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2008
Inspiron 3650, I'm confused about WiFi networking
Early in 2018 I bought a refurbished machine from Dell. The wireless adapter card is described as, "Dell Wireless 1801 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0"., but Windows System calls it, "Qualcomm QCA9565 802.11b/g/n Wireless Adapter".
I have recently acquired a Zyxel router, which supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Some net posts say that 802.11b/g/n does not support 5 GHz. I am confused, whether 5 GHz is supported on not.
The router uses separate SSIDs for each band, but only one passcode. If the card does support dual band, what needs doing to make seamless switching between bands possible?
Thanks for reading!
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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43.6K Posts
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February 18th, 2019 10:00
Always mention the PC model and version of Windows in your posts. :Idea:
The card was probably made by Qualcomm for Dell and uses Dell's drivers.
An 802.11 b/g/n WiFi card can only support 2.4 GHz. You'd have to replace your card with a dual band 802.11ac WiFi card to use 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz band on your router can still support your b/g/n WiFi card.
Keep in mind that while 5 GHz WiFi may be faster, the coverage range is typically shorter than 2.4 GHz. So even if the data link speed is faster, the signal might be weaker, depending on how close the PC is to the router.
And hardwired Ethernet will be faster and more secure than WiFi...
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
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47K Posts
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February 19th, 2019 09:00
You have to have a DUAL BAND 802.11AC AC600 wifi adapter.
This is easy via USB device.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wireless-USB-wifi-Adapter-EEEKit-1200Mbps-2-4GHz-5GHz-Dual-Band-WIFI-Adapter-802-11AC-Wireless-USB-3-0-Network-w-Antenna-Computer-PC-Laptop-Win-XP-7-/741040686