WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.960 If you're in the market for a new wireless router, most of the models you'll find clearly 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.680 support both 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:11.040 We talked about the difference between these two things in this video, but there's still 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:19.960 a burning question. Why are we still using the 2.4GHz band, which is much slower than the more modern 5GHz band? 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:23.600 To answer, we reached out to our friend Joel Crane, and we'd like to thank him for his 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:28.120 contributions. So at first glance, 2.4GHz seems inferior. 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:33.360 It has far less available spectrum than 5GHz, which means less bandwidth and more interference 00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:44.000 from other devices. And the 5GHz band's minimum connection speed is 6Mbps compared to just 1Mbps for 2.4. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.640 These minimum speeds are often deliberately used for management overhead, such as a smartphone 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.360 acknowledging to the router that it did in fact receive a data packet. 00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:58.240 And devices that talk more slowly consume more time on the channel, further limiting 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:05.880 throughput. So, what's the deal? Well, first of all, there are still lots of client devices out there that only support 00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:12.440 2.4GHz. Older devices, lower-end gadgets, and Internet of Things, or IoT products, are notorious 00:01:12.440 --> 00:01:18.520 for this. And as with many things in life, cost is a big driver behind this, as we've been making 00:01:18.520 --> 00:01:25.480 2.4GHz devices for a lot longer, and it's less complicated to stick a 2.4GHz radio inside 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:33.680 cheap electronics. By contrast, 5GHz radios nearly always have a 2.4GHz radio in them as well to ensure 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:38.920 backward compatibility, meaning that a 5GHz device is more complicated to manufacture. 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:43.800 So even if the cost is only a few cents more per unit, that can quickly add up to a lot 00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:49.040 of money if a manufacturer is shipping millions of smart doorbells or whatever. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:54.680 And on the subject of smart doorbells, there just isn't any reason for many IoT devices 00:01:54.680 --> 00:02:00.560 to use the 5GHz band, as the smart light bulb in your bedroom, for example, doesn't require 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:05.440 an incredibly fast connection to receive the command to change from red to blue. 00:02:05.440 --> 00:02:10.880 There's even a practical advantage to this by placing low bandwidth devices such as IoT 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:17.200 products on your home network's 2.4GHz band and everything else on your 5GHz band. 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:22.080 You can cut down on interference and increase throughput on your 4K streams and other more 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:31.120 data-hungry operations that way. However, some products that could actually benefit from 5GHz Wi-Fi actually still don't 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:36.040 have it. You see, it's common for manufacturers of products where connectivity isn't the main 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:40.560 focus to simply tell their designers, hey, we want Wi-Fi in this thing. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:44.160 And the company will proceed to order the cheapest radios that you can find that will 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:50.040 simply work, which often means devices will end up with 2.4 only support because the manufacturer 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:55.680 doesn't know any better. You sometimes see this with products like gym equipment, where the brand is more concerned 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.720 about ensuring that the pedals on the elliptical don't collapse rather than about whether 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:05.000 the built-in screen can deliver a lag-free 1080p video playback. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.640 But there's another important reason that doesn't have anything to do with manufacturers 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:11.680 being cheap and lazy. Range. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:16.800 Although 5GHz Wi-Fi has many advantages, 2.4 still beats it in terms of range. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.440 It can go farther and is better at dealing with pesky obstacles such as walls. 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:26.240 Again, this is important for IoT devices as well as industrial applications, meaning 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:32.080 that not only is 2.4GHz still popular for Wi-Fi, it's also still used for Bluetooth 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:38.700 and smart home protocols such as ZigBee. The last thing you want is for your smart coffee maker to forget to start brewing when 00:03:38.700 --> 00:03:42.760 you wake up simply because it's too far from your router. 00:03:42.760 --> 00:03:50.360 A real modern tragedy. So even though 2.4GHz Wi-Fi has become less common in certain situations, places like 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:54.920 stadiums and conventions are more frequently turning it off due to interference, its combination 00:03:54.920 --> 00:03:59.840 of cost-effectiveness, range, and backwards compatibility means that it will still have 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.840 a home in our gadgets for quite some time. 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.960 My older doesn't always mean it's worse. 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:09.860 Just ask Finch from American Pie. Wow, I'm old. That's an old new reference. 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:14.520 So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, get subscribed, give it a thumbs up, and be sure to hit us up in 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:18.440 the comments with your suggestions for videos that we should cover in the future.