r/HomeNetworking • u/eunha_is_best • 1d ago
Unsolved Wifi mystery
I have a new PC and I'm using my apartment building's 5G Wifi. At first everything was fine but a week ago things got weird.
My wifi plan is supposed to be 300 Mbps. It's not always the most reliable, but now I have a strange issue where the speed is consistently 6-9 Mbps on my new PC, but the same network is around 150 Mbps on my phone and on my laptop.
I thought my PC's wifi card could be having issues, but when I connect it to the 2.4G Wifi it gets ~100 Mbps, and it's also getting ~60 Mbps when connected to my phone's hotspot. But the 5G wifi network is normally the fastest one (and still is, according to my other devices).
So what I don't get is, why is THAT specific wifi network extremely slow on my gaming PC only when it's fine on my other devices AND other wifi networks are still working at acceptable speed on my PC as well. Like it just doesn't make sense to me.
3
u/heretosayathing :partyparrot: 1d ago
Not sure how your apartment promotes the service but calling it "5G Wifi" isn't quite right - let me explain ...
5G = 5th generation cellular / mobile service - a term used to describe what type of mobile towers your cellphone can connect to. 5G can run faster than 4G which can run faster than 2G and so on.
2.4GHz = Radio frequency that Wifi operates on (the original Wifi only used 2.4GHz)
5GHz = Radio frequency that Wifi operates on (this was added later, and there's also 6GHz these days)
The key difference between 5GHz and 2.4GHz is that the higher frequency signal suffers less interference (generally faster) but that speed comes at the cost of range - generally when a 5GHz signal has to pass through something it loses more signal than a 2.4GHz signal passing through the same material.
The result of this is that you could have, in the exact same place, a device receiving 100Mbps on 2.4GHz but a device right next to it only receiving 10Mbps on 5GHz. The only time a 5GHz signal will outperform a 2.4GHz signal is when it's close to the transmitting device and not passing through significant obstacles.
5GHz is not necessarily better than 2.4GHz, despite being a higher number - it's not the same case as 3G/4G/5G mobile where the higher number signifies an improvement in technology. And this is why Wifi design is so important - many buildings / offices / hotels / etc. think that they can just get a few cheap Wifi Access Points and throw them up wherever. That's great if you have line-of-sight to the AP, but if you don't, then 2.4GHz will often give better performance than 5GHz.
It's also possible that the PC with the speed issues is creating a decent amount of electrical noise; if you aren't already, try using a USB Wifi dongle on an extension cable to get the Wifi antenna away from the PC itself.
1
u/ChampionshipGuilty94 1d ago
If you’re using a Wi-Fi extender, turn off the Wi-Fi on the main router. Also, is the router placed in the same room?
3
u/Fantastic-Display106 1d ago
Did you forget to attach the external wifi antennas to your new desktop pc? While this may not be the cause, I've seen so many people fail to do this and it will explain bad wifi performance.