I noticed that from time to time my RPi4 as wlan client was instable. I checked my router and the wireless connection to the Astroberry Pi.
The Pi always get a 5GHz link and at the current location the RX level was about -83dBm which close to the minium needed RX level I know.

So I went back to "Advanced network configuration" and changed in "Wireless connection" from "A 5GHz to B/C 2.4GHz". (I left the "Hotspot" at A 5GHz".)
Than I did a reboot but again the RPi connects to 5GHz network link

Is there a bug in the "Astroberry SW" or what can I do to force the RPi to establish only a 2.4GHz link in my home network (I will not change anything in my homenetwork!).

CS
Hard

I added also the BSSID (the 2.4GHz MAC adress of my router Fritzbox 7590) and no success. The RPi is still logging in to 5GHz network.
After that I added also the wlan0 adress of the RPi but still the same.
No chance to bring the RPi into my 2.4GHz networks. So I would say the possible configuration field seems to be more or less useless

Maybe someone has an additional idea?

To bring this to an end I must say I give up.

I had a discussion with an expert and he had some other ideas but finally it seems there is no chance to bring an RPi from one band to another without giving two different networks SSID´s.
So from my point of view the configuration field (see screenshot above) is useless.
Thats also if you type in the relevant BSSID. The RPi does use the best network and does not allow to change manually.

Strictly speaking this is a Raspberry Pi issue and not a Astroberry issue, I'd recommend you try the Raspberry Pi forums.

But yes, I would recommend that if you have both 5GHz and 2.4GHz wireless networks that you give them different SSIDs.

From the Raspberry Pi Forums, you can go to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Add an entry for your network, something like this:

The freq_list above, selects only the 2.4Ghz channels.

Here is a reference for the frequencies of each channel: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

I cn choose on my RPI which band to use and it sticks to it fine....but I have the 2.4 and 5ghz bands separate in my router...you are correct in changing the WLAN0 to 5ghz, that’s all you need to do, so I guess you have another issue that is stopping this from working, it’s not an Astroberry issue, as I know of many many people who choose one band over another....

Thanks all for your answers!

Yes, if using 2 different SSID in my network I can determine which network to use but as said in my first post I will not change anything in my large network.
I thought filling in the parameters (screenshot) would do the expected job.

I checked the "/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" config but this file is empty.
So I think the relevant information is somewhere else. I installed "Astroberry" from an image.

If someone knows where I can find this config file...?

CS
Hardy

Yes, Astroberry, by deffault, will use Network Manager, if you put the entries into the wpa_supplicant.conf file (CLI Based manual network config) then you will need to stop using Network Manager (GUI based network config).

The procedure for going down this route requires that you learn about Raspberry OS / Raspbian OS and check the specific forums. (www.raspberrypi.org/forums/ )

Neither the wpa_supplicant nor Network Manager are parts of Astroberry, Astroberry is just a set of tools configured on top of Raspberry OS / Raspbian OS.

In any case, it is always recommended to use Ethernet really, for performance and stability. There are lots of things that can interfere with Wifi, not least the electronics of the Pi itself. Ethernet will always be fastest, 5Ghz Wifi will normally be next fastest, and 2.4Ghz Wifi will usually be the slowest.

Have you thought about just getting a 5Ghz Wifi booster that you can place somewhere in-between your Wifi Router and the Telescope location?

Currently the LOS is only about 6m between the router (equiped with additional antennas "FritzTender") and the RPi without any wall bewteen them.
But when placing the RPi on the floor RX level drops to -83dBm. Currently I changed the position only 1m closer and on a table. RX level changed to -63dBm which is really good.
When using my telescope mount in the future the LOS will be around 7m. I did not test so far but my idea was, just easy changing to 2.4GHz ever to avoid any problem of RX level.
And yes, idea is good with repater. I use one to get in contact to my basement networks with some 3D printers and RPi´s. Works very well on 2.4GHz through 2 concret walls! But another repeater for only such short distance is a nogo for me:whistle:

And of course yes you are right with Eth. It would be possible to use a cable through my living room outside to my mount but I would like to avoid that.

Regarding the empty "/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" ...
I checked via SSH / Putty and the file is not existant. I´m not an Linux expert, just trying to get all neccessary info from the web and make things running...
But as I understand I have to stop GUI and check once more...

Well, you seem to be aware of the methods to get round this. I appreciate you're not a Linux expert, but the problem has been encountered by others and is well discussed on the Raspberry Pi forums.

The reason I use different SSIDs for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz is that I always want my 5Ghz capable devices to use 5Ghz (it is much faster when it works). If the SSID for 2.4Ghz is the same as 5Ghz then sometimes my laptop might re-associate with a 2.4Ghz signal and I will lose my video conference quality etc... So by hard coding different SSIDs I get over that problem. I would rather stay on 5Ghz not working than have to move to 2.4Ghz and get less performance... Appreciate that you don't want to change your entire Wifi set up everywhere, but it is actually a better configuration to keep them separate.

Also, I use 4 Devolo DLAN1200+ devices with Wifi MIMO configured in different parts of my house, and I have a further 4 Devolo DLAN1200+ with just Ethernet ports in other places, so my Wifi is strong everywhere, and even works in the furthest parts of my garden.

Well, the configiuration field GUI shown in my first post suggests that is seems to be an easy job...
Just tell what is prefered and it´s done. I never expected that there is so much behind this.

Referring to split the network in 2 separate SSID´s would be possible since all my commercial clients (iPad, smartphones, notebook) could run on 5GHz and it´s easy to configure them.
All my other WiFi devices are Androids, WEMOS and ESP32´s and would need to re-code them. Ok, most easy solution would be to to split the network and give the 5GHz a new SSID....

I will think about this and also I need to do a practical test outside the building with my RPi if there is really a problem. Unfortunately rain, rain, rain, here... Did not see the stars since mid of Dec 2020.

Yes, the weather has been the same here, clouds, rain, more clouds... I think this is quite unusual, but I did get 1 night in January (with the Moon).

It is complicated, and I think this is a bug in Network Manager (GUI Based Network Config), to overcome that you revert to use the CLI based config - and a part of that is the wpa_supplicant.conf file, but you also need to remove wlan0 from Network Manager - there is a way to do this, but there might be other steps - so asking to consult the Pi forums for more information is the way to go.

Hope you get over the problems, as I said, I just spent money on making sure my Wifi signal is strong everywhere, which is not just an Astronomy expenditure, all my mobile devices benefit from it.