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Issue #474: August 21 – 27, 2016

Q: I want to have my computer always connect to the 2.4 GHz band when I turn it on. It frequently connects to the 5 GHz band. (maybe 70% of the times). I have to go through the exercise of “disconnect from the LINKSYS 08301_5GHz”, and then “connect to the LINKSYS 08301” band. Sometimes it even just goes back to the _5 GHz a few minutes later, after I have changed to the 2.4 GHz one. I get a lot of “buffering” when I am on the 5 GHz band. And, connections are slow as seven-year itch!

– Franklin B.
Shalimar, Florida

A: I’m going to give you an answer that will do what you want, Franklin, but first I need to mildly chide you. Your contact info indicated you are still using Windows Vista. Really? Not only was Vista one of the most reviled versions of Windows there ever was, but support for it ended way back in April of 2010. That means you’ve been without patches and security updates for nearly 6 ½ years, and there have been quite a few “dangerous” issues in that time that more modern versions of the OS have fixed. You are now at least 5 versions behind the current state of the technology. You really should consider upgrading if for no other reason than to protect your personal data.

There is a very simple answer to your router issue, but as it so often does, the simple answer seems to be the most elusive one. So, rather than mucking around with settings in the router or network settings on the PC to try and get it to prefer one network over the other, let’s take a strong-arm, but simple approach. I noted in the screen capture that you sent me that you have security features enabled for both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz and SSIDs on your router. That’s good, because it requires any connecting PC to know the correct password. If you simply don’t provide that PC with the password for the 5 GHz SSID there is no way it will be able to connect to it, and it should stay on the 2.4 GHz SSID, which is where you seem to want it anyway.

With that issue settled, let’s talk a little bit about why your router even has dual bands. The numbers you gave for speed tests of the two bands were interesting to me, because the 5 GHz band would usually be expected to provide better performance than the 2.4 GHz band. It is not just the number of GHz that makes the difference, but rather how many other devices share that frequency band. The 2.4 GHz band is crowded with traffic from Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, wireless PC peripherals (mice and keyboards) and just plain noise from devices like microwave ovens. The 5 GHz band is far quieter, so one would think it would be the better choice. The problem is that the higher a radio frequency is, the shorter its effective range (which is why short wave radios can broadcast such long distances). Simply put, when using the 5 GHz band, your PC must be closer to the router than if you use the 2.4 GHz band.

If you’d like to learn more, as well as discover ways to properly use both bands of your router, your router’s manufacturer has a fairly comprehensive article entitled Differentiating the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz frequency bands that you can read at TinyURL.com/IGTM-0474. There are many links in this article that lead to other useful pages which should substantially improve your knowledge of your router.


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