Why the 2.4 GHz WiFi band is faster and more stable for your digital picture frame than 5 GHz

My 32-inch digital picture frame hangs on the wall, with a Raspberry Pi mounted behind the monitor and an aluminum frame surrounding it. Despite the WiFi router being just a few meters away, the connection was often unreliable and frustratingly slow.

I experimented with various fixes, such as disabling WiFi power management and setting up an automatic restart of the network manager when the connection dropped. However, the solution outlined in this article brought the most significant improvement.

By switching to the 2.4 GHz WiFi band instead of 5 GHz, I doubled my network speed, and the signal indicators in Wavemon showed a noticeable increase.

Who would have thought the fix could be so simple?

The difference between 5GHz and 2.4 GHz

Here’s the essence of the difference:

• 5 GHz provides high-speed connectivity and works best with a clear line of sight to the router, particularly in small to medium spaces.
• However, the higher frequency of 5 GHz limits its range, and walls or even furniture can drastically weaken its signal strength.
• 2.4 GHz, on the other hand, has a longer range and penetrates obstacles like walls and furniture more effectively. It’s ideal for a digital picture frame mounted on a wall.

How to Force Your Raspberry Pi to Use the 2.4 GHz Band

If your WiFi router supports dual-band networks, you likely have the same SSID (network name) for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

Here’s how you can make your Raspberry Pi stick to the 2.4 GHz band:

Check Your Current WiFi Connection

Run the following command to check which band your Raspberry Pi is currently using

iw dev wlan0 link

If it says freq: 5500, it means your device is connected to the 5 GHz band. Take a screenshot of the output for comparison later.

You can also use Wavemon for a visual analysis. If you haven’t installed it, check out my guide to Wavemon.

Identify Your WiFi Connection

Run this command to list your network connections:

nmcli connection show

You’ll see an output like this:

NAME                UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE  
preconfigured       57a65eef-cc10-425e-a843-2161b9cfcee5  wifi      wlan0  
lo                  8e79a334-e60f-44d7-b2d4-d86a684edb76  loopback  lo     
Wired connection 1  79330e8b-6d27-3eaf-9fec-4317cc42c1d4  ethernet  --     

If you configured WiFi with the Raspberry Pi Installer, your network will likely appear as “preconfigured.”

Configure Your Raspberry Pi to Use 2.4 GHz

Run the following command to restrict your Raspberry Pi to the 2.4 GHz band

sudo nmcli connection modify "preconfigured" wifi.band b

To switch back to 5 GHz in the future, replace the b with an a in the command.

Apply the changes by restarting the network manager:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Finally, verify the connection again using:

iw dev wlan0 link

In my case, switching to 2.4 GHz doubled the throughput, as confirmed by Wavemon.

Conclusion

Although the 5 GHz band offers higher data speeds, its performance can be severely hindered by walls, furniture, and other obstacles—precisely the kind of environment surrounding a large digital picture frame.

If you’re struggling with WiFi connectivity on your frame, give this workaround a try. It might work wonders, just as it did for me.

Thank you for your support and motivation.