How to set up simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi as WAN

you want wifi as wan as priority 1 or to bond multiple wifi as wan connections using speedfusion or just have multiple wifi as wan connections in priority 1 using outbound rules for which is utilized? please be more clear on exactly what you want.

I would like to be able to do what this thread was started to describe primarily, though, if I need a new device I would like to consider other options for combining WAN connections simultaneously for more bandwidth. I travel fulltime in an RV, and being able to combine Wifi WAN connections, be it from mobile hotspots, campground wifi, or whatever else is available, would be great.

For instance, right now I am in a campground where both ATT and Verizon are not all that great, but combined they could get me consistently to 5 or 6 Mb speeds consistently, as they vary up and down each. So having both hotspots connected via WAN over Wifi, or one on USB and the other with Wan over Wifi, using bandwidth from both would be a great solution.

“combining” can mean a few different things

speedfusion bonding has overhead so depending what you are trying to combine, it might not be worth it. you will also need another peplink device hosted somewhere like in a data center or setup a solo hub in the cloud

standard load balancing or having multiple connections ready and available does not usually combine bandwidth. i.e. if you run a speed test, you will not see a higher upload and download speed. its based on which path/connection the data is flowing.

The simplest approach to increasing the capacity of your connection in the Verizon+AT&T scenario is to have a dual-WAN device with load balancing. Peplink has a number of different ways to achieve that, the simplest probably being a Max Transit Duo. It has two cellular modems which can work simultaneously, and you balance the traffic across both carriers.

For a single-cellular option there are devices allowing two SIM cards, and you manually or (somewhat) automatically choose which carrier to employ, depending on their availability wherever you happen to be.

To combine a USB modem with WiFI as WAN for two connections strikes me as a bit of a jury rig, and unlikely to be satisfactory as a regularly employed solution for continuous use (the carrier-marketed hotspots seem - in my experience - not to be trustworthy for continuous 24/7 style use).

As @mystery points out, going to the next level with a speedfusion bonding setup requires a bit more infrastructure (you need the other end - another peplink device or a SpeedFusion hub in the cloud), but is a tad more robust under certain scenarios.

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OK, so this whole thread is based on the initial post about using both 2.4 and 5 Ghz WiFi connections simultaneously, for what I assume would be more bandwidth available over the single connection, and it says it will load balance the connections. In my case I just want to do that but the 2 WiFi bands would just be from different hotspots to provide a little more bandwidth and stability by having the two sources live at the same time to cover when one or the other is running slowly or drops. My current setup with the SOHO is just providing failover in failure, and it would be great to get a little more capability for resilience and speed.

"*What is it?
On select devices with dual active radios, 2x Wi-Fi-as-WAN connections can be defined, placed into the same connection priority , utilizing both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands simultaneously.

If you’re looking to setup simultaneous Wi-Fi as WAN and Wi-Fi AP , go here .
If you’re looking to set up dual-band failover Wi-Fi WAN , then please see: How to set up dual-band failover for Wi-Fi as WAN

Example:
You are in a RV. The campground you’re parked at broadcasts “Campground WiFi 2.4Ghz” and “Campground WiFi 5Ghz”. You use the “Campground WiFi 2.4Ghz” as the WAN source on the 2.4GHz frequency and at the same time, use the second “Campground WiFi 5Ghz” Wi-Fi SSID from the campground as the WAN source on the 5GHz frequency.
When placed in the same connection priority, these two Wi-Fi WAN connections can be active at the same time and load-balanced."

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ok that is what i am currently doing and its super easy…

drag both wifi as wan 2.4 and wifi as wan 5ghz to the priority 1 slot and connect to wifi networks on each

it should load balance both by default

consider changing the outgoing rule from auto to fastest response to test which works best for you

It would appear that the Surf SOHO model does not do it though, so I am trying to figure out which model I would need to upgrade to for this capability.

What are you using?

@Naldiian

Do consider MAX transit models as describe in the first post.

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check peplink’s website

they list all the pepwaves that do wifi as wan

i have the mk2

I dont need the cellular modems, just want dual WiFi connections at the same time. The Surf SOHO has Wifi WAN, just wont let me put both 2.4 and 5 Ghz in priority 1 at the same time.

maybe there is a hardware limitation? if not, maybe submit a feature request for them to change it so it does it? i think they would sell quite a few of these units if they changed it to allow. i know some folks that would buy them for their boats!