Nearly every modern home router can output WiFi signals in either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. On the surface, it might seem like 5GHz is the better option since it's the larger number, but that’s only correct to some extent.

While neither option is fundamentally better and each has its advantages, in the end, it comes down to how you plan on using your Wi-Fi, how large your living arrangements are, and what your priorities are. Let’s look at what exactly is going on behind these two numbers and which option is better for you.

What is 2.4GHz and 5GHz

The term “GHz” is an abbreviation for GigaHertz, which is a unit of frequency. All of the wireless signals that travel between our devices such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC use radio waves for communication, much like actual radio and old TVs with antennas of yesteryear. 2.4GHz is a lower frequency than 5GHz, which means that it can carry less information than 5GHz in a given time period. But the thing about radio waves is that the higher their frequency is, the less distance they can cover.

Wi-Fi range is drastically affected by the number of walls the signal has to travel through to reach a device. Signals that are traveling at a smaller frequency, such as 2.4GHz, have the advantage of a broader range since they can more easily bend around walls to reach their target. At higher frequencies such as 5GHz, this ability is significantly reduced to such an extent that even random household objects can interfere with them. This, when combined with the reduced overall coverage of higher frequencies effectively cripples them when trying to communicate with a device over a distance. Still, over a short distance, 5GHz signals can carry a lot more data than 2.4GHz can.

Science aside, some problems that 2.4GHz signals face are crowding and general interference. Apart from being used in Wi-Fi, the 2.4GHz band is also commonly used by many other wireless appliances you might have at your home such as cordless phones, security cameras, and even the 2.4GHz wireless USB adapter for my Xbox Series S controller. All these devices can lead to crowding in the 2.4GHz band, and if you live in an apartment, your neighbor's devices that work on this band will add to it as well. The more crowded this band is, the more interference it will cause, leading to poor signal strength and slow speeds. To counter this, the 2.4GHz band has a total of 14 non-overlapping channels, with 1, 6, and 11 being the least congested channels.

So in short, you will get better overall range when going with the 2.4GHz band on your WiFi at the cost of slower speeds and more interference. But with the 5GHz band, the range is severely reduced while the transfer speeds are much higher.

When is the 2.4GHz band better?

Pros

• Wider coverage
• Less affected by walls and obstacles

Cons

• Slow speed
• More crowding and interference

Despite the lower speeds, 2.4GHz is often the better and safer choice for most people. If your place is covered by a single router, it’s better to go with the 2.4GHz band since you’ll stay connected even when you’re a room or two away from the router. The 2.4GHz band if you tend to use the internet for general web browsing or watching videos and movies online.

When is the 5GHz band better?

Pros

• Faster speed
• Little to no crowding and interference

Cons

• Short range
• Signal quality is highly affected by walls and obstacles

Whenever speed becomes the priority, go with the 5GHz band. The only disadvantage it has is in its range, but in turn, you get faster connectivity, less crowding, and less interference. Go with the 5GHz band if you live in a small apartment, have a lot of neighbors, or use a lot of wireless appliances. Even if you live in a bigger place, you can have Wi-Fi extenders in various rooms, each set on the 5GHz band for the best speed. This will allow you to compensate for the reduced range.

Particularly, if you're into online gaming, the 5GHz band will prove to be a win for you. This wouldn’t concern anyone who games using an Ethernet port on a PC or console, but Nintendo Switch users and anyone who streams their games locally or uses cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now will see a huge difference when jumping from 2.4GHz to 5GHz.

How to change the Wi-Fi band on your home router

The process of switching the band on your router is slightly different for everyone, but it’s fairly straightforward. Let’s see how I can switch the band on my router.

1. Open your browser, enter the IP address of your router, and press enter. The IP address will look something like this: “192.168.10.1”. You can find it on a sticker underneath or behind your WiFi, along with a username and password, which we’ll use later. If you can’t find the sticker, try looking through the documentation that came with the router. Your browser may show a warning at this stage but click on proceed.
2. Once the sign-in page opens, enter the credentials you found on the sticker and press login. These are usually kept either empty or set as “admin” for username and “password” for password by default.
3. After logging in, the home page of your router should open up with various sections shown. Go into the Wireless section, which depending on your router’s make and model might be located under the Advanced section. Consult your router’s manual for the exact location.
4. Here, you should find the Band option, and if your router has the ability to output Wi-Fi signals on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands, you’ll be able to select the band that you want to go with. Since my router only has the option to work on a 2.4GHz band, I’ll leave it as is.
5. While you’re here, you can also change the channel of your band, especially if you’re on a 2.4GHz band, to avoid crowding and interference. Somewhere below the Band, you’ll find the Channel option, where you should opt for either 1, 6, or 11 channels.

Dual-band routers

Most new routers these days can use both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time when outputting Wi-Fi signals so you get the best of both worlds. This allows for higher theoretical transfer speeds over a wider coverage area, but in reality, the combined effect generally doesn’t provide as good coverage as 2.4GHz alone, or as high speed as 5GHz would provide alone. Plus, these routers are significantly more expensive than single-band routers so unless you really need the functionality, a single-band router should do just fine.