Setting up your inverter for monitoring involves a crucial step: connecting it to your modem, enabling access to upload information to the internet. However, recent challenges have arisen for many customers during this process, primarily due to a feature called "band steering" present in newer inverters.
What exactly is band steering?
It's a feature designed to detect whether a wireless client is capable of operating on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. If so, it pushes them towards the less congested 5 GHz network. While this offers flexibility for modems, it becomes problematic for inverters, which can only connect to 2.4 GHz networks. Modems may misidentify inverters as dual-band capable and attempt to shift them to the 5 GHz network, thereby preventing connection to the modem.
How do you know if band steering is causing your connection issues?
One method is to check your Wi-Fi settings on your phone or laptop within range of your home Wi-Fi. If band steering is disabled, you should see both your home network and its 5 GHz version listed. Another option is to utilize Wi-Fi analyzer apps available for smartphones or to check Wi-Fi connection properties on Windows.
If you can't find the 5 GHz network, it's likely band steering is causing the problem. Changing these settings varies depending on your modem but is typically done through your modem's settings portal on your PC or laptop. Consult your modem's manual or contact your internet service provider for guidance. Note that band steering issues have been observed in modems from Telstra, Optus, Huawei, TP-Link, and potentially others.
If you're unable to deactivate this setting, you may need to consider purchasing a different modem to utilize your inverter's monitoring capabilities effectively. Alternatively, you can look to install a 2.4GHz WiFi Extender as a dedicated AP or Access Point to which your Inverter, and other 2.4GHz dependant appliances can connect to.