How to Enable 5GHz Wi-Fi on Your Laptop.
Wi-Fi is generally easy to use and reliable. However, it is quite complicated to use 5GHz Wi-Fi on your laptop. Usually, you get to select the name of the router, enter the password and forget about it.
How to find out if your laptop supports 5GHz
All you need to do is:
- Open Control Panel
- Go to Device Manager
- Find the make and model of your laptop's Wi-Fi under the Network adapters section.
Which Wi-Fi Standards Support on 5GHz?
802.11a, 802.11n and 802.11ac all work on 5GHz, however it is optional with 802.11n.
Since most current routers are 802.11n models, all you need to do is find out if yours has a 5GHz radio in addition to the more common 2.4GHz one. Not all routers can use both frequencies simultaneously hence it is impossible to use the 5GHz.
This is not a problem for dual-band routers which can run both radios at the same time, however using different frequencies can still cause problems as devices on different frequencies may not be able to communicate with each other. For instance, an iPhone 6 Plus connected to a BT Home Hub 5 via 802.11n on 5GHz will not be able to see a Google Nexus Player which connects to the same router on 2.4GHz.
HOW TO ENABLE 5GHz WiFi ON YOUR LAPTOP.
- If your adaptor supports 802.11a, it will definitely support 5GHz. The same goes for 802.11ac.
- You can also right-click on the adaptor in Device Manager, click Properties and then switch to the Advanced tab. You'll see a list of properties, one of which should mention 5GHz.
- If you don't see an option to enable or disable 5GHz, either your adapter doesn't support it, or the wrong drivers are installed.
However, if you really want to use 5GHz for whatsoever reason, you can buy a USB Wi-Fi dongle for your laptop.