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Moved to a new apartment, the building is flooded with wifi networks. Both 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands have 30+ SSIDs floating around, the packet loss is pretty bad. Its not really noticeable while just browsing but online gaming is only possible if I keep my laptop within 1m of the router, tried hopping around channels, nothing stable.

I know, I could just drag an ethernet cable around but figured I'd ask here first, is there's any wireless alternative to the 2.4 and 5GHz bands? I like the convenience.

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    No; 802.11 only supports 5.0 GHz and 2.4 GHz unless you count 802.11ax which supports 6.0 GHz but there are currently zero clients that support it. Solution to your problem is have a stronger signal then anyone else. – Ramhound Mar 16 '20 at 23:22
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    Did you try a different channel? Try a lesser used channel to reduce interference. Metageek has inSSider which can help you determine this. There are other products. I use Metageek. – John Mar 16 '20 at 23:47
  • Answer depends on which country you are in if you include other wireless specifications such as IEEE 802.15.4 – sawdust Mar 17 '20 at 1:34
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    The solution is to speak to the body corporate or knock on your neighbours doors and set up a managed system that the whole complex can share - this makes best use of available spectrum. Also, depending on where your router is, maybe directional antenna might help. Also, are you using 802.11ac with multiple radios? If not, switching to it might help, as it can try and cancel out noise and reflections. Similarly, there is a world of difference between cheap WIFI built into every home router and prosumer AP's like Ubiquity make. – davidgo Mar 17 '20 at 2:23
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    The equipment is not readily available, but Li-FI (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Fi) could be an option if you can find the appropriate hardware. It modulates LED lights to broadcast a signal. I did find oledcomm.net/lifi-max but no idea how much it costs. – davidgo Mar 17 '20 at 2:36
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802.11ad (WiGig) at 60GHz was a thing for a short while, but it was mostly a market flop. I'm not sure if any equipment is on the market anymore, but you could look into it.

Very fast at very short range.

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Try a different channel on your existing card. Also consider a high quality USB Wireless adapter either dual band or just 5 GHz. A good adapter may allow you to discern signals better. I work in places with 20 different signals and my Intel wireless card is able to differentiate my preferred Access Point from others

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