Wireless Modem and Router and IP Address Questions

[paulyron]

We have cable internet at home.  We have a cable modem and a wireless router next to each other.  The thing is there are several floors at the home so imagine 3 floors.  The modem and router is located on the top floor.  We have 2 different wifi connections... one that is non 5g and the other is 5g.  One person always uses the 5g one on the 2nd floor.  On the bottom floor, I believe most people use the non 5g one.  Last time I believe the person on the top floor used the non 5g one but not sure.

 

 

If someone on the top floor is planning to use the internet a lot where the modem and router is at, is it better for them the wifi password to use the non 5g wifi connection or 5g wifi connection?  There are 2 different passwords for each of these wifi connections.  I would normally use the non 5g one and rarely connect to the 5g unless the wifi is down for the non 5g while I"m on the 1st floor.  Other people on the 1st floor use the non 5g so one person uses the 5g on the 2nd floor.

 

 

I asked the person to check whatismyipaddress with both the 5g wifi and non 5g wifi connection and that person tells me it shows the exact ip address.  That is normal right?  Thus it shouldn't be 2 different ip addresses?  The other thing is that person always used the 5g wifi connection when I asked that person  Now, 5g wifi is faster but the signal might not be as strong as the non 5g right?  When I used the non 5g mostly on the 1st floor, it was fine.   It was more than fast enough for me.  Now if the person on the 3rd floor is going to be online a lot, is it better to give them the non 5g wifi password or it doesn't matter?  Should you give them both?  The thing is several people use the non 5g wifi on the 1st floor.  One person uses the 5g wifi on the 2nd floor.  So whichever wifi that person uses on the 3rd floor, will that slow down the wifi for everybody using wifi?  Or only that non 5g or 5g connection?  Thus if you give that person the non 5g wifi, will that mean the person on the 2nd floor using the 5g wifi password won't have their internet speed slowed down?  Is there a way to get multiple ip addresses?  I heard you can but you have to buy it from the isp?  Like is it possible to get a different ip address for the regular non 5g wifi connection and a different ip address for the 5g wifi connection?  Do most people here connect to the non 5g or 5g wifi?

[johnt]

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

I asked the person to check whatismyipaddress with both the 5g wifi and non 5g wifi connection and that person tells me it shows the exact ip address.  That is normal right?

Correct. Whatismyip website is reporting your WAN IP address assigned to you by your ISP.

 

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

Now, 5g wifi is faster but the signal might not be as strong as the non 5g right? 

Correct, but not because the signal is not strong, but it uses faster shorter wavelengths that are not able to penetrate solid items like walls as easily as 2.4 GHz.

 

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

So whichever wifi that person uses on the 3rd floor, will that slow down the wifi for everybody using wifi?  Or only that non 5g or 5g connection?

This really depends on the router and which wifi protocol it is using. The older the device, the more likely that more clients or users will slow down the router overall for everybody.

 

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

s there a way to get multiple ip addresses?  I heard you can but you have to buy it from the isp?

Most ISPs do not allow this. You typically need multiple accounts and multiples wires, one for each IP address. I don't think this is how to fix your problem.

 

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

Do most people here connect to the non 5g or 5g wifi?

It is really going to depend on your device. I use 6 GHz with two access points (antennas) throughout my house in very central locations. I have a network system that can have components added where needed. It's not as restricted as a single all-in-one unit.

 

 

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to accomplish. But it seems to me if you want to improve your wifi network throughout this complex, you can purchase a mesh wifi system that will increase the strength of the wifi signals on each floor. In general, the closer you are to the router, the faster band you should be using. Most of the time you can join the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz bands and let your devices roam between them. If your router does not support this feature, then it is way too old for three floors. Also, a simple router can handle multiple clients. If you have less than 5 people using the internet at one time, then it doesn't really make sense to separate the bands and select one or the other depending on who is using it. Wifi is meant to be a lot more simple than that. You can have multiple people on the same band and you shouldn't see a huge degradation in performance. I'm not sure if this response helps.

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

If someone on the top floor is planning to use the internet a lot where the modem and router is at, is it better for them the wifi password to use the non 5g wifi connection or 5g wifi connection?

5 GHz generally provides better speed than 2.4 GHz, while the latter will give you better range. So if the router is close by and there are no wall or obstacles in between, 5 GHz should be better. But ultimately you should be looking at the Wi-Fi generation, for example 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) vs 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6).

 

Quote

I asked the person to check whatismyipaddress with both the 5g wifi and non 5g wifi connection and that person tells me it shows the exact ip address. That is normal right? Thus it shouldn't be 2 different ip addresses?

Correct. If you have one internet connection from your ISP, you will have one external IP address, which is whatismyip reports. Each device on your network will still have its own separate internal/private IP address, which isn't visible to whatismyip.

 

Quote

 The other thing is that person always used the 5g wifi connection when I asked that person  Now, 5g wifi is faster but the signal might not be as strong as the non 5g right?

As a general rule of thumb 2.4 GHz will provide better range and be better at going through walls and other obstacles. Which one is better depends on how far away that person is from the router, whether there are walls in between, what material the walls are made off, etc.

 

Quote

Now if the person on the 3rd floor is going to be online a lot, is it better to give them the non 5g wifi password or it doesn't matter?  Should you give them both?

That depends entirely on what "online a lot" means. Are they going to casually browse the web all day long, are they going to stream movies, are they going to download huge files or are they streaming content to the internet etc. The more bandwidth intensive their activities are the more they are going to benefit from a faster Wi-Fi connection.

 

Quote

So whichever wifi that person uses on the 3rd floor, will that slow down the wifi for everybody using wifi?  Or only that non 5g or 5g connection?

Wi-Fi networks that use different frequency ranges aren't going to affect one another. That also applies if you have two 5 GHz networks using channels whose frequencies don't overlap. Other than that, Wi-Fi is a shared medium, so any activity will affect the throughput of everyone else on the same network.

 

More modern Wi-Fi standards like Wi-Fi 6 include technologies such as OFDMA that are supposed to improve things on networks with many clients. However some of these improvements only work if every client on the network is capable of Wi-Fi 6.

 

Quote

Thus if you give that person the non 5g wifi, will that mean the person on the 2nd floor using the 5g wifi password won't have their internet speed slowed down?

Even if they are on separate Wi-Fi networks, ultimately they share the same internet connection. So if one person is using all or a major portion of the available bandwidth you get from the ISP that will always affect others. There's no way around that other than limiting their internal bandwidth to some fraction of the internet connection's total available bandwidth. But that may actually be counter productive, depending on what exactly you want to achieve.

 

Quote

Is there a way to get multiple ip addresses? I heard you can but you have to buy it from the isp?  Like is it possible to get a different ip address for the regular non 5g wifi connection and a different ip address for the 5g wifi connection?

Having more than one external/public IP on the same internet connection isn't going to increase its bandwidth. You either need a second separate internet connection or a connection with more bandwidth to begin with.