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Determining 2.4 vs 5.0

D

davidra

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
413
4
I have my Mac in a very close separate building, facing the router through glass. I have an extender for the 2.4 band. When I connect to the 2.4 band I get an "excellent" in performance in wireless diagnostics, with RSSI around -49 and transmit rate of around 115. My Ookla speed test runs around 27 Mbps down and 13 up. On the 5.0 band I get a "poor" performance with RSSI of -84, transmit rate of 54.....but the download speeds on Ookla average around 35 to 40 down and 11 to 14 up. In other words, the 5.0 band looks like it has worse RSSI and transmit rate numbers, but it has generally higher download and upload speeds. I realize the 5.0 has baseline higher speeds, which apparently offset the lower transmit rate...I guess. With this option, which band would you select?
 
Last edited:
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
davidra said:
I have my Mac in a very close separate building, facing the router through glass. I have an extender for the 2.4 band. When I connect to the 2.4 band I get an "excellent" in performance in wireless diagnostics, with RSSI around -49 and transmit rate of around 115. My Ookla speed test runs around 27 Mbps down and 13 up. On the 5.0 band I get a "poor" performance with RSSI of -84, transmit rate of 54.....but the download speeds on Ookla average around 35 to 40 down and 11 to 14 up. In other words, the 5.0 band looks like it has worse RSSI and transmit rate numbers, but it has generally higher download and upload speeds. I realize the 5.0 has baseline higher speeds, which apparently offset the lower transmit rate...I guess. With this option, which band would you select?
Click to expand...

I would personally run an AirPort Express or other AP from the main network router for your machine to connect to. It is best to do this over Ethernet.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,598
California
davidra said:
I have my Mac in a very close separate building, facing the router through glass. I have an extender for the 2.4 band. When I connect to the 2.4 band I get an "excellent" in performance in wireless diagnostics, with RSSI around -49 and transmit rate of around 115. My Ookla speed test runs around 27 Mbps down and 13 up. On the 5.0 band I get a "poor" performance with RSSI of -84, transmit rate of 54.....but the download speeds on Ookla average around 35 to 40 down and 11 to 14 up. In other words, the 5.0 band looks like it has worse RSSI and transmit rate numbers, but it has generally higher download and upload speeds. I realize the 5.0 has baseline higher speeds, which apparently offset the lower transmit rate...I guess. With this option, which band would you select?
Click to expand...

Give that you are seeing slightly better speeds in the 5 range, and there is less likely to be future interference around you in that band, I would go with the 5.
 
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