I've been reading a lot about channels lately. I understand everything about congestion and wanting to use the channels that have the least traffic. I get it. One thing I'm trying to grok is this -- assuming there is literally no other Wi-Fi network anywhere near you (which is unrealistic most of the time), what are the pros/cons of channels 1 and 11?
I pick 1 and 11 as they're the lowest and highest frequency. Not because they're non-overlapping like 1, 6, and 11 are (remember, we're in a desert of Wi-Fi signals, we don't care about "overlapping"). I pick them because they're the highest/lowest.
My naive guess is that it is somewhat like switching from 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz network, only much more minute. I would guess that channel 1 has more range indoors than channel 11 in the same way that 2.4 GHz has more range indoors than 5 GHz due to being a lower frequency and being better able to pierce walls. (In the same way lower frequency sounds can better pierce walls.)
My second guess, but I'm more unsure about this, is that channel 11 being at a higher frequency will allow faster speeds in the same way 5 GHz has faster speeds than 2.4 GHz. I'm more unsure about this though as I think the speed increase has more to do with the standard than the frequency.
Some background: I have seen (but not sure where) that channel 1 is "the best" assuming you're able to get it. I realize that's kind of a silly statement because 99% of the time the true answer is "it depends." I was thinking that lower channels were faster but then I realized that lower channels are lower frequencies and 5 GHz is faster and at a higher frequency. So when I began to really question why channel 1 is "the best" I realized that that's not necessarily true.