[SOLVED] Help needed for setting up 2.4ghz and 5ghz on new router ?

[Selynelar]

Hi all,

I just bought a Tp-Link Ax73 router. I need your help to set up for 2.4ghz and 5ghz as well.
Sometimes I have noticed that my wife's notebook is disconnect from the internet. When I disconnect and reconnect it is fine again. On the router the leds are showing that there is internet.

So my first question. Should I leave the channels and the channel width on auto or should I set for manually? If I set it manually which channel should I use? I have checked with inssider the neighbours are mostly using 6 and 11. And which channel width should I use for 2.4ghz 40mhz or 20mhz? I am on 11channel as well. But when I set it to auto the router sets itself for channel 9.
My internet speed by Isp is 500mb/s. And it is soon going to be 1000mbs due to upgrade optical system.

My last question is about the same about the 5ghz settings. And there is any benefits to use 5ghz instead 2.4ghz? The distance is not a problem the flat where I live is 49m2.
And a silly question if I use the 5ghz is going to slow down the lan connection?

Thanks for Your replies.

 

[helpstar]

If you want as much sped as possible, only 5GHz will get you that. But 5GHz is not very stable the more distance is between the router and the recipient. even 4meter can get you unstable or less speed results, depending on all kind of different issues wi-fi has.

Should I leave the channels and the channel width on auto or should I set for manually

This can be tricky, the best is to check all channels at different times to get the best and stable result. The only channels you should try are:

channel width should I use for 2.4ghz 40mhz or 20mhz?

set it to 40MHz or the bandwidth will be much lower than you could get with 2.4GHz, on the other hand the more neighbors you have the more unstable results you can get with this setting.

And a silly question if I use the 5ghz is going to slow down the lan connection?

No

With 1000Mbit/s you should use a cable solution. It could be that you doesn´t reach even 500Mbit/s by wi-fi.

Are your devices all supporting the "ax" wifi6 standard?
maximum theoretical bandwith of your router: 4804 Mbps (5 GHz, 11ax) + 574 Mbps (2.4 GHz, 11ax)

 

[bill001g]

I am surprised you bought a fancy router like that and do not even know why you should use the 5g band.

There is really no good options for setting channels, auto many times works as good as setting. No matter what you choose on the 2.4g band you are going to get stomped on by neighbors. Many years ago everyone ran 20mhz channels on 2.4g. There is 60mhz total so this is why you saw the 1,6,11 recommendations for channel settings. Almost everyone runs 40mhz so it is now impossible to fit 2 signals into the 60mhz total. So no matter what you do if you have even 1 neighbor using wifi you will get interference.

The 5g band is almost as bad. Most routers use 80mhz channels but there are only 2 blocks that large. People that are using tri-band router or repeaters will use both blocks. So it doesn't take many neighbors to stomp you.

The router you have is wifi6. It uses 160mhz which makes this problem even worse. In addition to other neighbors you now have weather radar to worry about.

I suspect though based on your questions is you do not even have wifi6 end devices so the router will just drop back to 802.11ac like cheaper routers.

In any case unless you are really lazy you want to set the 5g and 2.4g ssid to different names so you can control which devices connect where. You will have to experment but 2.4g generally has a lot more interference. I would just leave it set to auto there really is no good setting. On 5g you may not be able to set the channels unless you disable the wifi6 support. The radar avoidance stuff you have to have it run in auto mode. If you force it to 80mhz channels you likely can set it but then it won't really be wifi6.

This is a mess around with it and see what works best for you. There is no clear answer and it will change as your neighbors install and change their equipment.

Hopefully this problem is less with the next generation of wifi equipment wifi6e, brand new 6g radio band with lots of room.

5g will not slow you down. It would be rare to get more than 300mbps. Even if it really is the same issue as 2 machine connected via ethernet. It is very hard to overload a large internet connection unless you are doing strange stuff.

 

[Selynelar]

First of all I thank to You both of Your answers.

I am surprised you bought a fancy router like that and do not even know why you should use the 5g band.

I know the reason why I bought this fancy router and more or less I am aware about the 5ghz purpose just there were some questions about it. I used to watch netflix on my tv which is excatly next to my router. But sometimes still feels laggy when I am watching movies on it. Since it is connected to the 5ghz no more like this.

In any case unless you are really lazy you want to set the 5g and 2.4g ssid to different names so you can control which devices connect where.

That is what excactly I have done. I set two ssid (one for 2.4ghz and one for the 5ghz). The tv is connected to 5ghz and the phones and my wife's notebook is connected to 2.4ghz.
That is the reason why I needed dual band router. The ax is good for my future devices. My phone already handles wifi6 (s20+) and I am planning to buy a notebook for my work which is also going to support wifi6 due to home office.

Overall what I know:
2.4ghz is for distance
5ghz is for speed

My main concern was basically about the channel and channel width settings. The good thing my closest neighbour always ask me to help him to set up his router when he buys new one so I can set his channel for whatever I want
So as I understood I can leave everything on auto and it does not going to cause any problem.

 

[bill001g]

For most people auto works ok. it just is not worth all the effort to manually set this stuff since the minute you get the optimum setting someone else that lives near you may change their settings.