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If I wanted Wi-Fi with the highest speed and longest range which would be my best choice?

  • 5Ghz AC
  • 2.4Ghz A
  • 2.4Ghz B
  • 2.4Ghz N

https://community.spiceworks.com/questions/3494/explanation?source=superfeed-daily-challenge

As per the couple of current comments, this is a poorly worded and ambiguous question, with the ubiquitous Wikipedia source reference.

@josh-j-spiceworks ​

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I can see that some people might have a problem with this question. Depending on what the official “correct” answer is, I might be one of them.

I suspect that the intent was to distinguish between the theoretical maximum ranges of 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz along with the theoretical maximum throughput/link rate for each of the 802.11 variants and to choose the best compromise or, to use the linear programming term, optimum. To produce the best answer, of course, requires more data than the current question provides.
If the question was stated as something like:
"We have a warehouse that is 30 metres x 15 metres with a height of 8 metres (approx. 100 feet x 50 feet x 26 feet) and we want to deploy a Wi-Fi access point for use with mobile data readers. We can only deploy one access point. Which of the following Wi-Fi standards should we adopt to get the fastest speed and complete coverage, assuming ideal conditions?
You could alter the dimensions to make it more obvious which answer you wanted but I’m using these numbers deliberately so that people will think about where the access point is placed and how a hypotenuse can change things.
For the argumentative, you can add that corporate has already dictated the brand of equipment we must use and that antenna arrays and other equipment are outside the budget.

And if you really wanted to clean up the question, the standards are not in capitals and gigahertz is abbreviated GHz, not Ghz i.e.
5 GHz 802.11ac
2.4 GHz 802.11n
2.4 GHz 802.11a
2.4 GHz 802.11b
I prefer a space between the number and the abbreviation of the unit of measurement.

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This is definitely a My Cousin Vinny cross examining his girlfriend on the stand where she gives the reason why she can’t answer the question. Speed and range are different measurements and in this case they are mutually exclusive. The fastest speed does not have the highest range and vise versa. Some standards have more range, some standards have more speed. I’d advocate removing the question entirely. Every situation is going to be different as far as which is ultimately going to be prioritized. You can look at the theoretical maximums for 802.11ac and determine that’s the one you want. Your actual distance is going to depends entirely on what is in your warehouse. Are there walls? Do you have shelving going up 20 feet with items stacked on those shelves, or do you have a lot of pallets on the ground no taller than a person? Your range will be entirely different in each case.

That’s why this question isn’t getting anywhere. It doesn’t have positraction.

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I thought I had covered that.

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I concur and this is well stated.

If I wanted the longest range to be priority and then highest speed, my untrained but long experience tells me to go with 2.5Ghz and then standard N. If priority is first on speed and then range is next in line of importance, the option with standard AC is the winner.

This is very similar to a RAID question that I have been arguing over for years that asked for which of the choices had the best “speed and redundancy”, without specifying which one has priority, so could have different right answers depending on which value out of speed and redundancy should be given higher weighting.

This is one of those things where it’s probably sounds easy when you come up with it in your head, but you need to make the effort to approach it objectively as someone else hearing the question for the first time.

1 Spice up