PS4 is 2.4GHz only? Why is this info so hard to find?

[Ichinisan]

Searching for information, all I find are user forum posts. I can't find an official Sony page stating that only 2.4 GHz is supported. Not even this official tech specs page:
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/ps4/techspecs/
"802.11b/g/n" -- this doesn't tell me if it supports 5GHz N. Though, for someone like me, seeing that it lacks 802.11a support tells me it almost certainly does not support 5GHz. However, I want something I can show to other people and have them immediately understand that 5GHz is not supported.

I spoke with someone today. His son was angry when they bought a high-end "tri-band" router and his PS4 could not see or connect to the 5GHz network. Sony tech support passed the buck with the generic "your ISP is blocking ports" reply. Exactly how would an ISP blocking ports prevent a PS4 from seeing a 5GHz network, Sony? If the PS4 had 5GHz capability at all, it could see and connect to a 5GHz network even if that network had no connection to the Internet at all (LAN only).

You'd think Sony would just save people the trouble with a clear message stating something like this: "The Playstation 4 models [...] do not support 5GHz. These models can only connect to a standard 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11b/g/n network."

[2016-02-23 Update]

The XBOX 360 was released in 2005 and both versions of the XBOX 360 wireless adapter supported 5GHz. The first version was just 802.11a (that would be pretty slow), but the second version with 2 antennas supported N 5GHz.

So now the PS4 has revised hardware and I'm having the same problem. Still no information online to confirm if it has 5GHz capability...so I can only assume it's 2.4GHz-only. Now it was pretty mind-blowing to find that the original PS4 hardware didn't have 5GHz capability, but excluding it from the late-2015 revised hardware is just unbelievable. What is Sony thinking? Maybe it's: "We're winning the console war this generation, so we don't need to improve anything."

 

[purbeast0]

i don't know details about the wifi on the PS4 at all, but i did hear this past week people discussing playing SF5 on wifi (fighters in general) and people specifically said the PS4's wifi adapter is pretty crappy.

 

[artemicion]

I googled:

ps4 wireless 5.0 ghz

...and the first result was "Re: Why is there no 5GHz band wireless in the PS4"

So the info was pretty easy for me to find...

 

[CZroe]

I googled:

ps4 wireless 5.0 ghz

...and the first result was "Re: Why is there no 5GHz band wireless in the PS4"

So the info was pretty easy for me to find...

You don't understand. An ISP can't just link a concerned customer to some unsubstantiated Internet conversation to refute a device manufacturer. I thought it was quite clear that he needs something more authoritative than that.

 

[artemicion]

You don't understand. An ISP can't just link a concerned customer to some unsubstantiated Internet conversation to refute a device manufacturer. I thought it was quite clear that he needs something more authoritative than that.

Didn't realize OP worked for an ISP. At any rate, I'd pass the buck on the customer. "Does your PS4 connect to your router's 2.4 Ghz network?" "Yes? Then your device probably doesn't support 5.0 Ghz networks. If you do not think this is correct, contact your device manufacturer to confirm."

 

[CZroe]

Didn't realize OP worked for an ISP. At any rate, I'd pass the buck on the customer. "Does your PS4 connect to your router's 2.4 Ghz network?" "Yes? Then your device probably doesn't support 5.0 Ghz networks. If you do not think this is correct, contact your device manufacturer to confirm."

Agreed, but it looks like this particular client had contacted the device manufacturer and the device manufacturer refused to acknowledge that their product lacked 5GHz support and, instead, blamed the ISP. It's probably best to nip it in the bud and benefit from being the one who offered great support after the client has already been jerked around with another bad CS experience. It just makes you and your company look that much better!

 

[Bman123]

The ps4 wifi is horrendous, it's worse then the Xbox 360 wifi for sure. I ran ethernet cable thru my ceiling so I can hardwire mine.

 

[futurefields]

who games on wireless?

 

[cmdrdredd]

who games on wireless?

Apparently lots of people do.

 

[redhotiron2004]

who games on wireless?

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

 

[Ichinisan]

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

Are you serious? Latency is far more variable on WiFi, and latency matters more than anything else for gaming online.

2.4GHz is so crowded in so many environments (even non-WiFi traffic uses it), you really shouldn't even consider it for gaming. Even your game controllers use 2.4GHz.

5GHz may be OK until that becomes completely saturated too.

 

[Ichinisan]

... I thought it was funny when the package for my Logitech G7 mouse said "2.4GHz for rock solid interference-free gaming" (or something like that). Figured they copy-pasted some line used on products in 2003 or something.

Sure enough, get that mouse near the WiFi antenna on your laptop and you can guess what happens. The mouse starts going haywire and the WiFi connection goes flaky with lost packets and high latency.

 

[tential]

Apparently lots of people do.

My brother plays at the masters level of LOL and plays on wifi a lot when he doesn't have access to a wired connection.

5ghz band wifi isn't bad as long as you don't get jumps in your ping. It was acceptable for me as long as I wasn't downloading. On LAN, I could download and play fine usually that's how good it is playing on a wired connection.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I thought that it was a well-known, tested, fact that on release, PS4 only supported 2.4Ghz wifi. Or maybe I'm thinking of the PS3. Come to think of it, it does seem strange, if PS4 didn't support 5Ghz. I know someone with a PS4, but I don't know if they have a dual-band router. They have some sort of Comcast "Gateway" (fairly recent, but I don't know if it has 5Ghz.)

 

[cmdrdredd]

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

Hardly. There is so much latency on many WiFi networks and interference that I refuse to use it at home except for devices without ethernet.

