I said why, the router/AP may be trying to move the client to the other SSID. There is no physical way for the 2.4Ghz ONLY Chromecast (client) to see, or know anything about, the 5Ghz band and it’s SSID.
This would be no fault of the Chromecast or any other device that only runs at 2.4Ghz. It would be a faulty router or the implementation of roaming between SSID’s on the router.
[quote=“michaelahess, post:21, topic:41709, full:true”]
…It would be a faulty router or the implementation of roaming between SSID’s on the router.[/quote]
Ya, I guess I’m more inclined to think it is the router’s fault if anything.
Regardless, my recommendation stands…
If you’re having trouble (i.e. I’m not advocating that everyone go rename their SSIDs; this is just a suggestion for people having this particular trouble from my own experience, as well as that of many others, and the manufacturer of at least one such device) trying to connect a 2.4-only device (like a BloomSky or a v1 Chromecast) to a WiFi network that has both 2.4 and 5GHz SSIDs named exactly the same, rename the SSIDs so they are all different so that you can tell it to connect to the SSID which you know for sure is 2.4, and see what happens. Not saying it will fix it in every case, but it did with mine and many others that I have helped with this exact issue over the past couple years).
I had some initial problems connecting mine to my network, which uses the same SSID for both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. The (at least perceived) solution for me was to switch away from TKIP+AES and go to strictly AES. I found some posts elsewhere stating that the BloomSky has issues when TKIP is enabled, plus I no longer have any devices which don’t do WPA2, so I tried it and it worked perfectly.
I also have two, first-gen Chromecasts which work flawlessly with the dual-band setup, so I guess YMMV with that.
Router is a Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H, running OpenWRT
That’s probably why you’re okay. Stock firmware on most routers is awful.
Yes, it is. Can’t speak for OnHub though. Either way, having TKIP enabled when trying to connect my BloomSky seemed to be the issue. I know it’s probably placebo, but my Chromecasts and tablet seem to get a better/faster connection as well.
Edit: perhaps not placebo: TKIP will limit rate to 54 Mbps according to a quick googling.
Yes TKIP = BAD on any modern N/AC gear. I actually ran a third AP just for a few devices that didn’t support AES. Thankfully they are now gone. Juggling three 2.4Ghz channels and trying to keep interference from neighbors manageable, was not fun.
I’ll throw my 2 cents in, I have a Netgear R7000 with stock firmware. My 2.4 and 5ghz networks have the same name and password and no i’m not using a guest network. I also have a working bloomsky, lifx, neurio, and several apple and andriod products and no issues.
I have no chromecast but @Benji is totally right
Unless google has one hidden in the device to spy on you 
The BloomSky device will connect to the Wi-Fi network that your phone or tablet is connected to. You need to force your phone or tablet to the 2g band temporarily in order to complete the setup. Even then the BloomSky can be stubborn and may require multiple attempts. Me personally I also use Ubiquiti Access Points (UAP-AC-PRO) which does allows that functionality along with much more. They’re not Cisco but you can’t argue with the price point of $50-$150 per AP to get some of that “limited” enterprise functionality. In addition the 2g band is extremely overcrowded with everything from baby monitors to microwaves giving interference so placement, channel and TX power is important to get your BloomSky to connect reliably outdoors. I’ve not played with an Onhub but understand it to be a great device, however like Nest this is achieved through Google managing much of the device. This is great for most, but doubtful any amount of hand waving is going to force your phone or tablet to the 2g band needed for setup or if it’s possible to disable 5g temporarily. SSID in itself has no bearing on the band, but the AP can be configured for it to appear that way.
You know what, I completely forgot… I setup my parent’s house back in the UK with an R7000 using the same SSID for both frequencies and they have a Chromecast V1 with no issues 
Completely forgot… But then I also put DD-WRT on it so…
@Joshmcphee you’re kinda right though it entirely depends on what information your phone gives BloomSky when it transfers the connection details to the device. Usually these kind of setups usually just transfer the SSID name/text and the password so it wouldn’t actually matter that your phone was connected to the 5GHz radio at the time.
I had a worrying situation where I thought I had bricked my Rachio Iro when I set it up because I was connected to 5GHz at the time, after speaking with their technical team they informed me that the ‘BlinkUp’ process (what they use to transfer the connection details) only gives the Iro the SSID name and password, not the MAC address of the radio.
If it were to give the MAC address of the 5GHz radio then yes indeed, the BloomSky will just sit there trying to connect to a MAC address that it can never see…
Total agree, not a typically handoff. But understand the suggestion to force the phone or tablet to the 2g band is based off BloomSky documentation which implies more than SSID and key are being relayed.
Without more details or a log file of what’s happening during the “In Just 3 Minutes” this discussion could go on for days with different hypothesis to why some setups fail.
Absolutely although Rachio says the exact same thing when configuring the Iro, the only reason why it seems to have failed wasn’t to do with my phone being on 5GHz but the fact that their ‘BlinkUp’ process (which they thankfully ditched in their 2nd gen) doesn’t work well on anything but an iPhone, go figure.
