Can I force my phone to use 2.4Ghz wifi?

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Can I force my phone to use 2.4Ghz wifi?

The wifi network of my university dorm has both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi, under the same SSID. My wifi coverage and speeds are so slow, compared to the phone of my roommate, which only has 2.4Ghz wifi, that I came to the conclusion that my phone uses the 5Ghz band, and it hurts my performance. I wasnt able to find anything about forcing my phone(iPhone Xr, 13.6.1) to use the 2.4Ghz wifi instead. Is there any way I can solve this problem? I also had similar problem at home, so I decided to split the SSIDs of my 2.4 and 5ghz bands on my router, but clearly, it's not an options in my dorm.

iPhone XR, iOS 13

Posted on Sep 5, 2020 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

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ZintainUSA

Level 5

6,513 points

Sep 6, 2020 1:48 AM in response to Zahuczky

If the networks have a similar name, there really is not a way to force it to go 2.4GHz without having control of the networks. You would have to change the names to separate networks which like you said you can’t do because it’s in a dorm and you don’t have the way to control those networks. Only thing that you can do is get far enough away from the 5GHz band that the phone switches to the 2.4GHz and then hope that it doesn’t try to switch back when you get closer, but the whole idea with giving them both the same name is to allow the device and Access Point to determine which is going to be a better connection for you and when you get closer it is most likely going to switch back. That being said, there really isn’t anything you can do. I would talk to the IT at your dorm and see if there is something that can do for you.

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