C720 poor 5Ghz performance

isorashi
isorashi Member Posts: 2 New User

Was watching some Justified on Amazon last night and most of the time had a low-quality stream.  I noticed that Amazon said my bandwidth was low, so I hopped onto a speed test site to see what I got.  I have the 105 Mbps service from Comcast, but I was getting 20-25 Mbps down while using the 5Ghz band on my router.  At first I was pretty steamed that Comcast wasn't giving me the speeds I should get, but then I switched to the 2.4Ghz band and I was getting 50-60 Mbps down.  I did this test using a Ookla and Comcast's own speed test sites, with a few different locations for each site.

 

When I got up this morning I checked out my laptop (which also connects via wifi) and it was getting 50-60 Mbps down on both the 5Ghz and the 2.4Ghz bands.  Double-checked the chromebook and it was still slowing down while on the 5Ghz band.

 

What gives?  Any known issues?

Answers

  • philetus
    philetus ACE Posts: 4,759 Pathfinder

    Try downloading a Wifi scanner and see how crowded the channel is. You can change the router to a less crowded channel.

  • isorashi
    isorashi Member Posts: 2 New User

    Hi, thanks for your reply.

     

    Channel congestion is not the issue.  I am actually the only person nearby that is running a network in the 5Ghz band.  The 2.4Ghz band, on the other hand, is pretty crowded by the signal from my network is much stronger here in my condo.

  • philetus
    philetus ACE Posts: 4,759 Pathfinder

    "Although 5GHz is technically faster, this may not show up in real-world performance. The 5GHz signal may have about half the range of 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, or less. Worse, 5GHz has more trouble penetrating solid objects such as walls and floors, as you have found."

    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2011/jul/28/wifi-internet-problems

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 31,436 Trailblazer

    It can also depend on the 5GHz configuration. It could be set for A mode instead of N or AC. A will be slower than N or AC. You probably want to have the router configured for N with a 40MHz bandwidth. That gives a theoritcal maximum of 300Mbps...

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.