Why is my 2.4 GHz band so much slower than my 5 GHz band?

IbadImp · December 9, 2021

While I understand that 5 Ghz is supposed to be faster, i cant seem to understand why im getting such a difference.

From my room (around 5-6 meters away from the router, passing through one wall) I get about 1-3 mbit/s on the 2.4ghz band, whereas on the 5ghz band i get about 25-30. Also, the latency on the speedtest is very high on the 2.4 ghz band (around 130ms to 300ms), whereas its around 2-4ms on the 5ghz band. Any fixes?

im using the Archer ax10 router from TPlink btw

Jurrunio · December 9, 2021

a lot of less bandwidth concerned devices are still 2.4GHz only, you probably have a lot of them?

mariushm · December 9, 2021

5 ghz is faster, but more sensitive about obstructions (walls, other things affecting signal)

2.4 ghz is less sensitive but naturally slower.

However, what you end up with also depends on what channel or channels your router decides to use and how many networks and wireless devices are present on 2.4 ghz.

The more wireless networks and devices, the more "busy" and "noisy" the air around you is, so it's harder for the router to separate the signal from your computer from everything else.

You can use various applications to figure out which channels are less congested, you would want to configure your wireless router to use channels that are less used by other wireless networks around you, so you'd get a stronger signal between your computer and the router.

Even the position of your wireless antenna can affect the speed and latency and if your antenna is behind something that's made of metal (for example if it's behind the computer case near the wall) you can have problems with it. If that's the case you can buy separate antennas with a meter or so of cable, which would allow you to position the antennas somewhere to get better signal.

Here's for example screenshots from an open source android app called wifi analyzer (open source) - it's in google play

It shows how the lower channels are very busy, so for better signal it would be a good idea to set the router on the higher channels in this location.