units then that would make them King in Wifi land…
Now I have to decide which clients get the Tenda (most) and which need the extra versatility of ROS at the expense of a poorer Wifi experience…
Most Ideal situation would be a bandsteering (+ 4 Chain (4x4, 4x2) Mu-Mimo, beamforming ) Netmetal for use as an outdoor AP