Do I need to upgrade my wifi adapter? Will that result in better speeds? Please see below for details.

[rrspamrr]

I'm a complete networking newbie, so please bear with me here. In my quest for faster download speeds, I found out about dual band wifi technology and the benefits of 5 ghz over the 'noisy' and overused 2.4 ghz band. I even found a well regarded router that I planed on purchasing (ASUS RT-AC66U). But first, as per the advice of a few websites, I went into command prompt and typed in "netsh wlan show drivers" and it stated that the only radio type supported was only 802.11b. Does that mean I need to upgrade my wifi adapter (rangemax wireless-n usb adapter wn111v2) to see the benefits of this technology? Or am I wrong and will it still work with what i have anyway?

Also note, my current internet service provider is verizon fios (I'm paying for a 50 mbps plan currently but download speeds have never gone above 5-12 mbps for me sadly).

 

[ss202sl]

upgrade the adapter. 802.11b only gets 11Mbps.

 

[USAFRet]

If you have:
Verizon FiOS
rangemax wireless-n usb adapter wn111v2

and you can only connect via 802.11b....either just reinstall the drivers, or your router is misconfigured.

Look at the router config first.

 

[rrspamrr]

If you have:
Verizon FiOS
rangemax wireless-n usb adapter wn111v2

and you can only connect via 802.11b....either just reinstall the drivers, or your router is misconfigured.

Look at the router config first.

Sorry, I'm a bit lost.... You're saying that my wifi adapter is fine and that it's a driver issue of some sort? And how do I check the router config?

 

[USAFRet]

If you have:
Verizon FiOS
rangemax wireless-n usb adapter wn111v2

and you can only connect via 802.11b....either just reinstall the drivers, or your router is misconfigured.

Look at the router config first.

Sorry, I'm a bit lost.... You're saying that my wifi adapter is fine and that it's a driver issue of some sort? And how do I check the router config?

That WiFi adapter is capable of 802.11n
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/WN111v2.aspx?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

Your FiOS router is as well.

If something is telling you it can only connect at 802.11b...something is not configured correctly.
Either the driver for your WiFi adapter, or the router.


What happens if you connect directly to the router with a Cat5e cable? I'm betting you'd see at or near 50 megabits/sec.