Can I lock in a particular wifi band?

[frank1492]

This may apply to all Android phones, pretty basic question. I have a dual band router with 2.4 and 5g speeds. Can someone explain what criteria the phone uses to switch automatically? For example, I set the phone to a 5g wifi band and later find it has switched to 2.4. What causes this? I do have some wifi plugs that can only operate at 2.4- is this implicated? Or does it look for the strongest signal? If that's the case I am practically sitting on top of the router but sometimes it reverts to an extender some distance away from the phone. Please explain. Most important question: Is there anyway to "lock" the band to keep it at 5g until I manually change it? Help much appreciated! Phone is Moto G Power (2021)

 

[svim]

If you have both the 2.4GHz band network and 5GHz band network set up in your router to be using the same SSID name, you're creating a situation where your all the mobile devices you have to try to negotiate between one or the other, a waste of your mobile device's battery as the wireless networking stack is working harder than it needs to if you'd just have both the 2.4GHz band with its own unique name and the 5GHz band with its own unique name. In that situation, on whichever mobile device you simply select one or the other WiFi network by its name as the default.

You should try to make some practical assessments to the WiFi coverage in your home. Try installing this 'WiFi Analyzer (open source)' app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
Use the utility to take signal strength measurements and build up a basic 'heat map' of WiFi signals. Stand a few feet from your router to get some baseline numbers, and then check different rooms throughout your home. Check for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and try to do your tests when others in your household aren't actively using any online access. Once you have some actual numbers to consider, this negates a lot of guesswork and assumptions a lot people make. A common misconception is to favor 5GHz simply because it can provide faster bandwidth, but a 2.4GHz signal has longer range and better at penetrating home obstacles (i.e. drywall). So a stronger 2.4GHz signal could be a better choice than a 5GHz signal, depending on the situation.
You might also want to check bandwidth speed too as that's directly related to WiFi signal strength.
If you're finding weak coverage spots in your home, you might be able improve WiFi coverage range by repositioning or relocating your router, this is a nice summary on that:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ntific-guide-to-wi-fi-access-point-placement/

 

[frank1492]

Thank you very much for the detailed answer! I have printed this out. I will start with the advice in paragraph 1. I do know that both bands have the same SSID so that does appear to be the problem. I'll move on to the next paragraphs as time permits and will download the app. Coverage has never been a problem and I am the only person in the house. I had been aware that 5g, while faster, penetrates objects less efficiently than 2.4g. This came up in relation to 5g vs 4g mobile signals.
My house is in a very bad signal area and phone calls are difficult. When calling from home, my phone frequently reverts to wifi calling but I still had dropout issues. It seems that the 5g setting was much better in this regard. Does that make any sense?

 

[svim]

.....
My house is in a very bad signal area and phone calls are difficult. When calling from home, my phone frequently reverts to wifi calling but I still had dropout issues. It seems that the 5g setting was much better in this regard. Does that make any sense?

Yes, that does make sense. Your phone will by default opt to use WiFi connectivity over cellular connectivity, even if there were to be good, solid cellular signal in your home. Get your router set up properly so it's able to emit a better WiFi signal.

Are you referring to 5G or 5GHz? There is an actual distinction, it's just an unfortunate coincidence that there's a similar 5 and a G involved.
-- 5G is a cellular signal, short for Fifth Generation. A marketing designation that's a mostly arbitrary distinction between different cellular signal development.
-- 5GHz is a WiFi signal, based on its network frequency so it's an actual designation of measurable hertz.
But the two are not interchangeable despite false arguments that they are.