[SOLVED] 5GHz Wi-Fi is slower than 2.4Ghz

[aa1991aa]

Hello everyone. So there is a new issue with my Wi-Fi recently. I've been using this router for a while and I never had issue , it started happening recently. I am paying for 200mbps download speed and 10mbps upload. According to speedtest.net I get 220mbps download and 11mbps upload on 5GHz band. The issue is when I go to Youtube it keeps buffering and after a while the video quality drops to 480p or in general opening a new website in browser feels slower. I don't have the issue on 2.4GHz or wired, it happens when using 5GHz band. Also I should mention that the problem happens sometimes randomly, it's not always the case.
Computers used : Microsoft surface pro 7 ( i7 16gb 512gb version ) / Asus zenbook pro duo ( i7 16gb 1tb version )
Router : Netgear Nighthawk AX12 RAX120
Both router and computer support WiFi 6. Could it be related to that ?

 

[rgd1101]

did you check the signal strength when it buffering?

 

[bill001g]

Speedtest you would need to watch it very closely. The final number is not the only thing you are concerned about. It should quickly ramp up to the maximum rate and then stay there. If it jumps around you are likely getting packet loss.

5g has a much harder time going through walls. It is faster if you get strong signal.

Wifi6 in a way depends on if it actually running wifi6 or if it dropped back to the protocols used by wifi5 (ie 802.11ac). Wifi6 actually is much more suspectable to interference. It is attempting to use 160mhz bands. There is already massive competition from your neighbors for bandwidth. When you attempt to use double you pretty much guarantee that you will be overlapping one of the neighbors signals.

What is really strange about wifi on 5g is the signal you want seems to have massive trouble passing through walls but the signals you don't want almost seem magical in their ability to get into your house and interfere.

 

[aa1991aa]

did you check the signal strength when it buffering?

Thanks for the reply
I usually have good signal because I'm not very far from router but this time I pay more attention to the signal and will update you

 

[aa1991aa]

Speedtest you would need to watch it very closely. The final number is not the only thing you are concerned about. It should quickly ramp up to the maximum rate and then stay there. If it jumps around you are likely getting packet loss.

5g has a much harder time going through walls. It is faster if you get strong signal.

Wifi6 in a way depends on if it actually running wifi6 or if it dropped back to the protocols used by wifi5 (ie 802.11ac). Wifi6 actually is much more suspectable to interference. It is attempting to use 160mhz bands. There is already massive competition from your neighbors for bandwidth. When you attempt to use double you pretty much guarantee that you will be overlapping one of the neighbors signals.

What is really strange about wifi on 5g is the signal you want seems to have massive trouble passing through walls but the signals you don't want almost seem magical in their ability to get into your house and interfere.

Thanks for the reply
I forgot to mention, I'm glad you reminded me, in Speedtest.net the speed ramps up quickly when the issue doesn't exist but when it gets slow not only I have a lot of packet loss but also the speed goes up to 40-60mbps.
About the signal, I've been getting almost full signal as far as I remember. I'm almost always in my room and my room is 40-50ft away from the router with a couple walls in between. I haven't change my location and the problem started recently so I don't think my location or signal be the issue but anyhow I'll keep my eyes on signal next time it gets slow and will let you know if I noticed drop in signal.

 

[bill001g]

Your problem is likely you have a strong signal from a neighbor and when they use their system this data comes into your house and clobbers your signal.

Wifi 6 depending on exactly how they implemented it. There are 2 blocks of 80mhz that you can use without the weather radar avoidance issues. If your wifi6 is using both these blocks it guarentees you and your neighbors will conflict. Even if it works other your neighbors could have tri-band router which are doing the same thing but in a different way.

I guess it depends why you are using 5g. You could set the channel with to 40mhz or maybe even 20mhz but then it would run no faster than the 2.4.

No solution for this until we get wifi6e that uses the 6g radio band. Then for a while we get a huge chuck of bandwidth that does not overlap.......at least until wifi7 comes out and they attempt to use all of it for a single user.

 

[aa1991aa]

Thanks everyone for helping. It seems like the isuue was the router firmware. I updated the firmware and the problem is gone