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fmalloy's avatar
fmalloy
Luminary
Aug 30, 2020

WiFi Speed and channel

Getting slow speed (45Mbps) for all connected devices from the Orbi WiFi. System is RBR20 and 2 RBS20s. Confirmed that a wired connection to the router (or using the speedtest from the app) provides a consistent 150-200Mbps (expected speed). I am suspecting interference - I have other homes very close on two sides of the house, and there are a lot of visible networks. Some days I can get full speed, most days I'm stuck at 45Mbps. If I change the 5GHz channel it often brings back the speed, but only temporarily. 

 

I notice that in the router page there are only 4 5GHz channels to choose from.

 

Anything I can do about this?

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  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru
    Aug 30, 2020
    fmalloy wrote:

    I notice that in the router page there are only 4 5GHz channels to choose from.

    Anything I can do about this?

    Short answer: no, you cannot.

     

    5G WiFi channels are regulated in each country.  In the US, there are only two blocks of 5G frequencies (channels) that are available for consumer use: Channels 36-48 and 149-161.  Orbi uses the lower channels to build an 80mb wide channel for user devices and the upper bunch to build an 80mb channel for communication between Orbi units ("backhaul").  In other countries, other channel groups are used.

     

    Wikipedia has an excellent description of WiFi channels:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels 

     

    Sorry.