2.4 ghz WiFi running about 100 Mbps well below modem-router limit of 600 for 2.4 ghz

@EG The performance is the same for my son’s vacation home around the corner from my house which is not quite finished.  My wife and I are the only ones staying here with 2 iPhones and an iPad.  His MG7700 gateway (exactly like mine) is in his living room with me only 7 feet away.  I’m looking at it now. 

We both have 200 Mbps service.  The 5.0 radio here runs around 200 Mbps as it should, but the 2.4 runs around 100.   I get the same results at my house.  

The specs for the MG7700 I posted say the max is 1300 for 5.0 and 600 for 2.4.  My spare modem, a MT7711 gateway with same upper limits, gets the same result.  

@dalypj

*You* wrote this in your prior post: "We both have 200 Mbps service." And in your first post too. So is that the speed tier (200) that you are actually subscribed to or not ?

Yes, that’s correct.  My son and I have the same 200 service and MG7700 gateways and do not exceed 100 on our 2.4 networks.  

When I refer to the September (7th) post from which this issue was split (at your suggestion) I mention that the poster says he has 400 service and a WIFi 6 router and 2 gig modem and does not exceed 100 Mbps  on the 2.4 network.  In other words, he has faster hardware made by a different manufacturer, faster service, and yet sees the same behavior as seen at my house and at my son’s house. 

O/k so again. If you are getting 200 on the 5 GHz band then Comcast is supplying the speed that you are paying for and there is nothing else that they are obligated to do. If the 2.4 band speeds are lower, that's a WiFi / protocol issue. 

It is a well-known fact that the 2.4 band is slower than the 5.0 band. You can Google 2.4 vs 5.0 and read all about it.

And they also won't provide support for your third-party / retail purchased gateway devices anyway. They only support devices that are rented from them.

Sure, I understand that 5.0 is faster than 2.4.  But it seems arbitrary to say your subscribed speed is supported if one of the 2 bands can support it.  It’s stranger still to limit the 2.4 speed at 100 when upgrading your service from 200 to 400.  In fact when I first contacted Xfinity about this, they suggested doing exactly that… but that would not have helped me.   My cameras need the 2.4 network.

I’m going to see how a friend’s Xfinity gateway behaves with this. 

I’m also intrigued by Motorola’s claim that the MG7700 can run 600 Mbps on 2.4 (1300 on 5.0) considering I’m only looking to run at  a mere one-third of that speed maximum. 

Sorry for any confusion! With the band steering system it allows for the unified login via the device to make the decision on the most effective band. I would be asking the same questions and appreciate you making sure we are in the loop. 

@XfinityThomasB

They have a third party / retail purchased / customer owned gateway device, not a Comcast rented device. AFAIK, there isn't any "band steering"... 

Thank you for reaching back out to us @dalypj. Have you had a chance to reach out to the manufacturer of your modem as EG had advised? I see you previously mentioned the 5.0 network receives your plan's full speeds, this would indicate that the signals being sent to your equipment are within the specs that we need them to be in. 

@XfinityAldrik  I am writing to Motorola now.  I didn’t previously because the other person (RLM5, to find his post, search for text in title “so so slow”) has a different gateway, twice as fast service, (he has 400) and still is limited to 100 Mbps on 2.4.  Unfortunately he doesn’t mention the brand he has.  But if it’s not Motorola, then this issue is not a Motorola issue.  

@dalypj I know just how important it is to get the full speed you are subscribed to, we have multiple members in my home using the internet at all times throughout the day. While you are contacting them, we can definitely take a deeper look at the signals going to your modem and run some tests to make sure there are no issues with the connections going to your modem. Could you please send our team a direct message with your full name and full address? 

To send a "Peer to peer" ("Private") message:
Click "Sign In" if necessary
• Click the "Peer to peer chat" icon
• Click the "New message" (pencil and paper) icon
• Type "Xfinity Support" in the "To:" line and select "Xfinity Support" from the drop-down list which appears. The "Xfinity Support" graphic replaces the "To:" line
• Type your message in the text area near the bottom of the window
• Press Enter to send it

@XfinityAldrik  This cable is a fresh underground install in new construction. Comcast came out to the house before I posted here about this issue and checked the signal.  

