As business and technology are growing, internet speed has also improved significantly over the years. We need the internet for browsing, downloading and uploading, saving and transferring data online, and for various other tasks. To accomplish it, we need high-speed internet on our devices. And you must be wondering how to check if my Laptop supports 5Ghz WiFi.
Your WiFi might be working slowly, and you think you should change your router or connection. Well, that can also be the case. However, before doing so, check if your WiFi band is 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. If you see 5Ghz, you should get it checked; else, you need to switch to 5Ghz.
To make this switch, you should know if your laptop supports 5Ghz. There are laptops that don’t support this band. So, it is necessary for you first to check and then take the next steps accordingly.
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Table of Contents
Steps On How To Check If My Laptop Supports 5Ghz WiFi on Windows
Let’s answer your question, how to tell if my computer can connect to 5Ghz.
- From the start menu, open Run and type cmd to open Command Prompt.
- Now on Command Prompt, type netsh wlan show drivers and press Enter.
- Find Radio types supported that would say one of the three statements:
- For 802.11g and 802.11n, the computer is capable of 2.4Ghz.
- For 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac, the computer is capable of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
- For 802.11n, 802.11g, and 802.11b, the computer is capable of 2.4Ghz.
You can now easily tell if your laptop supports 5Ghz or not. You can follow the same steps to check 5Ghz on your Ubuntu system. Following the same steps, you can figure out how to tell if my laptop can connect to 2.4Ghz.
Further in this article, you will learn and understand more about bandwidths.
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How Are 2.4Ghz And 5Ghz Different?
Gigahertz or Ghz is a frequency uint to measure alternating current and electromagnetic wave frequencies. 1 Mhz is equaled to 1,000,000 Hz, and 1 Ghz is equals to 1000 Mhz. This was a little bit of physics. Now let’s understand these bands in simple words.
You might be wondering what is Ghz in a laptop. The clock speed in Ghz measures how quickly the CPU can retrieve and interpret instructions. This way, your computer knows to complete different tasks faster. At times, you can benefit from a CPU benchmark to assess how poorly or how well your PC is performing.
Coming to the two bands, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Now we know about Ghz, we can easily figure out these two bands. As the number suggests, 2.4Ghz will provide you with a slow speed, and 5Ghz will give you a faster speed. However, it doesn’t only depend on speed but also the range it comes with.
The range tells you how much area it can cover for you to use the WiFi. So to clear out things, 2.4Ghz comes with a wider range, but data transmission would be slow. And 5Ghz comes with a narrow range, but data transmission would be fast.
You already know how to check if my laptop supports 5Ghz WiFi. And with that, you would know what band you have been using till now on your computer.
You can see the clear difference in speed while downloading and uploading files or streaming online. If your laptop chooses 2.4Ghz automatically, you can easily switch to the 5Ghz connection. Also, keeping your device close to the router will give you a good speed while using the 5Ghz band.
How To Change Settings To 5Ghz In Windows?
If your WiFi is always connected to a 2.4Ghz band and you want to switch to 5Ghz, you need to tweak some settings on your computer. Presently, the internet has become an active and essential part of our lives. However, the internet cuts for a few seconds, in any case, creates a lot of setbacks. For that, first, you need to perform the steps on how to check if my laptop supports 5Ghz WiFi or not.
After checking that, now you should follow the below steps to switch on the 5Ghz settings if your laptop supports it.
- On the taskbar in the search bar, type Device Manager to open its window in Control Panel.
- Find and right-click on Network Adapters to select Properties.
- A new window will open up. Select the Advanced tab.
- From the Properties section, choose 802.11n/ac wireless mode.
- Click on the drop-down menu and select 802.11n and 802.11ac and save.
- Now restart your PC to make sure that the changes you made have been applied successfully.
Laptops with 5G capability, when connected to a 5G network, provide you with high speed and performance. You also might be thinking that 2.4Ghz is good for a laptop or not.
If you feel that 2.4Ghz is working better for you, you can always switch back to it. After all, it is your experience and choice which band is good for you and which is creating problems.
Sometimes, you face some network issues; at that time, switching back to 2.4Ghz may solve it. This you can count in one of the troubleshooting steps when your 5Ghz network is not working as it should be.
Steps To Check 5Ghz On Mac
You might also want to know how to check if my laptop supports 5Ghz WiFi on Mac OS.
The above-listed steps are to follow for Windows PC or laptop. To check 5Ghz on your Mac, please follow the below steps.
- Find and click on the Apple icon on the top right corner to select About this Mac.
- Now click on the More Info button.
- A window will open up. From the left panel, find and click on Airport.
- Then, a list will open up. Look for Supported PHY Modes.
Your Mac is capable of supporting 5Ghz; if it shows any of this in Supported PHY Modes: 802.11a, 802.11ac, or 802.11ax.
Now you would know which band your Mac was using. To switch your connection from 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz, follow the below steps:
- Go to the Applications folder and open the Utility folder.
- Select and open the AirPort Utility app.
- In the graphical overview, you need to select the base station that you want to configure.
- Now click on the Edit option (for the step, you might need a password for the base station).
- Select Wireless and then click on the Wireless Options button.
- Then, choose the 5Ghz network name and change it to one of your choices.
- Now click on Save and then Update.
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FAQs
Which clock speed is considered good for laptops?
A good clock speed for a laptop falls under the category of 3.5Ghz to 4.0Ghz. This speed is good for gaming as well. However, the CPU is good at handling and completing single tasks that use single-thread performance.
Should I buy a laptop that supports 5Ghz?
Yes, you can confirm that on the manual where everything will be mentioned about the laptop. Nowadays, people look for faster speed in terms of connectivity, data transmission, and laptop speed. However, You are free to switch to a lower band if your laptop supports the 5Ghz band.
Conclusion
It is very simple, how to check if my Laptop supports 5Ghz WiFi. In this article, we even discussed how to check the same setting on Ubuntu and Mac Operating systems. Also, you can check out this article to fix the Default Gateway.
Most users like to switch to 5Ghz because of its speed. However, the range reduces in this band due to the interruption of walls and solid objects. The waves cannot pass these objects easily, slowing down the connection. It is always recommended that you should keep doors and windows open to get better speed on the 5Ghz band.
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Aloukik Rathore is a Delhi-based entrepreneur, musician, writer, and tech nerd. He has been blogging for about 7 years now.
