2.4ghz vs 5ghz

I have a question that I'm sure has been beaten to death. I just got a Comcast router that broadcasts a 2.4 signal and a 5ghz signal. When I'm near the router and run speed tests on the 5ghz network on my phone I can get upwards of 170mbps down. When I go upstairs to the room above the router I get like 10mpbs down. But if I test in the room above the router on the 2.4ghz network, speeds can be around 60mbps down.

I know range is a downfall of 5ghz vs 2.4ghz, but is it really that dramatic? If so doesn't 5ghz essentially become useless if I need to be that close to the router? I'd rather just wire the connection.

I was hoping with less 5ghz traffic it'd be faster but sure doesn't seem to be worth the hassle. Am I missing something?


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It really depends on the router, distance and the material around your house (wood, metal, concrete, etc). Is range a problem with 5GHz? Could be, but it's not that big of a deal for me (maybe I have a slower connection, 100mbps).

As 5GHz being "useless", it depends on you. If you are fine with the speeds at a certain distance, then maybe not? It could be the problem with the router provided from Comcast itself, I am not that sure. You might want to buy your own network equipment to see if you get any improvements.

No, disabling 5GHz will not make your wireless connection faster, in fact, slower. By disabling 5GHz, you are relying on only 2.4GHz. 2.4GHz is more congested since there's more people using it on their own routers, not even accounting on other 2.4GHz devices (microwaves, bluetooth devices, USB 3.0 devices, etc.) that may possibly cause interference. 5GHz on the other hand, is not as congested since there's not that many people using it(for now), therefore your router can use more spectrum from the 5GHz band to increase bandwidth.

 

I keep to 5ghz for my notebook, it has shorter range than 2.4ghz but i still get a good signal, too much interference on 2.4ghz from other routers/notebooks from neighbors, bluetooth and dect phones use 2.4ghz as well in the UK.

John.

 

5 GHz has shorter range so, at distance, the weaker signal will result in reduction in speed even if there is less interference.

It's useful to run a program such as InSSIDer which shows the available WiFi signals. You can then see how the signal strength is in different rooms and if you also have competing WiFi signals from neighbours.

John

 

There is one more thing worth noting - that is that the antennas are design to provide the best coverage on the same level. There actually is a gap in coverage if you are directly over or under an antenna.
It looks more or less like this:


So one thing is that you might be in the blind-spot and you could have better coverage and as a result throughput on the upper floor if you were actually farther from the router.
Secondly a router has a separate antennas for 2.4GHz and for 5GHz range. These might be mounted in a different orientation causing one range to deal better with vertical coverage than the other. If you have external antennas for 5GHz on your router you might want to consider fiddling with their orientation to improve coverage in vertical plain.

 

I have an ASUS RT-AC68U router, my laptop is about 10-12 feet away from it.

I have always been connecting to the 5GHz network, do you think that 2.4 GHz would be better in my case?

My internet is a fibre optic 100 MBPS down / 20 MBPS up

 

@Phoenix No, I expect 5GHz to do a lot better at this range with such a connection.

Also on the physics front - technically 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band will have the same (or almost the same) range if the transmit power is the same (which it is) and antennas are the same or similar. When we say 5GHz has shorter range because it fades faster when penetrating through obstacles.

So at 30 feet in a large room with no walls 5GHz will do great and so will 2.4GHz but at 30 feet with several walls in between 2.4GHz will do considerably better than 5GHz - something that John hinted at with his link.

 

Alright, thanks man,

 

Hey guys, thanks for the info, definitely some helpful info. In the mean time I'm not going to worry much about it. Laptop concurs to the 5ghz and most everything else connects to the 2.4ghz.

At least swapping the router out has helped to mitigate the network dropping issues I dealt with for years.


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That does seem like a sharp dropoff for 5Ghz but as others have said, there are a lot more things to consider other than just distance.

In my case I am able to use 5ghz even on another floor through a bunch of walls on my GT80S. The link speed is 867mbps, which is the max my router can do. I have had some laptops where they didn't like the 5 band (low speed and disconnects) and I had to revert to the 2.4.

I did put my router in the middle of the house, which happens to be my kitchen. Which means I have an ethernet cable from my cable modem going though the back of all of my cupboards I placed the router on top of my fridge which helped the signal downstairs and upstairs as well.

 

I have personally never experienced a dropoff problem with 5 GHz, unless your place is very big, it shouldn't be an issue at all. The advantages of 5 GHz if you have a lot of close neighbors is well worth the potential downsides. One thing you can do, is run a speedtest and also if you have your network set to share files over devices, try transferring a file to another device and time how long it takes. Make sure it is a large file, like an iso and time it. Use a stopwatch, not the Windows file transfer speed indicator and do the math. It will be more precise and will give you a very good idea of your network performance for file sharing.

There was an article on arstechnica about a grad student using simulations to see where his router would give the best signal to his whole place. I am pretty sure his code or an app using it was available if you feel like doing a bit of googling.

 

Here's a link to the article: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/mapping-wi-fi-dead-zones-with-physics-and-gifs/

 

Awesome, thanks guys. Yea I think the 5Ghz may now be a bit more stable. Not sure what changed. However on my phone it tends to switch from the 5Ghz network to the 2.4Ghz network. But the speeds are definitely better on the 5Ghz network when tested from my laptop. With my phone it really varies. I can be in one spot and get 170+mbps down, and in another spot not more than 5 min later, I'm only getting 5mbps down. Maybe it's the coverage area?

I'm in a town home, and a middle one at that with 3 neighbors to the right and two to the left in the same building structure. So there is plenty of 2.4ghz traffic. What sparked this was finally trading in my old router to Comcast. After dealing with daily network drops for over 2 years I just got tired of it so I finally broke down and traded it when I had time. The new one offers the two different bands. Now that I traded it, My 2.4ghz network drops far far far less frequently. Hardly ever at all really. Only recall one time in the last few weeks I've had the new router. My old router was dropping 2-3+ times a night.

Once I get home i'll definitely check out that article. Looks like a really interesting topic.

 

Doesn't look like the code is available, but if you're feeling like it, the set of equations to solve is there.