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I currently have the retina MacBook Pro running OS X lion and want to force the wireless card to only connect only to 5GHz networks.

Both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz have the same SSID so I can not pick which band the wireless card connects to.

Notes: I live in a college dorm, so renaming networks is not an option. They do not have 2 different names in the preferred networks list. The network also needs a 802.1X profile to connect to the network. (I can modify it if needed) The security is TTLS with PAP.

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Awww, I came here expecting to find answers of how to overclock my MBP :( – Darth Android Oct 1 '12 at 19:42
Hrm, windows allows you to choose the band I think. Is there a way to change the roaming aggressiveness to very low or zero, or force connect to 1 mac address? – cloneman Oct 2 '12 at 7:50
That's windows. Is there a way to force connections based on MAC addresses in on OS X Lion? (Also note I have to use a 802.1X configuration to connect because this is OS X Lion.) – Sid Oct 2 '12 at 16:47

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Apple does not provide an API for forcing the band selection.

If you're seeing a bug or suboptimal behavior out of the band selection algorithm, it might be interesting to see the output from the "Wi-Fi" section of a full System Profiler report, because that'll show your current connection as well as the signal strength and other parameters of the other APs around you.

Well, on second thought, I suppose that only scratches the surface, because that wouldn't show how busy those other channels are, and it wouldn't show the effects of non-Wi-Fi interferers.

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It isn't a bug in a selection, there are multiple APs broadcasting both at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz channels are extremely crowded. If I am in a certain part of the room, the card connects to the 5GHz but when I move it back to my desk it reconnects to a 2.4 GHz channel. – Sid Oct 1 '12 at 20:07

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