Dual band; one radio idle or not?

[norkamus]

Hello. I have done a lot of reading and feel I understand much about wifi and how it all works. I have some lingering questions.
Recently I upraded my Linksys WRT54G router for the Dlink DIR-850L. It is a dual band wireless AC Gigabit router. I noticed that I have no devices that are capable of the 5GHz range. Example, When I sign them onto the 5GHz SSID, the router (in it's status area) shows them all using the 2.4GHz range. They are all G, and N.

String of questions:
-Am I only utilizing half of my routers' capability as far as radios are concerned?
-Is this router acting as a single band router given my devices?
-Does the 5GHz radio "dumb down" to 2.4GHz or is it just sitting totally idle, waiting for a 5GHz device to talk to it?
-Have I wasted my money? Should I have just bought a really nice single band N router instead?

Thank you all for your quick response.
Nick

 

[RealBeast]

"Am I only utilizing half of my routers' capability as far as radios are concerned?"

Perhaps, if you are not using anything that has 5GHz ability, then you are not using that radio. If that is the case, for now you can turn off the 5GHz radio in the advanced wireless settings configuration page.

"-Is this router acting as a single band router given my devices?"

Unless you have a 5GHz adapter, then you are only using the 2.4GHz radio.

"-Does the 5GHz radio "dumb down" to 2.4GHz or is it just sitting totally idle, waiting for a 5GHz device to talk to it?"

The 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios are distinct and each only works at its own frequency.

"-Have I wasted my money? Should I have just bought a really nice single band N router instead?"

If you are only using the 2.4GHz radio, you may be better off with a single band N router, but with your current device you have the opportunity to upgrade your adapters over time and use the 5GHz N and AC connections.

 

[bill001g]

It depends on the router some so called dual band routers only contain one radio and you must select if it runs at 2.4 or 5g.

But as you suspect since your router has 2 radio chips and you only use one the other sits idle. A couple of years ago I would have said it is a waste of money to buy a dual band router if your nics can only run at 2.4g. Now there is only a very small difference in the cost so you might as well get the dual band just in case you have a device that can run on the 5g band. The 802.11ac though is a different story. These routers are still very high priced because the final standard will only be issued in the next few weeks. Once the standard is firmly set all the low priced manufacture will release their product which means 802.11ac prices should come down a lot in the first quarter next year. Like dual band 802.11ac buys you absolutely nothing if you do not have nic cards that can use it. 802.11ac only runs in the 5g band and there are not a lot of nic cards on the market yet that can use it.

 

[norkamus]

Thank you both! That clears it up. I may as well keep it now as I'm too tired to bring it back. I was unclear if I had any advantage by having this router. The only advantage at the moment is future upgrade options for my devices.