5GHz Wireless Worth It?

By Sir Topham Hatt
in Smart Home, Network & Security

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benthebear

Posted
Posted

Throwing my 2 cents in here, and to back up what others are saying.

 

5GHz is absolutely worth it. Any device that supports it should be connected to it. As others have pointed out, there's a lot of interference with 2.4GHz because just about everything wireless uses it. Do you have a microwave running between the device and the wireless access point (WAP) ? Kiss that connection goodbye until the microwave stops running. If you have the WAP in the same room as your Nintendo Switch, or any console with wireless controllers, you'll experience input lag. Breath of the Wild was not fun until I figured that one out. 

 

I have seen IoT devices have issues if the 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs are combined. I think it would be best to give the 2.4GHz and 5GHz their own SSID. So like "My WiFi-2G" and "My WiFi-5G". Connect the IoT devices to the 2G SSID, and connect any device that supports 5GHz to the 5G SSID. The devices connected to 5GHz will benefit from the boost in speed, and you shouldn't run into any connection issues.

 

Going with the..."proper Alexa," plugs won't help because they're all the same. You're right. They only support 2.4GHz, and they also have the cheapest WiFi antenna in them. 

 

Finally, if it's possible, and it hasn't already been done, move the WAP to a more centralized location in the home. That would kind of help with the coverage issues 5GHz has. I'm assuming here since I don't have a lot of information to go by. ISPs don't care or know much about WiFi. I've been in a lot of homes and businesses where the WAP is on the far end of the location. 

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, BudMan said:

Wire there is no interference.. And you don't have to worry about signal strength, and you don't have to worry about shared bandwidth.. etc. from a gaming perspective - wire wins hands down as well. 

As I said earlier it depends on your equipment.  Many people do have poor equipment for wifi gaming.

 

If you want things to work well with nearly any equipment, wired is certainly the way to go.  2.4ghz is a bit too susceptible to interference for most gamers though I'm sure you can do it.

 

I hadn't mentioned AX but since we're there, many AC routers have a 2x2 antenna layout that would be easy to saturate with multiple users.  AX also makes it easier to get a stronger signal since it's not locked into one frequency and newer features make it less likely you'll be sharing antennas with other machines in use.

 

In general there's a lot to be said for most people to stick with ethernet, it's just not as obvious a necessity as it used to be.

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, LostCat said:

As I said earlier it depends on your equipment.  Many people do have poor equipment for wifi gaming.

 

If you want things to work well with nearly any equipment, wired is certainly the way to go.  2.4ghz is a bit too susceptible to interference on N for most gamers though I'm sure you can do it.

 

I hadn't mentioned AX but since we're there, many AC routers have a 2x2 antenna layout that would be easy to saturate with multiple users.  AX also makes it easier to get a stronger signal since it's not locked into one frequency and newer features make it less likely you'll be sharing antennas with other machines in use.

 

In general there's a lot to be said for most people to stick with ethernet, it's just not as obvious a necessity as it used to be.

2.4 is too susceptible to interference on any wireless spec, not just N.

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

2.4 is too susceptible to interference on any wireless spec, not just N.

Ahh.  I was under the impression they'd added more 2.4 channels with AX, but now that I'm into the technical info I guess not.

 

Thanks.  (I haven't used 2.4ghz for anything I didn't have to in years.)

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, LostCat said:

Ahh.  I was under the impression they'd added more 2.4 channels with AX, but now that I'm into the technical info I guess not.

 

Thanks.  (I haven't used 2.4ghz for anything I didn't have to in years.)

The way I understand it: They added more channels for additional streams, but its still 2.4Ghz and the more streams, the less susceptible to interference. In that its already not in a good place, additional streams just increase the likelihood of disconnections and interference.

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

The way I understand it: They added more channels for additional streams, but its still 2.4Ghz and the more streams, the less susceptible to interference. In that its already not in a good place, additional streams just increase the likelihood of disconnections and interference.

Ugh. Less = more. Didn’t catch the typo. 

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

Posted
  • Administrators
Posted

I hear you but some of my equipment doesn't even support 5GHz like my airco, so I have to have 2.4GHz on in my router. I have so much trouble with Wifi at my house, I've had to clone it upstairs with a homeplug.

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

I hear you but some of my equipment doesn't even support 5GHz like my airco, so I have to have 2.4GHz on in my router. I have so much trouble with Wifi at my house, I've had to clone it upstairs with a homeplug.

Yeah if you are forced to use 2.4, there isn’t much way around it. 

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