Good Morning, Wireless Internet. Wireless systems run on 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz . what these numbers represent is the distance between the wave heights... A wireless less signal looks like a sound wave, only the peaks of the waves are very close together. The ISP I used to operate adapted home/campus wireless systems to work as a wide area network covering hundreds of square miles.. and it works!... well it works as long as you have line of sight.... the problem, especially with 2.4Ghz is .. well,let me explain it this way. Microwaves use 2.4 Ghz to heat your food. It works because a water molecule is the perfect size and completely absorbs the wave form, turning the energy wave into heat. So in our case almost any amount of trees in the way meany no or weak signal. So it only worked when there was line of site, but we were pushing signals over 20 miles PtP. In campus or business level wireless networks there is another issue to face. The solution to which was solved by the famous Hedy Lemar. If you send out a signal on a frequency, it is a simple matter for someone else to tune in and listen to it, or for you to send out your own signal; to block it. What she did was create the idea of spread spectrum. This technique takes set of frequencies and rapidly jumps between them, so the signal never appears for more than a blip. DSSS ( direct sequence spread spectrum) systems use this and a similar FHSS ( frequency hopping spread spectrum) protocol is also used. Your Internet packet is chopped up into smaller packets and sent over the wireless connection where the IP packet get reassembled and sent on it's way. One reason Wireless is slow(er) is all that over head of unpacking, repacking, sending, unpacking, repacking, resending.. Now then... it can be pretty much assumed that you are using FHSS, which gives you an advantage... as it hops around firing off packets on the different frequencies, it can run into a freq that is occupied and the packet doesn't get through. This happens with std wired IP packets, and the system just asks for a resend of that packet, slaps it where it belongs a Bob is indeed your mum 's bro....Unless... What of you are in a location that has more interference... we'll get back to that. Blockage.... something else that wireless does not like... mirrors.. ugh.. I previewed a location for a convention, and because of all the mirrors, trying to get working wireless was a nightmare. Do you live in the Northeast in an old house with chicken wire and horse hair plaster? Guess what?.. yep! Ever hear of a Faraday cage? Foil faced insulation. Rebar inserted into concrete. Wiring. Metal plumbing. Do you live in an apartment complex? ..and then.. there is every one else using the same frequencies you are. and when they collide, it creates the need for a packet resend, which may or may not get through, requiring another resend. Meanwhile the fire hose of data coming in and going out hasn't stopped, so now the system is trying to not only keep up with the data flow, it is having to resend bad packets, increasing the load .. and up goes the ping time and down goes the throughput as it spirals out of control when there are conditions of signal interference. So.. wireless can really suck if used in an environment that isn't clean. If you understand more about how and why wireless does work, you will be able to cope and understand why it doesn't, when it doesn't
TLDR; Your WIFI signal microwaves you like a hot dog (mmmmm). Electromagnetic waves bounce of everything. Your poor computer has to figure out what is the original signal and what is a reflection, which is made easier with slower transfer rates. Good idea: Use a thick string (or rope), and measure how far your computer is to your router, go to the computer shop and have them make a cable 5 ft longer than your string. Bad idea: Get 45-80 rolls of aluminum foil, and wallpaper your house making it a metal prison, keeping all the WIFI safe and 5G out. Enjoy better racing and less DQ for DCs