The range for my Mac Mini has been garbage and I couldn't figure out why until I found this. I wrapped my drive in tin foil and it is magically better now! Hope this helps someone else too!

There's no real excuse for relying on 2.4Ghz Wifi these days except in extremis, it's a legacy standard.

The range is better than 5GHz. If 5GHz keeps cutting out, try your device on a 2.4GHz, it should work.

This is an old problem. USB is bad for interference with 2.4GHz systems. It's one of the reasons you see shielding inside laptops.

It's also one reason that many laptops have less WiFi and bluetooth range when closed than they do when the screen is opened.

It’s physics. 2.4GHz is a lower freq than 5. Lower frequencies/longer wavelengths penetrate better.

I was losing my mind over this. My Bluetooth keyboard would just suddenly die for no reason. Didn't realize my cheap USB which was plugged in right next to my BLT dongle was the culprit for weeks. No wonder the 64gb microcenter thumb drive is 5 bucks. They didn't shield it. Lol.

Similar thing happened to me with a flash drive and my Logitech keyboard dongle

Short answer: You are probably confusing Range with Attenuation.

For pure LOS, 5GHz has a 6dB loss over 2.4Ghz but is more than compensated by increased maximum permitted power levels, and obviously higher throughput via modern protocols.

[My day job is surveying, troubleshooting and planning wireless networks...almost 20 years now.]

Did you read my first post?

Did you read my just now post?

Did you understand my first post?

(If you'd been to a Cisco Live conference at any time in the last 5 years or so, you'd know they don't even make 2.4GHz available.)

I'll take your word for it. But on my home network, I run a 2.4ghz band and a 5 ghz band. In my farthest room from the router, I can connect to the 2.4ghz but typically not to the 5ghz. I thought I read somewhere to do 2.4ghz if you want to maximize range. Was that BS and it's just a fluke, or is there something to it?

I think 2.4 has less range but can penetrate walls easier. 5g has a longer range but can't penetrate walls as easy. It's strange.

Ok, maybe that is it because the signal has to go through multiple walls and to another floor of the house.

I could swear that I did read it somewhere to go 2.4ghz if you are having trouble connecting to 5ghz. I didn't make it up myself.

It's not.

2.4GHz suffers from less attenuation (it penetrates walls better) due to the longer wavelength, but the cost is a reduction in data rates. That's why it's seen as a legacy standard these days..it's low(frequency) and slow(data rate). But I'm not saying you should disable it on your home router though, it's fine as a fallback (maybe split your SSID's though).

In Enterprise deployments though, it's all about coverage with 5GHz

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And this is why I hate stuff made in China. Look up "chabuduo".

Most devices use 5 Ghz now. Unless you have really old or really cheap knockoffs, it's no longer an issue.

USB uses 5Ghz now?

Bluetooth and WiFi

USB is a physical connection...It isn't evaluated with hertz...

Right, but that is the point of this TIL - my USB3 drive was creating interference for my Bluetooth AirPods on my Mac Mini. Nothing to do with WIFI.

WiFi can use 2.4GHz or 5GHz. However, Bluetooth can only use the 2.4GHz band. If you need working Bluetooth you need to make sure you don't mess too much with the 2.4GHz band. In practice Bluetooth can usually work with two-thirds of the band blocked by interference, but not more than that.

No, Bluetooth is still 2.4 and thus the interference from USB3 still exists.