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I recently installed a new Frontier Wi-Fi router and the person who installed it suggested a 5 GHz setting alongside the 2.4 GHz, which is quite nice. However, only certain devices can find/see the 5 GHz channel in the Wi-Fi settings (the default is 2.4 GHz, called Frontier111 for example, and the 5 GHz is called Frontier111_5G).

All Apple devices and the TV (Samsung) can see the 5 GHz Wi-Fi AP, but the Android phones and one Windows 8 computer can't. One Windows 8.1 can find it strangely enough.

I've tried changing settings in Device Manager but it doesn't help much, only buffs the 2.4 channel performance by a bit. Also, there are no settings that show 2.4 or 5 GHz in Device Manager under my Wi-Fi driver. What should I do to fix it?

Spiff
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Caleb
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1 Answers1

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Not all devices actually support 5GHz, and it has only been mandatory with 802.11ac, and only supported on some N devices (and in theory, all devices that support 802.11a, which no one really uses). Many 802.11 devices are single band.

In addition, 5GHz isn't that great in terms of wall penetration, so it's mainly useful if your walls are thin or the device is in the same room.

My guess would be the systems that don't see the 5GHz AP simply don't support the standard.

Aibobot
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