5 advantages and disadvantages for 5GHz Wi-Fi router

TipsMake.com - If you have to buy a new 802.11n Wi-Fi router, surely you will find there are many models that support dual band, which are the types of routers that not only operate at the frequency of 2.4GHz still common. As before, they can also operate at 5GHz frequency .

Routers supporting 802.11n in both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, like the Linksys E3000, often cost more than standard models, they offer many advantages to your wireless network. However, before deciding to buy this new model, let's explore the advantages and disadvantages of 5GHz technology to ensure you fully exploit the strengths and avoid its weaknesses. .

Here are 5 advantages and disadvantages you need to know about 5GHz Wi-Fi router models:

1. Advantages: No interference from other devices

The biggest advantage of 802.11n routers 5GHz versus 2.4GHz is the ability to avoid interference from other wireless devices used in the home or office. Wireless phones (operating in 1.9 GHz band), Bluetooth devices, microwaves, child monitoring devices, warning systems, wireless speakers or other devices using radio signals in the frequency The 2.4GHz number can weaken Wi-Fi networks to operate at this frequency.

In contrast, a 5GHz network can avoid all interference problems from the above wireless devices.

2. Advantages: Reduce crowding from other networks

It can be seen that, one of the most typical sources of noise interference for wireless networks is nearby wireless networks, however the 5GHz routers avoid this because the current routers are mostly in operation. 2.4GHz frequency.

Although 2.4GHz routers can be set up to operate on one of 11 wireless channels, only three channels 1, 6 and 11 can be used simultaneously without overlapping. As a result, the 2.4GHz band is easily interfering if there are many 2.4GHz wireless networks operating in a narrow range.

The 5GHz network (usually uses a wider frequency range, from 5.1 to 5.8 GHz) so that overlapping problems can be avoided, they have from 8 to 23 channels without overlapping (depending on execution and channels Double-wide is used or not). This allows networks closer to each other to interfere with each other.

3. Disadvantages: The range is limited

One principle in radio transmission is: the higher the frequency, the greater the signal attenuation. Therefore, 5GHz network devices will have smaller coverage than 2.4 GHz devices. Although this can be partially overcome by new antenna technologies, if a device is quite far from the wireless access point, it may still work well with the 2.4GHz router but with a 5GHz router. not.

4. Disadvantages: Low equipment support and high cost

It is ideal for all 802.11n devices to allow you to have both 2.4 or 5GHz connectivity options. But in the real world, that is not simple at all because 5GHz devices are less popular - it also makes us pay an additional budget and equipment is not available in many places.

For example, if you buy a notebook from HP or Dell and discover that its Wi-Fi adapter only supports 2.4GHz, then you need an additional adapter to support the 5GHz band like Netgear. N600 for example.

The 5GHz support may or may not be when it comes to consumer wireless electronics. For example, while the iPad 2 supports 5GHz, the iPod touch and iPhone only support 2.4GHz. Some Roku music players support 5GHz band but it is not available in all new Roku 2 versions. In addition, both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 do not support the 5GHz band.

In order for devices like game consoles to operate on 5GHz networks regardless of whether they support the original 5GHz band or not, you need to use 5GHz Ethernet bridge like DAP-1522 of D -Link.

5: Pros: Two are always better than one

Due to the aforementioned limitations, it is rare to quit using 2.4GHz to build a network that only works with the 5GHz band. Since Wi-Fi networks are a shared environment, the more devices connected to a network, the less bandwidth available for each device. Therefore, using a few 5GHz devices will make more bandwidth available for 2.4GHz devices.

One last thing, if you decide to use a dual-band router, make sure the router you choose supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n simultaneously. Some models don't support it at the same time, which means you can only choose 5GHz or 2.4GHz, which will cause many restrictions on the network.