You may want to consider changing your Wifi band from 2.4 to 5Ghz..

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › You may want to consider changing your Wifi band from 2.4 to 5Ghz..

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coffeebaron

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#1063323 11-Jun-2014 12:43

Dear Mr Giga ISP. I am advising that I am laying a compliant to the TDR. MY wireless access point has never given me any trouble for the last 10 years, until recently hooking up to your new fibre connection. I can barely hit 20Mbps, so there is clearly something wrong with your fibre. I know it's not my WiFi because it has worked perfectly for the past 10yr on my ADSL1 connection, nor is it an issue with my XP computer.

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solaybro

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#1063331 11-Jun-2014 12:49

coffeebaron: Dear Mr Giga ISP. I am advising that I am laying a compliant to the TDR. MY wireless access point has never given me any trouble for the last 10 years, until recently hooking up to your new fibre connection. I can barely hit 20Mbps, so there is clearly something wrong with your fibre. I know it's not my WiFi because it has worked perfectly for the past 10yr on my ADSL1 connection, nor is it an issue with my XP computer.

You would think by now ISPs would have it written all over their websites that it is unlikely that you will experience full speeds through wifi.

sbiddle

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#1063338 11-Jun-2014 13:03

I was told of a big ISP customer threatening them with the TDR because he was unable to get 100Mbps over WiFi on his UFB.

hashbrown

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#1063387 11-Jun-2014 14:26

sbiddle: While positioning of APs is important, the real "fix" is to install additional APs.

I'm really hoping 802.11ad ultimately hits the market and succeeds. 60Ghz WiFi will finally deliver what WiFi has promised for a long time. It will however mean that APs will be required in every room, because 60Ghz will not go through walls.

Agree the fix is additional APs, but the install costs are the kicker for Joe public.

I've always thought the next logical step would be a router with a built in wireless lan controller that makes adding additional APs a plug-and-play experience. If you integrated it with Homeplug, you could have a one-button pairing to add a new AP at any power outlet in the house.

sbiddle

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#1063390 11-Jun-2014 14:29

hashbrown:
sbiddle: While positioning of APs is important, the real "fix" is to install additional APs.

I'm really hoping 802.11ad ultimately hits the market and succeeds. 60Ghz WiFi will finally deliver what WiFi has promised for a long time. It will however mean that APs will be required in every room, because 60Ghz will not go through walls.

Agree the fix is additional APs, but the install costs are the kicker for Joe public.

I've always thought the next logical step would be a router with a built in wireless lan controller that makes adding additional APs a plug-and-play experience. If you integrated it with Homeplug, you could have a one-button pairing to add a new AP at any power outlet in the house.

There are a number of solutions like that, including Homeplug style adapters with the AP built in.

savaii

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#1063457 11-Jun-2014 15:50

kenkeniff:
sbiddle: Yip 2.4Ghz is pretty much a lost cause in many urban and CBD environments. Trying to explain that to people however can be very challenging.

Wifi Analyzer on Android does a good job in showing congestion, channel ratings etc in a way most people can understand.

I kept scrolling through hoping to find a link to that app you screenshott'd. Thanks for the link.

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hashbrown

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#1063466 11-Jun-2014 16:02

sbiddle:There are a number of solutions like that, including Homeplug style adapters with the AP built in.

Nothing with with 5GHz last time I looked, and they still require the user to configure the AP individually, so not average user friendly. I'm talking about a package you buy with a router and two APs in it that you just plug in and it works.

e.g.
- Change the SSID on the router and it get's pushed out to all the APs automatically.
- Channel assignment handled automatically by the router.
- Buy a new AP, push a button to pair and it automatically joins the network.
etc.

Even for a techy user, managing 3 APs is going to be a little bit of work, syncing their configs etc.

kingjj

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#1063567 11-Jun-2014 18:49

The joys of living in a lower decile suburb... only one other 2.4Ghz network in range anywhere in our property and nothing on 5Ghz. Most of my neighbours are old folks or HNZC clients with no interwebs. A perfect combination for Fibre to be rolled out early on in the piece...

