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Forum Discussion
No 5G range with this router?
I replaced the TW cable modem with this Netgear hardware yesterday, configuation was not unusual. I literally have it in a window sill, and am accessing the router wifi from 30 feet away. There is one glass window (3 x 4 foot glass) and one sliding glass door(4x8ft glass panel) directly between my 2-month old Asus gaming laptop and that router. Speedtest.net is rating the 2Ghz at optimal bandwidth for my account (~5 up and ~50 down). However.....
The 5 gHz does not even show up on my laptop's wifi scan list. I can carry the laptop into the same room, 2 feet away, and sign on with 5gHz channel. I thought 5gHz would have greater range than w or 3 feet!
Are there any alterations to the factory default settings I should be looking to tweak? My neighbor's 5G network SSID shows up second on the list, and it's going a LOT further, and passing through both a concrete/steel block wall, AND a concrete stucco/concrete/steel mesh faraday cage of a wall. This is a new, out-of-the-box cable modem, so I'm presuming there is *something* I should be able to adjust from the defaults, to improve the distance of 30 feet of clean unobstructed air for the higher bandwidth. There are no external antennas, of course, but I have tried rotating the unit 90 degrees, with no obvious difference. Another laptop in the same room has the same wifi scan profile, no 5G signal, so I am fairly certain is is not the two laptops running Windows 10. <Baffled!>
9 Replies
Hello TexARC
You will want to change the wireless channel on your 5ghz network in the wireless settings this will help with signal and range if you find the channel that has the least use in your area.
DarrenM
Thanks for the reply. SHortly after my post, I discovered the nifty WiFi Analytics app, and used it to monitor signal strength as I went through all the channels. since nothing I could do improved the 5G signal reliably, I finally decided to move the cable modem into my living room by linking a few RG-6 drops I put in back when I built the house (6+ miles' of Cat-5, RG-6, and Cat-3 back in 1997, just before wireless became a "thing"). Also used a Cat-5 network drop to connect to my primary switching hub in the home automation closet for the rest of the house. With the cable modem hidden behind a plant only 10 feet away from my easy chair, I get 70% signal strength on 5G and 100% on the 2.4 , regardless of what channel I use. NOT impressed with the hardware but the problem is resolved. Not solved, but resolved. I had hoped it would give me better range outdoors for some PZI wireless cameras I have used in the past with the cable modem provided by TW. THAT's not going to happen unless I drop another run out and add another wifi router, I guess. One step forward, two steps back.
from less than 8 feet away:
and
