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Cannot change preferred band for driver deployment to several computers

PSada
Beginner
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I am looking to configure the advanced adapter settings for the wireless 8260 adapters and deploy to several systems.

Here is what I have done:

  • I have created a wireless profile on a test machine with all the settings and saved it - size is 3KB.
  • Next I used the Intel wireless proset tool to create a package to include the advanced NIC settings. ( I click on Administer -> create a new package -> imported the profile-> included the advanced settings)
  • I save the package - then I click "Apply to this computer". Or I can even double click on the saved package.
  • it applies three out of the four settings that I had configured - HT mode, Roaming aggressivness, Adhoc QOS mode, but, the Preferred band is not applied.

Preferred band, I believe is a per SSID setting - we have to create a profile, include it in there and then import this profile in the package? Do we know why the preferred band setting is not changed? Or is there a different way to apply the preferred band setting?

I did read a previous post about setting the preferred band to 5Gz redirecting to a link to create a profile and include it in there -I followed the steps but couldnt get it working - may be something I did wrong?

Appreciate your help. Thanks.

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9 Replies
idata
Employee
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Hello piyush2017,

 

 

Preferred band is a roaming setting. If your adapter needs to roam to a different network and there is one 2.4 and one 5 GHz network available, it will prefer the 5 GHz network, for example.

 

 

As such, it should be included in your custom package.

 

 

Let us verify some information and try it ourselves to see if we can get to the bottom of it. We'll keep you posted.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
PSada
Beginner
974 Views

Thanks Carlos.

The network is the same on all office floors so I believe the network settings should be the same. We would like the Preferred band setting to be changed only when the laptop is in the office connected to the work network. In other scenarios, the NIC preferred band setting should remain the default - we do not want the setting to break anything when a user connects to their home or other networks. That is why I believe the Preferred Band setting is not part of the custom package - it is SSID specific.

Thank you for looking into this.

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idata
Employee
974 Views

Hello piyush2017,

 

 

The Preferred Band setting won't limit your adapters to 2.4 nor 5 GHz bands.

 

 

For example, you may set this to 5 GHz, and still manually (or automatically, if this is the only saved SSID available) choose to connect to a 2.4 GHz network.

 

 

However, if there are two known networks available, and your router has to choose automatically, this will provide guidance for your adapter on which one to go with.

 

 

Since there's only one network available in your office, this should not affect anything.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
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PSada
Beginner
974 Views

Hi Carlos,

So I understand, the network adapter automatically adjusts to the Preferred Band setting - does it mean it actually changes the advanced setting in the network adapter to adjust?

The default setting for Preferred Band is 2.4GHz, how can we change the default setting to 5GHz on all machines?

Sorry if I'm repeating my questions, just trying to understand because we pending drive deployment in the office.

thanks.

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idata
Employee
974 Views

Hello piyush2017,

 

 

Not quite. The Preferred Band option does not enable, disable, nor limit your adapter to an specific band (be it 2.4 or 5 GHz). The default for this setting is actually "no preference."

 

 

For example, let's say you have the following wireless profiles saved to your computer:

 

 

1. Office 2.4 GHz - 92% Signal

 

2. Office 5 Ghz - 87% Signal

 

3. Break Room 2.5 Ghz - 75% Signal

 

4. Break Room 5 Ghz - 70% Signal

 

 

If your Preferred Band option is set to "Prefer 5.2 GHz band," in this scenario, your computer will connect to the Office 5 Ghz network even though it has slighly less signal strength than the 2.4 network with the same name. If this was set to the default "No Preference," your adapter would choose the network with most signal strength.

 

 

However, if all those networks are available, but the computer only has saved the Break Room 5 Ghz network profile, it will connect to that network regardless. Unless you manually add the password to allow for a better choice.

 

 

On the other hand, if your preferred band option is set to 5 GHz, but there are only 2.4 GHz networks available, your PC will connect to the 2.4 GHz network without any issues.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
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idata
Employee
974 Views

Hello piyush2017,

 

 

We haven't heard back from you in a while. Let us know if you have any additional questions, or if you were able to deploy your drivers successfully.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
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idata
Employee
974 Views

Hello piyush2017,

 

 

We haven't heard back from you in a while. Let us know if you have any additional questions, or if you were able to deploy your drivers successfully.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
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PSada
Beginner
974 Views

We are deploying the drivers without any preferred band setting to let the adapter select the strongest signal available. Thanks for your help - no further queries.

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idata
Employee
974 Views

Hello piyush2017,

 

 

We don't expect you to run into any issues. If you do, please let us know, we're always glad to help.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Carlos A.
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