I recently moved in to a new house and got cable internet/TV for the first time (I had been DSL internet). I bought a cable modem/router (Netgear AC1600/R6250) which is doing OK, delivering higher than promised speeds. The issue is that I have a long, ranch style house, so the Wi-Fi signal does not reach end-to-end. My office and daughter’s bedroom are on one end of the house, the master bedroom is on the other end, so no router placement meets everyone’s needs. The router is currently in my office, as I have to have a fast connection there.
I bought a mesh extender (Netgear AC1900/EX6400) to solve the range issue. I placed it in the center of the house and it works very well for my phone (Galaxy S8) and our TV, notebooks and smart stuff but not so well for my wife and daughter’s phones (both Galaxy S9). All but those 2 devices can connect to 5GHz, which with the booster is very fast throughout the house. Those 2 can’t hook to the 5g signal and work only on 2.4 GHz. The 2.4 signal does not seem to be boosted much, if any, by the extender. What are some possible tweaks to boost that signal or get the S9’s to connect to the 5Ghz band?
Note: It seems odd that the S8 would connect to 5Ghz but the newer S9’s are having issues…
Since the two devices having problems are the same model, one would think it has something to do with the S9s themselves. Probably something deep in the settings menu. If you can’t dig it out for yourself, visit a store of your provider (Verizon, T-Mo, or whatever) and see if they can help you. They have some really knowledgeable folks at some of those stores. Or try the customer service number, although I’ve had better luck at the stores.
Yeah, I agree with the above. Something isn’t right there with those S9 phones.
I have 5ghz wifi in our apartment and it is indeed blazingly fast compared to 2.4ghz.
I don’t know if this is relevant to your situation, but a 5 GHz signal generally has a much shorter range than a 2.4 GHz signal, about 1/3 the range. And the 5 GHz signal is blocked more by interior obstructions like walls than the 2.4 GHz signal is. Do the S9s fail even when they’re in the same room as the extender?
markn+, they don’t “fail” per se, they just can’t connect to the 5ghz signal. They get much slower speeds than I do, regardless of where we are in the house, and away from the router their 2.4 connection will be at, say, 40% where mine will be at 95% on 5GHz. It’s like the mesh extender isn’t boosting the 2.4 band. We also have different providers, so that may be the real issue. I suppose I’ll have to go with them to a store to see what they suggest.