Any tech wizards around to help me with a weird PS5 WiFi issue?

[Quinton]

Finally got a PS5 yesterday. Yay! Everything works great except that it only detects my 2.4ghz WiFi SSID. Our household has a 5ghz SSID as well, and for speed reasons I'd prefer to tap into that. (The FFXIV PS5 client is taking over 20 hours to download on 2.4!)

The overwhelming majority of 5ghz-related WiFi problems I've seen online pertain to the need to switch the PS5's detecting option to either prefer 5ghz, which forces the console to connect, or to make sure the console is searching for 5ghz in general. Neither of these solutions apply.

Every other WiFi-enabled device in our household, including the Switch and PS4 — which are both located directly beside the PS5 — has no trouble finding our 5ghz SSID. More bafflingly, the PS5 detects neighbors' 5ghz networks just fine — but they're locked, of course, and also stealing is bad. <_<

I spoke with Sony tech support late last night and an amicable fellow had me restart the router, move the PS5, relocate the couch that's in the middle of the living room, yadda-yadda. Afterward, my tech-savvy roommate friend attempted to get the PS5 to manually detect our 5ghz network. Nope.

At this point, the only thing I can think of is to contact our ISP, Spectrum, and ask a tech to swing by and look into things. Obviously I can't count on Spectrum's employee being a PS5 guru, but we have been told in the past that our apartment building is especially congested and that (get this) whenever technicians come out to hook up somebody's internet they try to prioritize that setup at other households' expense.

Maybe that helps. Maybe it doesn't. I have no earthly idea. I am a writer. I do not know how to do this thing.

Does anyone here have any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Lube Man]

Question: Does your 5Ghz network show up as a separate SSID (e.g. Quinton and Quinton-5G)?

 

[TeenageFBI]

Is the 5ghz SSID the same as the 2.4ghz SSID? If so, rename one of them.

 

[LightKiosk]

Hmmm... something that comes to mind is doing the set up manually. This allows you to specifically enter the SSID for your 5GHz network (which I assume has a different SSID than your 2.4GHz) to just straight up force your PS5 to look for it.

 

[fetus8]

My router defaults to NOT broadcast the 5ghz network SSID. Check your router.

 

[Lakeside]

There's no reason that the download should slow to a 20 hours due to 2.4GHz spectrum. There's something else in play here.

The biggest practical problem with 2.4 is potential interference.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

I had to manually change my 5Gz SSID.

Been amazing since then.

 

[JohnnyToonami]

There's no reason that the download should slow to a 20 hours due to 2.4GHz spectrum. There's something else in play here.

The biggest practical problem with 2.4 is potential interference.

Click to shrink...

Not sure about this. I've explained my issues with the PS5's wifi on this forum multiple times but the one thing that is consistent before and after changing everything in the setup is the 2.4ghz is much, much slower than 5ghz for PS5.

 

[Merton]

It also depends on the router, my google wifi broadcasts one signal and devices pick 5GHZ or 2.4, what kind of router are you using?

 

[Lakeside]

Not sure about this. I've explained my issues with the PS5's wifi on this forum multiple times but the one thing that is consistent before and after changing everything in the setup is the 2.4ghz is much, much slower than 5ghz for PS5.

Click to shrink...

It may be the case for PS5 but from a purely WiFi perspective it should not matter.

 

[JohnnyToonami]

It may be the case for PS5 but from a purely WiFi perspective it should not matter.

Click to shrink...

Yeah in doing basic speed tests and just downloads on PS4 or 5 it's always so much slower.
Then if I test something else on the 2.4ghz it's speed test and download speeds match 5ghz.

Sony really needs to fix up the wifi issues they introduced in December, but I'm now starting to doubt they even care.

 

[BreakyBoy]

It may be the case for PS5 but from a purely WiFi perspective it should not matter.

Click to shrink...

That's not true? The basic trade off between the two is:

- 5ghz: Faster speeds at shorter range
- 2.4ghz: Slower speeds at longer range

The maximum speed you'll be able to get from a 2.4ghz (450-600Mbps IIRC) band is about half what you can get from 5ghz (> 1Gbps). Also, you are sharing that bandwidth with anything else in your network on that band, so if multiple devices are transferring data, there would be some contention.

That being said, unless you're on a gigabit plan or are doing a lot of file streaming within your internal network, the max output of 2.4ghz is probably enough, and you probably won't see much of a difference.

---

All that out of the way, 20 hours for a game is nuts. Last I checked on PS4, FFXIV was somewhere around 50 GBs. If that's still the case, and it's taking you 20+ hours, that's less than 6Mbps. Theoretically, you have bandwidth for 100 times that on 2.4Ghz. The reality might be significantly lower, but not that low.

 

[J-Skee]

My router defaults to NOT broadcast the 5ghz network SSID. Check your router.

Click to shrink...

Holy crap, I have to see if I can do this with my Eero.

EDIT: And that's a negative SMH.

 

[Lakeside]

That's not true? The basic trade off between the two is:

- 5ghz: Faster speeds at shorter range
- 2.4ghz: Slower speeds at longer range

The maximum speed you'll be able to get from a 2.4ghz (450-600Mbps IIRC) band is about half what you can get from 5ghz (> 1Gbps). Also, you are sharing that bandwidth with anything else in your network on that band, so if multiple devices are transferring data, there would be some contention.

