“Why is my WiFi slow and how can I improve it?”
I am going to write a brief blog on what is required to take advantage of the higher speeds your Internet Service Provider (ISP) delivers to your home. There are some newer technologies coming to market, like WiFi6 that I am not going to touch on in this blog. We will discuss that at a later time. At present, what most people have is either a router provided by their ISP as part of their monthly subscription to their services, or they own their own router that they purchased in a store or online. Unless you have a router from several years ago, the router you have, whether you own it or it belongs to your ISP is a dual band router. This means it works on two frequencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Your router may broadcast 2 SSIDs (essentially, this is your WiFi name you see when searching for a network), or it may broadcast one SSID that combines the two bands in the background. If it does broadcast two bands, it will likely look something like:
My Wifi
My Wifi_5GHz
Many may be wondering why they have two separate bands and what the differences are. Let’s discuss what the differences are, why you have both, and what you can do to improve speeds throughout your house.
What is 2.4GHz
1) 2.4GHz - This is a common frequency used by many wireless devices, not just Wifi. It is possible that you can pickup some interference on this frequency. It is not that common, but can happen. Baby monitors are an example of devices that are known to interfere and cause WiFi issues, if both are working on the 2.4 frequency. This band has speed limitations, with maximum Mbps (Mega bits per second) being roughly 60 Mbps. Knowing that your ISP is providing you with 200, 300, 400 or even more Mbps, you may ask why would anyone use this band then? The answer is actually pretty simple. 2.4GHz offers great range, and penetration. What exactly do I mean by this? Well, the wireless signal will reach fairly far as well as go through walls, doors, windows and other structures within the house/building. For years, this was more than sufficient as the only band, as speeds did not come close to the 60 Mbps limitation. It was the perfect solution at the time. We can break it down further as there are different 2.4GHz standards, but in the spirit of not getting too complicated, we are keeping it to the basics to understand why we have two bands and how you utilize both. So why do we still use 2.4GHz and not rely only on 5GHz. Well lets discuss 5GHz below.
What is 5GHz
2) 5GHz - This frequency is what can provide you with faster speeds. Where 2.4GHz tops out at approximately 60 Mbps, 5 GHz keeps going, past 60 and on up to 1 Gbps (in theory. Other factors would need to be considered). This means if you wish to take advantage of the 300 Mbps plan you are paying for from your ISP, you will want to use the 5GHz band. Unlike 2.4 GHz, the range on 5GHz is limited and penetration is poor. This is why a lot of people find their devices do not perform as they believe they should. What often happens is the modem is placed in the basement, along with their router. They will get wifi signal in their house, however it is being provided by 2.4 GHz and limiting their speed. The optimal place to place your router would be central in the house, if possible, and on a higher floor. However, this often is not enough to provide 5GHz everywhere, especially if your house is a few thousand square feet or larger, or very spread out, such as a long ranch style house.
How to Improve Speed
So, how do you improve speeds everywhere? To accomplish this, you will want to have multiple access points that broadcasts your Wifi. In the past, the only way to accomplish this was with a hardwired connection. This is still the best, and most reliable method. Placing multiple access points that connect to a monitored software that controls the signal path and transmission will give you the best performance. This can become costly, however, considering that in most cases wires need to be run, and in many of those cases that requires cutting access holes that will need to be patched and painted. Now that Wireless Mesh has become a more stable technology, we have had great success with providing robust, large wifi networks utilizing 5GHz. Mesh uses multiple access points that communicate with one another wirelessly to create a large WiFi network. Wires do not have to be run, which can save a lot of time and money. We have found that certain Mesh networks work better than others, and in some cases, there are some Mesh networks that we have found have some issues working within certain situations. However, they all will provide a larger, faster WiFi network than a single router can provide. The key is to place them carefully so that they are not placed too close to one another, or too far from one another. Systems, such as Eero, which we highly recommend, runs a placement test during its setup process. If it detects that you placed it too far, the setup will stop and force you to relocate it until it is in a good location. This makes it a very easy system to install as well.
In closing, in order to utilize the fast speeds you are paying for, you will need to use 5GHz. If you wish for your entire house to be covered with 5GHz signal, you will likely need more than one access point, be it via wired access points or wireless Mesh. 2.4GHz is still important, especially in cases where you do not add multiple access points, as 5GHz will not cover most moderately sized homes with a single router or access point.