cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

GT-AC5300 router - Three SSIDs vs. one SSID transmitted. How does this work?

Hoggorm
Level 7
Hello,

I'm considering the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 router. The router I have today handles both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz bands but there is only one SSID and I assume that my devices chooses what band to use automatically?

Now on the GT-AC5300 router I see that it transmits three SSIDs instead of one. Is this not a bit more hazzle? I assume that I have to connect my phone to at least two of them (not the 5 GHz gaming SSID though).

And let’s say that initially SSID 1 is the best choice. Now what happens if I move about the range of my router connected to SSID 1 and enters an area where SSID 2 would be better? Will my device then change automatically or do I risk staying connected to a band not optimal for the location I'm at?

Is it possible to set up the same SSID name so that this change is handled automatically?

If you own the GT-AC5300 router - how does this work for you?

Thank you 🙂
3,295 Views
4 REPLIES 4

davemon50
Level 11
I don't own that particular router myself, and have only owned dual band routers not tri-band. But every dual band one I have owned allows discreet SSID's for each band. However, you do have the option for all the routers I've seen to disable bands if you like, and if you don't disable any bands, you also have the option to set the SSID's PW to be the same for each band.

If your end-use devices are set to auto-select their band, you probably have no need to worry if it has to switch, so long as you have previously trained the device to memorize the SSID and PW for each band. It will be relatively seamless to you as you use the device, although you might get a temporary warning that you are disconnected if it switches over.

I currently have two dual-band routers and two dual-band extenders all running simultaneously on my property. Each has a unique SSID and PW for each band, so total of 8, and I never have an issue (we will agree to knock on wood here). Actually it makes it easier to cope whenever one of them decides the IP is no longer good for one of my end-use devices being used. 🙂
Davemon50

davemon50 wrote:
It will be relatively seamless to you as you use the device, although you might get a temporary warning that you are disconnected if it switches over


Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately this temporary disconnect is exactly what I feared and would like to avoid...

Hoggorm wrote:
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately this temporary disconnect is exactly what I feared and would like to avoid...


Interested in this discussion.
I currently utilize 3 same SSID's - without smartconnect.
I never saw a disconnect message (aside from far range/my iphone asking to reinput the wifi pw), but never searched through the logs to see if there is a millisecond/second actual disconnect, if say an iphone is roaming around the house and jumps from 5ghz #1 to 5ghz #2.

FWIW my RT- AC68U actually has 4 SSIDs. One for each band, and then one guest SSID for each band.