Should I have both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz RF Broadcasting from My 802.11ac Wi-Fi Router?

[jessiegonzo]

Hello Friends,

As my title states, my router is automatically broadcasting both bands. Its an 802.11AC router. Now, I don't want to clog up the Radio Frequency's around my neighborhood if I don't need too.

First, is there any advantage to having both frequencies broadcasting, besides me being able to log onto both? Secondly, is it common since I now have an 802.11ac router, to switch off the 2.4 GHz band, and just let the 5 GHz do the broadcasting?

On a side note, there are so, so many helpful q&a on this forum, i cant wait to get some free time and peruse some insights.

Thanks for the help amigos!

 

[Endeavor01]

The thing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz dual band routers is you're wasting bandwidth if you are using separate networks for the two bands, you should be able to name the two networks the same and use the same password, that'll allow 5Ghz capable wireless cards to use both that and 2.4Ghz which in some cases is slower but a majority of the time it is much faster. You should check to see what channels are used by your neighbors using a scanning utility and use what channels aren't being used. If I recall correctly channels 7 and 10 are the most used.

Edit: you don't want to only use the 5Ghz band unless you're sure all of your devices support 5Ghz networks.

 

[jessiegonzo]

The thing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz dual band routers is you're wasting bandwidth if you are using separate networks for the two bands, you should be able to name the two networks the same and use the same password, that'll allow 5Ghz capable wireless cards to use both that and 2.4Ghz which in some cases is slower but a majority of the time it is much faster. You should check to see what channels are used by your neighbors using a scanning utility and use what channels aren't being used. If I recall correctly channels 7 and 10 are the most used.

Thanks for the feedback Endeavor01,

That was quick!

I forgot to think about my networks computer NIC's, and more importatnly that they still either are running either a 802.11g/n. This makes sense that I should have both bands being broadcasted to allow my legacy devices to connect to the router.

 

[Endeavor01]

The thing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz dual band routers is you're wasting bandwidth if you are using separate networks for the two bands, you should be able to name the two networks the same and use the same password, that'll allow 5Ghz capable wireless cards to use both that and 2.4Ghz which in some cases is slower but a majority of the time it is much faster. You should check to see what channels are used by your neighbors using a scanning utility and use what channels aren't being used. If I recall correctly channels 7 and 10 are the most used.

Thanks for the feedback Endeavor01,

That was quick!

I forgot to think about my networks computer NIC's, and more importatnly that they still either are running either a 802.11g/n. This makes sense that I should have both bands being broadcasted to allow my legacy devices to connect to the router.

No problem, good luck

 

[rhysiam]

The thing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz dual band routers is you're wasting bandwidth if you are using separate networks for the two bands, you should be able to name the two networks the same and use the same password, that'll allow 5Ghz capable wireless cards to use both that and 2.4Ghz which in some cases is slower but a majority of the time it is much faster. You should check to see what channels are used by your neighbors using a scanning utility and use what channels aren't being used. If I recall correctly channels 7 and 10 are the most used.

Edit: you don't want to only use the 5Ghz band unless you're sure all of your devices support 5Ghz networks.

That's not actually how it works. Standard Wifi clients cannot connect to both 2.4 & 5Ghz networks simultaneously. There are some extenders and specific bridge devices which support this feature to improve throughput, but not any wifi adapters that I know of, and certainly not your standard wifi adapters in phones and laptops.

OP, Wireless AC will run on the 5Ghz band only. There's also a lot more space on the 5Ghz band. So if all your devices are Wireless AC then there's really no reason to run your 2.4Ghz band and can just turn it off. If friends or family ever come to stay with old or cheap devices offering 2.4Ghz only, you might just need to remember to turn it back on again. But otherwise, you can just turn it off.

Wireless N can operate on either the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz bands, but has slightly less range on 5Ghz band. So there might be some edge case where a Wireless N device has sufficient range on the 2.4Ghz band, but not the 5Ghz... but otherwise, if all your devices support 5Ghz, just use that.

 

[Endeavor01]

The thing with 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz dual band routers is you're wasting bandwidth if you are using separate networks for the two bands, you should be able to name the two networks the same and use the same password, that'll allow 5Ghz capable wireless cards to use both that and 2.4Ghz which in some cases is slower but a majority of the time it is much faster. You should check to see what channels are used by your neighbors using a scanning utility and use what channels aren't being used. If I recall correctly channels 7 and 10 are the most used.

Edit: you don't want to only use the 5Ghz band unless you're sure all of your devices support 5Ghz networks.

That's not actually how it works. Standard Wifi clients cannot connect to both 2.4 & 5Ghz networks simultaneously. There are some extenders and specific bridge devices which support this feature to improve throughput, but not any wifi adapters that I know of, and certainly not your standard wifi adapters in phones and laptops.

OP, Wireless AC will run on the 5Ghz band only. There's also a lot more space on the 5Ghz band. So if all your devices are Wireless AC then there's really no reason to run your 2.4Ghz band and can just turn it off. If friends or family ever come to stay with old or cheap devices offering 2.4Ghz only, you might just need to remember to turn it back on again. But otherwise, you can just turn it off.

Wireless N can operate on either the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz bands, but has slightly less range on 5Ghz band. So there might be some edge case where a Wireless N device has sufficient range on the 2.4Ghz band, but not the 5Ghz... but otherwise, if all your devices support 5Ghz, just use that.

ah, my bad. Thank you for the correction.

 

[rhysiam]

ah, my bad. Thank you for the correction.

No worries at all. It sounds like OP has some older 2.4Ghz only devices, so both bands are required.

 

[photonboy]

1) Your wifi isn't "clogging" the network as it only uses bandwidth when transferring data.

2) 5GHz cards are rare, so disable that in the router if you want, but it makes little difference since it also isn't being used.

3) 2.4GHz is common, so it's probably you have at least one device using this.

4) Make sure you enable a password or others can simply use your bandwidth.

5) *You can use both networks at the same time.
https://www.netgear.com/landing/dual-band.aspx

BOTH the router and wi-fi adapter must support simultaneous mode. For most tasks it is overkill though.

Example: http://www.cnet.com/news/broadcoms-new-real-dual-band-wi-fi-chip-speeds-things-up/

"The BCM4359 chip, however, enables clients and routers to transmit and receive data over the two 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands simultaneously, potentially improving the speed as well as the quality of the connection a great deal. Essentially this is basically like having two separate Wi-Fi connections combined into a single connection... "