![]() The same is therefore true of smart plugs. What this means in practise is that you may start seeing some connection issues or ‘bugs’ the further away from the router you get. If you have a 5 Ghz router and device and five walls between them, it can still work fine over 5 Ghz – but the overall signal strength will be lower than if you had used 2.4 Ghz. Like many things in life, it’s not completely black and white though. ![]() It’s not so bad with drywall, but it’ll increasingly struggle with solid concrete walls/objects. So why are we sometimes advised to avoid 5 Ghz WiFi for smart products? Well, the reason is that the potential range does genuinely drop the more solid objects that it goes through. ![]() My 5 Ghz Ring Doorbell Pro actually goes through an external wall (containing insulation and a layer of ‘dot and dab’ drywall) before going through an internal wall (which is solid block and two layers of dot and dab drywall) before connecting to my router, and it never has any connection problems. I mean, 2.4 Ghz does do a lot better through walls (and other solid objects) than 5 Ghz – as I’ll look at in a second.īut what’s also true is that I have four Echo devices and a Ring Pro (all on 5 Ghz Wifi) which go through multiple walls – and I never have any connection issues:īT Smart Hub 2 showing connected 5 Ghz WiFi devices I briefly said earlier that 5 Ghz doesn’t work as well when going through walls. I don’t think I’ve ever seen (or heard of) a 5 Ghz-only router, especially because a lot of the wireless standards which routers follow specify that both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands must be supported. If you’re shopping around and you don’t see the words ‘dual band’, it’s probably an older 2.4 Ghz-only router. This means that it supports both the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz WiFi bands – in other words, your 2.4 Ghz smart plug will work just fine. You’ll probably also see the words “ Dual Band” in the router’s shop listing. Even though your router may only say “5 Ghz” in the title, this is mainly for marketing purposes, since most devices across your home will still connect over 2.4 Ghz. Some even say they are “ a 5 Ghz router“.ĭoes this therefore mean that your router can’t support a standard 2.4 Ghz smart plug? In this case, you will need a 5 GHz smart plug – so read on! My Router Says it’s “5 Ghz”: Will 2.4 Ghz Smart Plugs Still Work?įrom 2010 onwards, more and more internet routers started proudly advertising that they support 5 Ghz. However, some people are of course restricted to 5 GHz Wi-Fi: some internet satellites and shared internet hubs only publish 5 GHz Wi-Fi, for example. Watching 4K Netflix? 5 GHz will probably help.This means that you almost certainly don’t specifically need a 5 Ghz smart plug. ![]() Ultimately they only ever receive small packets of internet traffic, sometimes to get a status update – and sometimes to say ‘turn the socket on’ (or off). Unfortunately that’s not really the case: smart plugs only use a tiny amount of internet data. In other words, the world is unable to take advantage of any of the benefits from 5 Ghz WiFi that were announced in 2009 – even though it’s more than a decade later.Ĭoming back to smart plugs now, if you do have a short distance between your smart plug and your router, and your internet speed is very good, you might be thinking “ great, I can benefit fully from 5 Ghz smart plugs!“. Heck, I have access to the UK’s fastest internet (via a fibre to the premises connection) but I can only get a 300 Mbps package right now. They are some interesting caveats – of course there’ll be solid objects (such as walls) between the router and my device! Also many devices are made with cheaper components to bring the price down – not high quality components which can support 1,300 Mbps.Įqually, very few of us have internet speeds anywhere near 1,300 Mbps.
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