JimmyH

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#1063581 11-Jun-2014 19:13

Luckily, 2.4GHz isn't unusablly cluttered here, but still isn't brilliant. I moved some stuff to 5Ghz a year or so ago, but throughput at range proved to be a problem.

In the end, I moved most of the bandwidth-intensive non-mobile stuff (2x media players etc) for which a wired connection to the router wasn't feasible over to ethernet over powerline. Works a treat, with good throughput and stability. WiFi is now pretty much only for my tablet and phone, and infrequently the laptop.

hamish225

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#1064480 12-Jun-2014 21:30

sbiddle: While positioning of APs is important, the real "fix" is to install additional APs.

I'm really hoping 802.11ad ultimately hits the market and succeeds. 60Ghz WiFi will finally deliver what WiFi has promised for a long time. It will however mean that APs will be required in every room, because 60Ghz will not go through walls.

unless you can get a set of 5 ap's for the price of one today, thats a no thanks from me.

why would i want to put an ap in every room when i can have one in a cupboard and it works fine? :P

and what is the 'wifi promise' you speak of?

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

sbiddle

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#1064646 13-Jun-2014 07:25

hamish225:
sbiddle: While positioning of APs is important, the real "fix" is to install additional APs.

I'm really hoping 802.11ad ultimately hits the market and succeeds. 60Ghz WiFi will finally deliver what WiFi has promised for a long time. It will however mean that APs will be required in every room, because 60Ghz will not go through walls.

unless you can get a set of 5 ap's for the price of one today, thats a no thanks from me.

why would i want to put an ap in every room when i can have one in a cupboard and it works fine? :P

and what is the 'wifi promise' you speak of?

The "WiFi promise" I speak of is basically usable WiFi with decent speeds (ie capable of delivering 1Gbps like Ethernet). WiFi is incapable of delivering this at present.

If you don't want the benefits of 802.11d and wirelessly connecting AV devices in your home then there will be no need to upgrade from 2.4, but the simple reality is 2.4Ghz has become unusable in some environments and 5Ghz is only a temporary solution because the exact same issues will occur. There is a need to move to much higher bands and there are many such as myself who deploys large scale systems, I can't wait for that day to happen.

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dacraka

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#1064792 13-Jun-2014 11:40

Yea, 2.4 GHz it's cluttered like crap in my apartment complex in Mt Albert, lucky I'm using 5GHz now!
When inSSIDer was free, I was the only one using 5GHz however I can't check now-a-days as I have lost the install file and can't install it any more as inSSIDer is now paid only. No, I don't have an android so I can't use any phone app to check. Unless there are other Windows based WiFi analysers out there which I haven't tried looking for yet.

hamish225

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#1064922 13-Jun-2014 13:59

dacraka: Yea, 2.4 GHz it's cluttered like crap in my apartment complex in Mt Albert, lucky I'm using 5GHz now!
When inSSIDer was free, I was the only one using 5GHz however I can't check now-a-days as I have lost the install file and can't install it any more as inSSIDer is now paid only. No, I don't have an android so I can't use any phone app to check. Unless there are other Windows based WiFi analysers out there which I haven't tried looking for yet.

if you have a mac theres istumbler but it doesnt have pretty graphs like the other one but it gets the job done.

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

Yabanize

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#1064999 13-Jun-2014 15:33

Is there any advantage to getting a 5ghz/dual band router when we are in an area that has very little other wifi networks around? 1 or 2

I want to get a routerboard but they are only 2.4ghz

chevrolux

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#1068463 18-Jun-2014 14:05

Yabanize: Is there any advantage to getting a 5ghz/dual band router when we are in an area that has very little other wifi networks around? 1 or 2

I want to get a routerboard but they are only 2.4ghz

You could grab a RB433 (maybe even the rb433gl) and equip it with a 2.4GHz card and a 5GHz card if you want dual band. You might spend around $300ish by the time you have antenna and a case but it will be 1000 times better than any linksys or asus POS.
Actually, I think the pci card will be the r52n which is dual band, mimo.
Then with RouterOS you could implement some rudimentary band steering with access lists. Won't be as good as proper band steering but might make a difference.

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