Wifi 2.4GHz Speed Help

[dwang040]

So I currently I have a Linksys WRT1900AC and my current plan is 230mbps with Comcast. I am reaching those speeds on the 5GHz channel, however, I feel as if my 2.4GHz speeds aren't correct. According to the specifications (on Amazon), it says up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz channel, however, on speedtest.net, I'm only reaching 30Mbps. I've tested the speeds on my phone (HTC m9), my potato laptop, and on my desktop with pcie wifi card (Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I V4.3). My network mode for the 2.4GHz channel is 802.11b/g/n only (read somewhere to have it on that vs mixed). I would just connect to the 5GHz and call it a day, however, once in a while, my 5GHz channel will just disconnect and disappear as I'm in the basement of an old apartment. 

 

Is there something that I'm doing wrong? Are my parts not compatible with faster speeds on the 2.4GHz channel? Thanks for the help! 

[anonymoses]

The 2.4 GHz frequency is broadcasted by your router and is usually slower than the 5 GHz frequency. 2.4 GHz goes longer distances at the cost of slower speeds whereas 5 GHz is fast speeds and not that great distance. 5 GHz sometimes has trouble going through multiple walls.

SpeedTest.net tests the upload and download speed provided by your ISP, so files you download/upload over the internet. usually that implies Comcast will provide you speeds up to the maximum of what they say (in your case 230mbps) AND that speed can vary depending on where the data is coming from. 

If you want to have a reliable connection, you can try WiFi repeaters, PowerLine adapters, or just good old Ethernet connection to your router (though I can understand being in a basement this can be annoying).

[dwang040]

Hmm, sorry if I just don't understand, been trying to figure this out. 

 

I guess what confuses me is that my router says that it supports up to 600Mbps, I thought that network modes nowadays supported higher speeds on the 2.4GHz channel. Also, even though 2.4GHz is roughly half of 5GHz, wouldn't it make more sense to receive around 100Mpbs on the 2.4GHz channel? 

[scottyseng]

4 minutes ago, dwang040 said:

Hmm, sorry if I just don't understand, been trying to figure this out. 

 

I guess what confuses me is that my router says that it supports up to 600Mbps, I thought that network modes nowadays supported higher speeds on the 2.4GHz channel. Also, even though 2.4GHz is roughly half of 5GHz, wouldn't it make more sense to receive around 100Mpbs on the 2.4GHz channel? 

 Have you done any checks on the wifi? I would get WiFi analyzer and post an image of the wifi channels in use for 2.4GHz. It's possible you have interference.

 

That being said, 30Mb/s is really low.

[anonymoses]

8 minutes ago, dwang040 said:

Hmm, sorry if I just don't understand, been trying to figure this out. 

 

I guess what confuses me is that my router says that it supports up to 600Mbps, I thought that network modes nowadays supported higher speeds on the 2.4GHz channel. Also, even though 2.4GHz is roughly half of 5GHz, wouldn't it make more sense to receive around 100Mpbs on the 2.4GHz channel? 

 

[WereCatf]

20 minutes ago, dwang040 said:

Hmm, sorry if I just don't understand, been trying to figure this out. 

 

I guess what confuses me is that my router says that it supports up to 600Mbps, I thought that network modes nowadays supported higher speeds on the 2.4GHz channel. Also, even though 2.4GHz is roughly half of 5GHz, wouldn't it make more sense to receive around 100Mpbs on the 2.4GHz channel? 

Router-manufacturers like to quote theoretical numbers, not real-world numbers, and even then, what speeds you can get also depend on the device you're trying to connect with. For one, the absolute theoretical maximum at 2.4GHz is 600Mbps, but you only get that with 4 spatial dreams and 40MHz-wide band -- if there are bluetooth-devices, other 2.4GHz-routers in the area or such (neighbours, utilities etc.), the router automatically drops the bandwidth to 20MHz, immediately dropping the theoretical maximum to half of that to 288Mbps. Secondly, to get even the 288Mbps you need 4 antennas on the connecting device. With only one antenna, like most devices have, the theoretical maximum you can get is... 72Mbps. Thirdly, even from that 72Mbps the speeds will drop simply due to real-world stuff like interference from any other devices in the 2.4GHz-band, including neighbours' devices, even when they're not connected to the same WiFi-router.