That being said, unless you're on a gigabit plan or are doing a lot of file streaming within your internal network, the max output of 2.4ghz is probably enough, and you probably won't see much of a difference.

---

All that out of the way, 20 hours for a game is nuts. Last I checked on PS4, FFXIV was somewhere around 50 GBs. If that's still the case, that's under 6Mbps. Theoretically, you have bandwidth for 100 times that on 2.4Ghz. The reality might be significantly lower, but not that low.

Click to shrink...

I'm not claiming that there is no difference between the frequencies/bands. I'm claiming that there's nothing inherent in 2.4 vs 5 that should really affect the end user's PS5 experience. There's nothing here that should drive a 20 hour download. That was my point.

It would be like having to drive a Kia instead of a BMW and determining that the Kia was the reason it took you 2 days to commute to work.

 

[Transistor]

Quinton do you have other devices connecting to the 5Ghz network just fine?

 

[PanzerKraken]

I had same issues with PS5 wifi, I had to rename the 5ghz to a separate ID to get it to even work as the dual band single ID was not working with it. But I still get random disconnects that I get nowhere else, no idea but the wifi on the PS5 is really spotty. It can be fine and connected for some time and just get random disconnects that will no longer see my wifi until I reboot the PS5. Again no issue with my Series X, other consoles or devices

 

[Carn]

Question: Does your 5Ghz network show up as a separate SSID (e.g. Quinton and Quinton-5G)?

Click to shrink...

Curious about this as well.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Have you tried manually entering in your 5ghz SSID on the PS5?

 

[BreakyBoy]

I'm not claiming that there is no difference between the frequencies/bands. I'm claiming that there's nothing inherent in 2.4 vs 5 that should really affect the end user's PS5 experience. There's nothing here that should drive a 20 hour download. That was my point.

It would be like having to drive a Kia instead of a BMW and determining that the Kia was the reason it took you 2 days to commute to work.

Click to shrink...

Fair point. I misunderstood your intent.

And yeah agreed, if my numbers were right and they're only getting 6Mbps, the wifi band is definitely not the bottleneck.

 

[Quinton]

Sorry for leaving this for so long! Got busy. (I'm also starting to wonder if I should just buy a long-as-heck Ethernet cable and give up on this! But we'll see!)

Question: Does your 5Ghz network show up as a separate SSID (e.g. Quinton and Quinton-5G)?

Click to shrink...

Yup, separately.

Is the 5ghz SSID the same as the 2.4ghz SSID? If so, rename one of them.

Click to shrink...

Nope, they're separate and have distinct names.

Quinton do you have other devices connecting to the 5Ghz network just fine?

Click to shrink...

Everything located and connects to the 5ghz network with zero issue save for the PS5, yeah. D:

Have you tried manually entering in your 5ghz SSID on the PS5?

Click to shrink...

Aye, my roommate did. I suppose we can retry in case anything was entered incorrectly?

 

[RexNovis]

Sorry for leaving this for so long! Got busy. (I'm also starting to wonder if I should just buy a long-as-heck Ethernet cable and give up on this! But we'll see!)



Yup, separately.



Nope, they're separate and have distinct names.



Everything located and connects to the 5ghz network with zero issue save for the PS5, yeah. D:



Aye, my roommate did. I suppose we can retry in case anything was entered incorrectly?

Click to shrink...

From what you've said this actually sounds like an issue with the PS5 itself. You can try renaming your 5ghz band to something completely different and see if that helps but it could just be a hardware issue with the wifi adapter in your PS5

As a side note if you want to tweak your wifi to work around any interference you might have look at downloading this on your computer. What it dies is shows you a map of all the networks in your area and which channels they are using so you can assign channels that are free from interference. It's free too (for the first 30 days but you wouldn't really need to use it more than a couple to map out everything)

 

[Lube Man]

I know you said it doesn't apply to you, but can you confirm when you press options and select 5Ghz, your 5Ghz SSID doesn't show up?

Is your original 2.4Ghz SSID showing up when you select 5G only?


(P.S. Thank you for this thread! I just realized my PS5 was connected to 2.4Ghz and not 5Ghz. No wonder my brother's console sitting next to mine downloads faster than mine. Had to manually choose 5Ghz).

 

[SunshinePuppies]

From what you've said this actually sounds like an issue with the PS5 itself. You can try renaming your 5ghz band to something completely different and see if that helps but it could just be a hardware issue with the wifi adapter in your PS5

As a side note if you want to tweak your wifi to work around any interference you might have look at downloading this on your computer. What it dies is shows you a map of all the networks in your area and which channels they are using so you can assign channels that are free from interference. It's free too (for the first 30 days but you wouldn't really need to use it more than a couple to map out everything)

Click to shrink...

That was my guess but the guy said it's picking up the neighbor's 5 GHz. I don't know why it would selectively filter out 1 specific broadcast.

 

[JershJopstin]

Quinton Per your working devices, what channel is the 5GHz band operating on? If you don't know how to find that, tell me what OS your phone or computer runs on.

Edit: On your Switch, you can go to settings and highlight internet; the channel of the connected network will be listed under connection status.

 

[RexNovis]

That was my guess but the guy said it's picking up the neighbor's 5 GHz. I don't know why it would selectively filter out 1 specific broadcast.

Click to shrink...

Oh! Yea missed that. That is strange. Might want to do a default setting reset for the router and just set the wifi back up entirely then. Not sure what setting would cause this but yea if it's picking up other 5ghz networks that definitely points to a router setting then