 

[Ichinisan]

My brother plays at the masters level of LOL and plays on wifi a lot when he doesn't have access to a wired connection.

5ghz band wifi isn't bad as long as you don't get jumps in your ping. It was acceptable for me as long as I wasn't downloading. On LAN, I could download and play fine usually that's how good it is playing on a wired connection.

League of Legends is not nearly as sensitive to latency compared with a first-person shooter. People need to be able to aim and shoot with a twitch flick of the wrist and variable latency destroys that.

 

[Ichinisan]

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

So, yeah. I just wanted to point out once more that this is a misleading post, based on unsubstantiated assumptions. By its very nature, wireless simply can't be as consistent as wired Ethernet when your neighbors and even non-WiFi devices are talking over the same medium at the same time.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

Not sure if serious?

 

[TeknoBug]

PS4 does not have 5GHz, I have 5GHz AP on my network and it doesn't see it, while my XB1, tablets, and phones does.

I'm a long time gamer and if you ask me, when it comes to console gaming, ethernet and wifi doesn't make that much of a difference because you're already dealing with input lag from a controller and TV, the difference between a good working wifi modem and ethernet is barely minimal and maybe ~2ms difference in latency (test on speedtest.net). I've tested and played games with both wired and wireless and I'm fine wireless with my PS4, all my ethernet ports are taken anyways.

FPS games like Counter-Strike needs the best connection possible where wifi isn't a choice unless manditory, but games like BF4 and CoD on console aren't going to have that big of an advantage due to the games' network engine.

 

[Ichinisan]

PS4 does not have 5GHz, I have 5GHz AP on my network and it doesn't see it, while my XB1, tablets, and phones does.

I'm a long time gamer and if you ask me, when it comes to console gaming, ethernet and wifi doesn't make that much of a difference because you're already dealing with input lag from a controller and TV, the difference between a good working wifi modem and ethernet is barely minimal and maybe ~2ms difference in latency (test on speedtest.net). I've tested and played games with both wired and wireless and I'm fine wireless with my PS4, all my ethernet ports are taken anyways.

FPS games like Counter-Strike needs the best connection possible where wifi isn't a choice unless manditory, but games like BF4 and CoD on console aren't going to have that big of an advantage due to the games' network engine.

I don't see why it would be any different on a console FPS, but when I used to play Quake 2/3 and Unreal Tournament, latency meant the other players' positions would be updated a moment after you shot at them. You'd see they actually changed direction a half second before you scored that direct hit and it didn't register as a hit at all. Playing between machines over LAN was the best experience. For Internet matches, you didn't want to add *any* more network latency than absolutely necessary.

Network latency matters so much more than input / display latency because it results in misleading information on the display; like an opponent shown in a location where that character never actually was -- because that player actually changed direction while walking toward that location. Moving erratically while approaching an opponent was more effective than it should have been been because they'd see you blinking around between your estimated position and your actual position.

 

[TeknoBug]

I don't see why it would be any different on a console FPS, but when I used to play Quake 2/3 and Unreal Tournament, latency meant the other players' positions would be updated a moment after you shot at them. You'd see they actually changed direction a half second before you scored that direct hit and it didn't register as a hit at all. Playing between machines over LAN was the best experience. For Internet matches, you didn't want to add *any* more network latency than absolutely necessary.

Network latency matters so much more than input / display latency because it results in misleading information on the display; like an opponent shown in a location where that character never actually was -- because that player actually changed direction while walking toward that location. Moving erratically while approaching an opponent was more effective than it should have been been because they'd see you blinking around between your estimated position and your actual position.

Yes I used to play Quake 2 on Heat.net back in the 90's and having a cable ISP I had the advantage most of the time vs those dial-ups. Quake and UT were among those games that required a good connection to play well. But like I said, a lot of games on console don't benefit much from the difference in connection.

 

[ZGR]

Xbox One and PS4 cannot utilize 802.11ac. Microsoft and Sony are a bunch of cheapskates ...

Although to be fair, perhaps 802.11ac wasn't a viable choice when the consoles were being validated.

 

[Ichinisan]

Xbox One and PS4 cannot utilize 802.11ac. Microsoft and Sony are a bunch of cheapskates ...

Although to be fair, perhaps 802.11ac wasn't a viable choice when the consoles were being validated.

Neglecting 5GHz 802.11n was the shocker.

 

[CA19100]

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

Sounds like somebody who doesn't live in a densely-populated neighborhood. I can see thirty 2.4 GHz networks right now in the range of my laptop. With only three non-overlapping channels in that band, you aren't going to get a reliable (or fast) connection if a lot of networks are competing for the same frequencies.

 

[Blanky]

You still game on nasty looking ethernet cable even in this modern time instead of wireless?
That's like using landline phone instead of mobile phone.

Amazing, wireless technology have become quite matured, making the ethernet connection look obsolete.

Actually, home wireless technology f**king sucks. 5ghz is amazing within about 30' and one wall at the most, then it goes to hell. 2.4 ghz has better range, but is still terrible, with crap throughput.

If you actually care about the connection on a PS4 you spend a bit of effort and wire it in. It's not the bandwidth; it's the stability. 2.4 ghz can claim over 100 mbps, but I'd take a 100 mbps wired connection for gaming any day of the week because you'll have reliable latency.

Poll some people who work in networking and I bet you'll find they all say that wired is still king, even in a home environment. It's obviously much less convenient, but it is by no means obsolete. If I were building a house today I would still run cat to each room, and definitely outside for cameras.