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GabeU's avatar
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV
8 years ago

Laptop and now reduced speed while using the 2.4Ghz WiFi band... (nothing major)

Something interesting I noticed.  With my Dell laptop, which can only utilize the 2.4Ghz band, the speeds were the same as my desktop.  Since the software upgrade to the modem, the speeds on my lapto...
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  • MarkJFine's avatar
    MarkJFine
    8 years ago

    russyoung2676

    If it's intended to work this way, I'm not sure it's an issue to fix.

    If you're looking for the maximum speed possible, open the wifi settings and go to Advanced->WIRELESS.
    1. See if you can use 5GHz, set the Wireless Mode to 11a/n/ac and set the Bandwidth to 20/40/80MHz.2. If you have to use 2.4GHz, set the Wireless Mode to 11n-only and the Bandwidth to 20/40MHz. I don't recommend the 11b/g/n setting because I know the "b" part confuses some boxes like the XBox 360.

russyoung2676's avatar
russyoung2676
Sophomore
I was going to start a new topic but this is along the same lines as my issue. With my desktop hard wired high 40s and with my wifi devices on 5ghz high 40s. I switch wifi to 2.4 my speed gets cut in almost half mid to high 20s. I would just stay on 5.0 but if I literally go more then 15ft away into my living room I loose signal strength unlike the good range I have on 2.4. So I thought I had a fix, I hooked up an external router to my hugesnet modem and it still stayed at mid to high 20s. What am I missing?
MarkJFine's avatar
MarkJFine
Professor
8 years ago

russyoung2676

Has to do with the available bandwidth on the wifi network wrt protocol.

 

For example:

Unless the 2.4GHz wifi is set for n-only, you will have only a 20MHz wide network with only one channel.

n-only on the 2.4 GHz network spreads it across 2 wifi channels for a 40MHz network.

Compare that to the 5GHz network that potentially spreads it across 4 wifi channels for 80MHz in ac mode.

 

  • russyoung2676's avatar
    russyoung2676
    Sophomore
    8 years ago

    Thanks for the respose but you lost me! How do I fix my issue? Do I need to change some settings on my devices or in my modem? Do I need to buy a more current router?

    • MarkJFine's avatar
      MarkJFine
      Professor
      8 years ago

      russyoung2676

      If it's intended to work this way, I'm not sure it's an issue to fix.

      If you're looking for the maximum speed possible, open the wifi settings and go to Advanced->WIRELESS.
      1. See if you can use 5GHz, set the Wireless Mode to 11a/n/ac and set the Bandwidth to 20/40/80MHz.2. If you have to use 2.4GHz, set the Wireless Mode to 11n-only and the Bandwidth to 20/40MHz. I don't recommend the 11b/g/n setting because I know the "b" part confuses some boxes like the XBox 360.

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV
        8 years ago

        MarkJFine

         

        I'll give those settings a try, too, to see if it makes any difference with my Dell laptop.

         

        I went to try my Netgear router to see if that would make any difference, but for the couple of hours I had it connected the overall speed dropped to the 30s, so that blew that experiment.  :p

         

        I'll give the HT2000W settings a try later.  I can't utilize the 5Ghz band, but perhaps those adjustments will kick the speed back up to where it used to be when utilizing the laptop, or even my notebook, for that matter.