Why should you Disable 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi on your Network and How



In less than twenty years, Wi-Fi has grown from being an amazing and quite expensive luxury to a common inclusion in every device you own. After all this, there’s still plenty of room for improvement…which is why you should consider disabling the old 2.4GHz band on your home’s Wi-Fi network and using the newer, faster, less crowded 5GHz band exclusively.

The Standard is now 5 GHz





Most modern routers are dual band, which means that they contain the ability to broadcast on both of these bands. It's quite possible that if you purchased your Wi-Fi router or compatible device in the last five years, it will support 5GHz networks—and in fact, if it’s an 802.11ac router, the 5GHz band is a must for that super-fast connection. Only super-cheap gadgets released in the last few years, like some of the e-ink Amazon Kindles or budget Android tablets, lack support for N or AC 5GHz connections.

Not only are 5GHz and 802.11ac devices easy to come by, they’re getting affordable too to most. Even the cable/Wi-Fi router combos supplied by ISPs, which are usually whitebox hardware built by the lowest bidder, probably have at least 5GHz N support.

The 2.4 GHz band spectrum is now Crowded


So why, if most routers are dual-band, should you turn off 2.4GHz? Shouldn't you just sit back and rely on auto-switching to get faster speed by automatically choosing the better network?
Yes…but there’s another side to this. One of the big advantages of 5Ghz Wi-Fi, is that it’s less crowded. In addition to a bunch of 2.4GHz signals from older Wi-Fi gadgets, the 2.4GHz wireless spectrum is used by a bunch of other stuff. Things like wireless home phones, wireless computer mice and keyboards, Bluetooth headsets, game console controllers etc. are all using various bits of the 2.4GHz spectrum. Individually, they’re not much of a problem, but all together they can make your home network a minefield of connection issues. Sometimes even a running microwave can cause interference on 2.4GHz-equipped devices!
By contrast, high-speed Wi-Fi is pretty much alone on the 5GHz range, at least in terms of household gadgets. Some video surveillance equipment and game controllers (like the Xbox One controller) can use it, but it’s far less common than the 2.4GHz band. If you’re using a dual-band router, your devices may have their default as 5GHz, but the 2.4GHz band is still running, and your older 2.4GHz appliances might be seeing adverse effects. Interference with game controllers can cause missed or lagging buttons, Bluetooth or proprietary wireless headphones can cut out for a few seconds, and wireless home phones can lose connection with their base stations. So it’s best to leave this overcrowded spectrum as clear as possible, if you can.

5GHz Is Smarter Than People Give It Credit For


5GHz may be faster, but high-frequency radio waves can’t travel as far as low-frequency signals, and they can’t penetrate as well through solid walls and appliances—that’s just a function of the physics of radio waves. So wouldn’t disabling 2.4GHz cause other problems with range and interference?
Not necessarily: the engineers and software designers behind the newer standards have found ways to compensate. Both N and AC Wi-Fi devices support beamforming- a technique for sending radio signals in a specific direction for a cleaner, longer connection, rather than a 360-degree coverage area that doesn’t account for the physical location of devices.
In addition to beamforming for a stronger point-to-point connection, N and AC standards allow for more individual channels within the Wi-Fi spectrum, and AC has wider channels with support for up to 160MHz. In common terms, it simply means that it’s easier for multiple high-frequency Wi-Fi devices to connect to the same router with a much lesser interference. Both N and AC standards support MU-MIMO(Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) for multiple simultaneous data transmissions as well. You might find that disabling 2.4GHz doesn’t cause any range or interference problems at all but it's better to try it out to know it.

How to Disable the 2.4GHz Network On Your Router

So once you're convinced you’re ready to disable the 2.4GHz network. 
Note: Do ensure that you aren’t using any legacy devices that rely on 2.4GHz, like an older Roku, game console, or Kindle. If you still have one of those devices you’ll have to keep both bands turned on.
If all your devices are 5GHz-compatible,you're good to go to disable the old 2.4Ghz network. Load up your router’s browser-based configuration interface and find the separate controls, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz. You can simply switch the former off to make sure everything’s running on N or AC Wi-Fi all at once. Every router interface is different, so it's hard to tell exactly where this is, but if you browse the Wireless or Wi-Fi section of the configuration interface, you should be able to find an off switch.
Once it’s disabled, you’re all set—your old 2.4GHz appliances should hopefully work a little better, and your Wi-Fi devices will continue reaping the speed benefits of the fast 5GHz band.

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