 

TLDR: you're never going to get anywhere near 600Mbps on a 2.4GHz-band in the real world, and even getting 100Mbps is dependant on your device having at least two antennas and a good connection, or your router being able to maintain the 40MHz bandwidth.

[dwang040]

9 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

 Have you done any checks on the wifi? I would get WiFi analyzer and post an image of the wifi channels in use for 2.4GHz. It's possible you have interference.

 

That being said, 30Mb/s is really low.

I definitely forgot about interference. Given that I live in an apartment community, you are right as there is a lot of interference on 2.4GHz vs 5GHz .

 

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

TLDR: you're never going to get anywhere near 600Mbps on a 2.4GHz-band in the real world, and even getting 100Mbps is dependant on your device having at least two antennas and a good connection.

 

Again, going back to my comment, I did forget about interference, there are links in this post showing the mass amount of 2.4GHz channels in my area. However, I do want to point out again that my router is the Linksys WRT1900AC which does have 4 antennas, again, I'm running the mode in 802.11 b/g/n only. 

[WereCatf]

Just now, dwang040 said:

However, I do want to point out again that my router is the Linksys WRT1900AC which does have 4 antennas

Yes, but does the connecting device have 4 antennas? No? Well, there you go, then!

[scottyseng]

4 minutes ago, dwang040 said:

I definitely forgot about interference. Given that I live in an apartment community, you are right as there is a lot of interference on 2.4GHz vs 5GHz .

 

Again, going back to my comment, I did forget about interference, there are links in this post showing the mass amount of 2.4GHz channels in my area. However, I do want to point out again that my router is the Linksys WRT1900AC which does have 4 antennas, again, I'm running the mode in 802.11 b/g/n only. 

Oh god, that is pretty bad. Also, please note, your 2.4GHz network is on Channel 7 for some odd reason. I would change it to 1, 6, or 11. When you're on a channel that's not one of these three in a filled wifi environment, you get a lot of interference.

 

Also, regardless of how many antennas you have, each channel is congested to bits. Keep in mind that with WiFi, each network on the same channel can see each other. Due to airtime fairness, they communicate to each other and wait for the channel not to have traffic before sending out data to prevent collusions.

 

Other issue you have is that some other people are on channel 4, and 10, which cross over the main three channels (1, 6, 11). I would try to give up on the 2.4 GHz band if I were you.

[dwang040]

Yeah, that would make sense, given how congested it is. If that's the case, then there really isn't much I can do about it then. 

[Beowulff83]

2 minutes ago, dwang040 said:

Again, going back to my comment, I did forget about interference, there are links in this post showing the mass amount of 2.4GHz channels in my area. However, I do want to point out again that my router is the Linksys WRT1900AC which does have 4 antennas, again, I'm running the mode in 802.11 b/g/n only.

Wifi speeds also depend on what 2.4 devices you have connected to them.  Your router may be N and your phone may be N but if you connect a B device your router see's that and then sends out all signals at 2.4 B speeds.  So your router will pick its speed based on the lowest speed device connected to it.

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, dwang040 said:

Yeah, that would make sense, given how congested it is. If that's the case, then there really isn't much I can do about it then. 

Oh, other fun thing about 2.4 Ghz, if you run a microwave, it'll cause major interference in the 2.4GHz network. I know, I've seen it on my living room access point.

[dwang040]

3 minutes ago, Beowulff83 said:

Wifi speeds also depend on what 2.4 devices you have connected to them.  Your router may be N and your phone may be N but if you connect a B device your router see's that and then sends out all signals at 2.4 B speeds.  So your router will pick its speed based on the lowest speed device connected to it.

That's correct, and tbh, I do not know what my phone and laptop use so I have no idea what they are. I do know my pcie wifi card is 802.11 a/b/g/n which is why I was wondering why my pc wasn't getting any better than 20-30Mbps on 802.11 n. However, I totally forgot about the crappy interference I had here (literally, all our apartments are touching with a small parking lot separating us from the apartment sandwich in front and behind us...) 

 

11 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Yes, but does the connecting device have 4 antennas? No? Well, there you go, then!

Sorry, misread your paragraph. But in this case, I doubt even having 2 - 4 antennas on my connecting devices can save my crap interference levels. 

 

Well, guess that wraps it up. Thanks for the support guys.