2.4ghz v 5ghz wifi

[Next Stop]

Our broadband at home has been bogging down lately to the point where the fire stick sometimes won't play videos due to low speed. When the fire stick was trying to play I did a speed test on my phone and I was getting only 1.3mb, now considering I'm paying for FTTP at 76mb, that's pretty poor.
So I did some playing around with the router and noticed that it transmits wifi on 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
On running a speed test through my phone I am able to get 23mb but switch to 5ghz and that jumps to 69mb. I'm reasonably tech savvy but I've never really looked into wifi that much and am blown away by the difference.
Why doesn't everything auto connect to the best frequency? Should I change everything to 5ghz or will that slow it all down again?
Somehow we have managed to amass 21 wifi enabled devices in our home all fighting for a slice of the bandwith!

 

[Quackers]

21 devices are you sure the neighbours have not logged in as well that seems very high.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

The 2.4Ghz frequencies are the original WiFi and generally supported by most devices, and certainly older and less bandwidth hungry ones. It can be a bit congested but might also have a better range at the expense of speed. Conversely the newer 5Ghz frequency often has better speed, at the expense of range, and tends to be supported by more moden devices.

And then there is the channel in use. If your neighbour picks the same one, you could get interference. In theory routers will auto select, but in practice ..... There are some apps which allow you to see what is being used nearby, and so what is free if you want to delve into the inner setups of your router.

 

[Next Stop]

21 devices are you sure the neighbours have not logged in as well that seems very high.

I was astonished too, but we have a family of four here with 4 phones, 2 tablets, 3 smart tvs, 3 echo dots, 1 fire stick, 1 chrome cast, 1 chrome cast audio, 4 wifi cctv cameras, 1 laptop, 1 wifi printer all fighting, all be not at the same time!

 

[Riverbankannie]

I had problems last week with Now on my TV at home. I spoke to boardband supplier EE and chap suggested I put TV and Ring cameras on 5ghz and left tablets and phones on 2.4Ghz rather than put them all on same bandwidth. TV and cameras static and close to router, the other devices are used around the house and 5Ghz doesn’t always reach.
He had to remotely turn on 5Ghz for my new router (my previous one came with both available from the start).

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[Quackers]

Next Stop you need to start some troubleshooting to identify exactly what the issue is. As you said the 5ghz signal was really good Kannon Fodda post above may have already pointed you in the right direction. Some routers are not very good at selecting the best Wi-Fi channel to operate on and if your neighbour is on the same 2.4ghz channel as you it can cause the speed issues you are experiencing. Use an android Wi-Fi analyser app to scan your local neighbourhood and make sure you are on a different channel to everybody else, something like Net Analyser would do the tick.
Also check two devices on the 2.4ghz band with something like speedtest.net just to make sure they are not miles apart in speed test results and prove you don't have a faulty device.

 

[Neilfg]

We've suffered with very similar issues, although sadly our Internet connection is not as fast.

We discovered that we had over 36 devices trying to connect via WiFi. Turns out we had 2 issues, our router supported a maximum of 32 devices (had to ask their support as that figure was not advertised) and secondly we had poor WiFi coverage. Alot of the small automation devices only use 2.4Ghz, the 36 count came from the router itself and when we drew up a complete list we actually had 48 devices that could potentially connect to the Internet in our house.

Bought a new router and installed a mesh wifi. The router improved things alot but we still had some dropouts, we had some WiFi range extenders and powerline. The mesh wifi, sounds complicated, but was easy and is to be blunt, the dogs doo daa's. BT premium wifi is very simple and so far brilliant, coverage everywhere and no dropouts it takes care of wifi channel selection and positioning. No longer need extenders and powerline adapters.

 

[PeteH]

You have to check individual kit, some devices, cannot link via 5gzh. Those that can, may not be within range. Often it`s a case of "forcing" the device to use 5gzh, it has selected 2,5 during setup.
I have to admit much of my internal network, i.e. my camera`s, are still on the Cat5 I put in when we re-furbished 10 years ago, but that is a bonus as I can use p.o.e.

 

[peterc10]

We've suffered with very similar issues, although sadly our Internet connection is not as fast.

We discovered that we had over 36 devices trying to connect via WiFi. Turns out we had 2 issues, our router supported a maximum of 32 devices (had to ask their support as that figure was not advertised) and secondly we had poor WiFi coverage. Alot of the small automation devices only use 2.4Ghz, the 36 count came from the router itself and when we drew up a complete list we actually had 48 devices that could potentially connect to the Internet in our house.

Bought a new router and installed a mesh wifi. The router improved things alot but we still had some dropouts, we had some WiFi range extenders and powerline. The mesh wifi, sounds complicated, but was easy and is to be blunt, the dogs doo daa's. BT premium wifi is very simple and so far brilliant, coverage everywhere and no dropouts it takes care of wifi channel selection and positioning. No longer need extenders and powerline adapters.

Another vote for installing a mesh system. We have 4 nodes and get fast wifi throughout the house and most of the garden. It automatically switches to the best mode as you move about the house. Not cheap though. We got a Linksys Velop system.

 

[Lenny HB]

I always turn 5G off on my routers as 5G does like going through walls. At the far end of my lounge I get twice the speed on 2.4G than I get on 5G as the signal has to go through 3 solid walls.

Our router was in the coats cupboard in the hall, wifi has always been a bit weak around the house, recently I annoyed madam and mounted the router on the wall outside the cupboard. I now have a strong wifi signal all around the house and half way down the garden just by cutting out one brick wall for the signal to travel through.

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[peterc10]

I always turn 5G off on my routers as 5G does like going through walls. At the far end of my lounge I get twice the speed on 2.4G than I get on 5G as the signal has to go through 3 solid walls.

Our router was in the coats cupboard in the hall, wifi has always been a bit weak around the house, recently I annoyed madam and mounted the router on the wall outside the cupboard. I now have a strong wifi signal all around the house and half way down the garden just by cutting out one brick wall for the signal to travel through.

The mesh system uses both bands and, for devices that can use either, switches automatically between them for each device to get the best signal. So devices close to a node tend to use 5Gh and ones further away tend to use 2.4Gh

 

[Next Stop]

Thanks for the info guys, I think I might chuck over the tv's and cctv to 5ghz as they require more speed, I've heard the term 'mesh' but never really looked into it, we live in a bungalow and in have installed my bt hub in the loft so my range around the house isn't too bad, just the garden flakes out really.
Its amazing what advice you can get from a motor home forum, got a computer problem? Go to Fun, need landlord advice? Go to Fun, got a plumbing problem? Go to Fun the list of expertise here is funtastic!

 

[Off da Grid]

You can’t have fibre to your home at that speed you should be well above 100gb.
You’ve got fibre to your local cabinet.
As said above split your bands and use the 5Ghz for the video stuff.
Also I would change the router password to stop any possible Wi-fi stealers on your setup, a bit of a faff but make the password at least 10 digits long an include random letters and numbers and change it occasionally.
You should be able to interrogate the router and see who or what is on your Wi-fi.