My question is what would you expect is the reason that the 2.4 band runs a fraction (one sixth) of the gateway rated speed when there is no interference, no distance problem (7 feet), no obstructions (iPad and gateway in the same room)?  

I only have Motorola modems and I need to find someone with different brand so I can test their 2.4 band.  So far I tried to test on a friend’s and a relative’s but they both have Xfinity gateways that don’t allow you to select the band.  

Is this something  you can test in a lab on a few gateways?

Hello again @dalypj! Without using too much jargon, we send one internet signal to your home. Once it is received by the modem, the router creates the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz networks to connect to. It is common for the 5.0 GHz to have faster speeds than the 2.4 GHz, however, it is not typical for their speeds to be this far off.

Since the 5.0 network is reporting the maximum speed of your speed tier, we can confirm that the modem itself has the correct boot file and is receiving the correct signal. 

There may be an issue with the modem itself, if you'd like we can send one of our rental modems and test the 5.0 and 2.4 networks.

@jlavaseur  I just want to understand why…. Responses seem to revolve around what’s wrong with equipment and environment but I think it’s a matter of what we are given.  My friend with 400 service through Spectrum gets 350 on his 2.4 

@dalypj

 I think it’s a matter of what we are given.

Again. If you get 200 on the 5 GHz band then you are being "given" the correct speed by them. They don't and can't provide two different speed tiers simultaneously. 

 My friend with 400 service through Spectrum gets 350 on his 2.4

What equipment are they using ? A Spectrum supplied gateway device ? You can't compare apples to oranges...

@EG   He has separate cable modem and router both supplied by Spectrum.
Modem is Hitron EN2251 and Router is Sagemcom RAC2V2S.

I don’t understand “They don’t and can’t supply two different speed tiers simultaneously.”

I have to assume you mean if Xfinity is running 5.0 at 200 for me (and my son), there’s no enough capacity left to run 2.4 higher than 100.  Recall that RLM5 can’t exceed 100 on 2.4 with 400 service, so the 2.4 doesn’t scale up when doubling your service speed.  

And jlavaseur tells us his 1400 service runs 2.4 at 130.  That’s 7 times my service speed but only gives him 30 more on 2.4.

What if I were to buy the exact same Hitron modem and Sagemcom router that my friend has which runs 5.0 at 400 and 2.4 at 350.   And then I increased my service from 200 to 400 (like his).  If after doing this, I find my Xfinity still won’t exceed 100 on the 2.4 band, what would you conclude is limiting the speed?   If it’s an arbitrary limitation then the operative word should be “won’t” not “can’t.”

@dalypj

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I understand it has to do with equipment and environment.  This gateway is supposed to be faster than 100 on 2.4.  At my son’s house, everything is in the same room being tested (gateway and iPad)… no walls to go through.  No one else is here. Nothing else is running.   There are no other neighboring networks around me except one faint 2.4. 

When you say you have no issues, do you actually use the 2.4 band? What do you use if for?  Doesn’t 1400 and 130 seem a bit lopsided?  

I have a older Firestick that uses only 2.4 band, I stream a lot of movies, during the stream it says it’s using roughly 17 Mbps, on my router I can set the bandwidth on the 2.4 band and the 5 band, so the 2.4 band only has the option of 20 - 40, the 5 band has up to 160 MHz, so there obviously a big difference, that being said, more is not always better, once I was testing different channels and bandwidth, I was getting 600 plus WiFi, so I thought more should be even better, so I went to the next option, my speed immediately dropped to under 200 Mbps, I changed back to the lower option and again 600 Mbps plus, this was on i believe a Xb6 gateway, so I learned even one wrong setting choice can be very detrimental to speed, also what a manufacturer advertised and real world results can be very different, so as you point out, it is lopsided, but everything works as it should, so i am not worried about speed numbers