some devices not connecting to SON

[stratus2]

I have enabled the self organizing network feature and now some devices refuse to connect to the wireless network. My MacBook and iPhone connect fine, but my Ecobee Lite thermostat and Samsung TV will not connect. Yet these devices will connect to the Guest network. I prefer to not have the Guest network enabled but for now it's the only way for these devices to get online. Anyone else have similar issues?

[Edg1 · Accepted solution]

Some wifi devices will get confused with a single SSID. Best thing to do would be to just disable SON. 

[Eludium-Q36]

I recently got FiOS Gigabit service with the G3100 modem/router with SON enabled by default. However, my Wiz smartbulbs were not integrating with it in a reliable manner since they need to operate on 2.4Ghz. So I got these to work properly by disabling the SON feature, renaming the unified network to two -2Ghz and -5Ghz variants and ensured that the 2Ghz network was set to Legacy Mode and the 5Ghz to Compatibility Mode. (I also reduced the firewall settings at the same time to Low from Medium so I'm not sure if that helped or not. I don't think rebooting the router was necessary.)

[RAB86]

Would you be able to share how you did that? I know how to disable the SON, but I can't seem to find where to rename the unified network to two separate networks for the 2Ghz and 5Ghz. I'm having the same issue in which my Apple devices will not consistently connect to the Wifi.

Thanks!

[Cang_Household]

I am not quite understanding this entire post.

Are you trying to resolve the problem by changing the SSIDs or unbridge the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz access points?

Changing the SSIDs will not give you a difference unless they have the same SSID, which is inherently a problem for the devices to differentiate.

If you want to unbridge the 2.4 GHz and 5.0GHz access points, that is making them into VLANs, go to My Networks -> Network Connections -> Network (Home/Office) -> Settings -> Bridge, uncheck the boxes for 5.0GHz and 2.4GHz -> Apply.

Your Apple devices do not connect probably because of another reason as pointed out by other posters recently. Some are conjecturing the Apple devices' names have a space in them, which render the G3100 to refuse to continue their DHCP lease.

[Eludium-Q36]

Login to the router as admin, go to the Wifi block, and under Basic Settings select "On" for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz then name the SSIDs like Fios-Fortress-2Ghz and Fios-Fortress-5Ghz, then hit Save Changes. 

[smith6612]

Just speculation. It's possible the devices having trouble joining the WiFi Network, have difficulties with 802.11r wireless extensions. This is something access point steering and fast roaming utilize, so a device can quickly roam between the FiOS router and an extender without having to completely re-authenticate, or drop the connection entirely for that matter. I don't know if the FiOS routers use 802.11r, but a lot of mesh systems are starting to implement it. I've also seen trouble on Ubiquiti UniFi networks I install and some old devices like the Nintendo Wii (classic), or macOS older than v10.10.

A symptom of this is, the device sees the encryption correctly but the MAC never shows on the wireless clients list, or the device thinks the encryption is WPA2 Enterprise when it is actually WPA2-PSK.