2.4Ghz band is not as awesome as 5 Ghz

[klas1]

I've been primarily focused on 5 Ghz band which hasn't disappointed me, but 2.4Ghz is another story. It appears to provide decent range, but in comparison to 5 Ghz band it shows very low throughput. Testing file download speed from the same location it shows 4 MB/sec download speed in 2.4Ghz band vs 8 MB/sec in 5Ghz band. Is it just me?

[Cybercare]

Originally Posted by klas1

I've been primarily focused on 5 Ghz band which hasn't disappointed me, but 2.4Ghz is another story. It appears to provide decent range, but in comparison to 5 Ghz band it shows very low throughput. Testing file download speed from the same location it shows 4 MB/sec download speed in 2.4Ghz band vs 8 MB/sec in 5Ghz band. Is it just me?

Various FW versions did have performance problems for one band or the other depending on the FW.

Can you please confirm which version FW you are running?

If not already please make sure you are running the latest FW just released a few days ago on support.netgear.com and putting R6300 for model.

[Ephone]

What FW version are you using? What wireless mode and what security do you use on both 2.4G and 5G? What's the link rate your see on your adapter's GUI or on Windows Wireless Network Connection window on 2.4/5G?

[fordem]

Please bear in mind that throughput on the different bands will be affected by "local variables" - use of the 2.4 GHz band in an area with a high density of other wireless networks (for example an apartment block) is one cause of results similar to those described.

The 5GHz band, suffers less from interference due to adjacent networks, but has less range due to attenuation (which is in fact, one of the reasons there are fewer problems with interference), so it's pretty much a trade off, and the final configuration needs to be determined based on the particular environment.

[klas1]

Latest released firmware seemed to help, although I think interference has something to do with it. Different times of a day I get a different results. Regardless, R6300 still better then RT-N56U it replaced.

[dtfeld1]

I have to agree that the 2.4 band is not as robust. I'm using an Intel Ultimate-N 6300 card with 3 antenna with most recent firm ware 15.1.1.1 dated 3/12/12. and the newest firmware from Netgear installed yesterday. My laptop is 10-12 feet away from the router and not a lot of interferance from other routers or devices.

Looking at inSSIDer, the 5.0 signal is very stable at -50dBm, whereas the 2.4 looks like a square sine wave __|--|__|--| with peaks at -45 to -35 dBm and then dropping to -80 dBm about every 20 seconds.

[Scubbie]

Originally Posted by dtfeld1

Looking at inSSIDer, the 5.0 signal is very stable at -50dBm, whereas the 2.4 looks like a square sine wave __|--|__|--| with peaks at -45 to -35 dBm and then dropping to -80 dBm about every 20 seconds.

Don't worry about this. If you connect via the 2.4GHz channel, the opposite will be true. At least this is an observation I have made with my Intel 6300 adaptor.

Whilst using another laptop, with a different WiFi adaptor the signal is absolutely fine.

As for the signal strength, this may be increased a little if you rotate the router or position it in a different location relative to the wall or something. With my WNDR3800 (and from memory the DGND3700 was similar) the 5GHz channel reports 40dBm on my laptop with the Intel 6300.

[Cybercare]

Originally Posted by dtfeld1

I have to agree that the 2.4 band is not as robust. I'm using an Intel Ultimate-N 6300 card with 3 antenna with most recent firm ware 15.1.1.1 dated 3/12/12. and the newest firmware from Netgear installed yesterday. My laptop is 10-12 feet away from the router and not a lot of interferance from other routers or devices.

Looking at inSSIDer, the 5.0 signal is very stable at -50dBm, whereas the 2.4 looks like a square sine wave __|--|__|--| with peaks at -45 to -35 dBm and then dropping to -80 dBm about every 20 seconds.

It is possible you are too close to the router (yes is such a thing).

I am about 50 feet from mine and my 5Ghz stays stead in mid -40 and my 2.4 does also though after more distance and walls the 2.4 is stronger, give 5 has less penetration.

It also depends on how the area around you is if other wireless devices etc.

Also on my 6230 card I have learned will need to boot the router every few days or my speed on the card drops from 300 to 150ish. The developers are still looking into this and not sure if 6300 impacted or not.

[StaticFree]

Originally Posted by fordem

Please bear in mind that throughput on the different bands will be affected by "local variables" - use of the 2.4 GHz band in an area with a high density of other wireless networks (for example an apartment block) is one cause of results similar to those described.

The 5GHz band, suffers less from interference due to adjacent networks, but has less range due to attenuation (which is in fact, one of the reasons there are fewer problems with interference), so it's pretty much a trade off, and the final configuration needs to be determined based on the particular environment.

I just bought this new R6300 router and am also noticing how poor the 2.4Ghz radio section and implementation of this router is. The 5Ghz radio works just fine on it, but the 2.4Ghz radio section is plagued with serious problems.
While it is true that it depends on the RF neighboring environment you are in which can interfere and degrade the signal quality, I find that my R6300 2.4Ghz radio performance is poor with weak signal strength and all my various wifi device cards (Intel, Atheros and Broadcom) have difficulty connecting to the 2.4Ghz band.
And when they do connect the transfer speeds are so ridiculously low that it makes me wonder if this R6300 is defective. But it seems some of you are also experiencing the same disappointing 2.4Ghz performance from this supposedly high end greater range router. I am disappointed with it and hope that there is a fix for it to at least stabilize it and increase the throughput speed at 2.4Ghz. If not, this was a waste of time and money. I really am having buyers remorse right now because of the poor range and slow speeds. 5Ghz works fine but not all my families devices have 5Ghz capability so I need the 2.4Ghz connectivity for now.
My all my many other N routers and my Netgear WNDR-3700v1 router 2.4Ghz signal and speed are very good to excellent in this very same RF noisy environment that the R6300 is failing in. So it is something within the R6300 2.4Ghz radio design (hardware and/or firmware) that is defective. Hope Netgear support engineers and firmware developers can fix this bug.