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bluetooth killing wi-fi

f4f

Member
Whenever I pair up my speakers via Bluetooth my WiFi download speed plummets to a crawl. I tried it again after the update and it's still bad. bad wifi.png
Any suggestions?
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Use the 5Ghz Spectrum for your WLAN and Bluetooth won't impact your speed....Contention on the 2.4GHz is high on the Marvell Integrated Wireless Card.
 
OP
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f4f

Member
Good morning, roach. Thanks for your quick response.

I hate to be a noob. I researched this issue a little bit and I understand how the 2.4 frequency can be a little too crowded. But, I can't figure how to switch frequency bands. I'm assuming it's a setting on my wifi router. How do i change the broadcasting frequency? I've logged into the router about a month ago but i didn't see a setting that explicitly said 2.4 or 5Ghz. Is this something i need to call me ISP about?
 

bertopl

Active Member
the router needs to be able to support 5ghz. check the specifications on your router. mine has a screen where you can adjust settings for either band. it's not an ISP thing
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Does your router support Dual Band? Typically you set up 2 SSIDs one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz, example SSID - f4f for 2.4GHz and SSID - f4f_5GHz for 5GHz then connect your device to the 5GHz SSID.
 
OP
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f4f

Member
Does my router support dual band? My uneducated guess is no. I have looked at the router itself and there is no physical hard switch. I've logged into the router via the URL and I did not see any numerical values. I did see some WiFi options but it was over my head. I think you might no what I'm talking about. I'm doing this off the top my head but it is like blablabla'g' or blablabla'n'. I've tried to understand the difference between the options from reading some forums but I'm not sure which was best for me.

I'm renting the technicolor tc8305c from Comcast because we have internet phone. That's why I'm thinking I'm going to have to get ahold of their customer service to guide me through the settings.

Are there some things I should be prepared to tell them that is specific to the Surface's WiFi and/or bluetooth. Or do you want to see the settings of the router. Actually, here is the model numbers
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
WOW...Technicolor is name from the past....

Your Modem/Router Combo is only 2.4GHz, so I would consider buying a Dual Band Router and replacing the modem with just an approved DOCSIS 3.0 Modem, total cost for a really good set would be around $300.

I bought a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 Router and a Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem...
 
OP
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f4f

Member
Quick note, The blablabla are protocols(?) g and n. And also, I have security settings WPAWPA2-TKIP/AES

Sorry, I just don't know what that is or it's part of this issue. Really appreciate your guys' help.

Here is a screenshot of my router menu screen.router screeen grab.png
 
OP
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f4f

Member
Ok, so what I'm hearing is when I ever I use bluetooth and it's going to interfere with the wifi from this router.... bummer. OK, well at least I have some answers. I don't think I'm ready to dish out that much to own a router. I'll get a hold of comcast and see if they have another renting option for me.

So here is a little tangent. So I've been reading quite a bit about this (glad to find out that I wasn't missing something) clash of BT and WiFi and it got me thinking: How is it that the WiFi to my PS3 is so good. I mean, doesn't it use Bluetooth for it's controllers? Quick guess is that they either aren't communicating via bluetooth or they are using another frequency. Right?
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
You have 3 options:

  • Deal with the poor performance of Contention and keep your existing setup with use of Bluetooth Peripherals
    (BTW - 2.4GHz Contention is so bad on the Marvell that if my Pro 2 is 2.4GHz it impacts Miracast and Bluetooth streaming from my Phone to my Bluetooth Speakers)​
  • Keep your existing setup and stop using Bluetooth
  • Upgrade your current setup
 
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