Ultra 23 connect to 5G at home

[tonydroid99]

When at home should I be connecting my Ultra 23 to 5G wifi connection ?

So I may be a bit confused, but when I got my Netgear router/modem a couple years ago, I noticed when linking my old non 5G phone to the wifi that there was a Netgear55 and Netgear55-5G option both showing up. My old phone wasn't 5G so I'd just link to the Netgear55 option. But now that I have an Ultra 23, I was curious if I should connect specifically to the Netgear55-5G option.

Actually I did try to do that already but I got an error saying my password was wrong,. Which is weird because I used the username and password printed right on the modem, the same user and pass I successfully link to the Netgear55 with. I was curious if it even makes a difference which of the two I connect my Ultra 23 to.

 

[joeldf]

From your phone, you are either on 5G, or you are on a Wi-Fi connection. 5G is the mobile connection from your carrier.

Now, while on Wi-Fi, you will see the network name (SSID) that you are connected to. For over 10 years now, routers have been "dual band", meaning they send out their signal in 2 separate bands - a 2.4 GHz band and a newer 5 GHz band. Pretty much every Wi-Fi capable phone has supported dual band in that time. Most routers will default to giving both bands the same SSID and devices connect to the best band it can find. Some might add a "5" of some kind to differentiate between the two bands.

Personally, I give my router the SSID name I want, and I differentiate between the two bands by adding a "5" to the name of the 5 GHz band. I connect certain devices only to the 2.4 GHz band, while others get the 5 GHz band.

In your case, the "5G" in the Wi-Fi network name could simply mean it's using to the 5 GHz band. And has nothing to do with "5G" mobile carrier network.

For technical background, the 5 GHz band has better throughput, and has more channels available, but is also more susceptible to interference through walls and therefore doesn't have as good of a range for coverage as the 2.4 GHz band does. The 2.4 GHz band has been used since Wi-Fi began, so every router in the neighborhood is broadcasting it. With a limited number of channels for that band, there can be a lot of interference with almost no "clean" channels that can be used. Signal quality can be poor either way, so you just do the best you can.

Of course if you live in a sparsely populated rural area, 30 to 50 nearby routers hogging the airwaves (like I get) isn't going to be much of a problem.


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