Network Questions 2

[littlepigboy5]

Thinking of purchasing a new simultaneous dual band router and had some questions.

1)  Does this create 2 seperate networks to connect to or does it see what device is connecting and tell it to connect to either 2.4 or 5 ghz

2)  What would I use if i wanted to extend this network?  I currently have a modem that acts as a router and 2 apple airport extremes, 1 at the top and bottom of the house, that create networks off of it.  Obviously i would have to get an extender or repeater(please explain to me the difference) to support extending both networks.

3)  if i connect to the router through ethernet, is it the 5ghz or 2.4 ghz connection, or are the 2.4 and 5ghz only pertaining to wifi.

Thanks

[Nerd Rage LBC]

Thinking of purchasing a new simultaneous dual band router and had some questions.

1)  Does this create 2 seperate networks to connect to or does it see what device is connecting and tell it to connect to either 2.4 or 5 ghz

2)  What would I use if i wanted to extend this network?  I currently have a modem that acts as a router and 2 apple airport extremes, 1 at the top and bottom of the house, that create networks off of it.  Obviously i would have to get an extender or repeater(please explain to me the difference) to support extending both networks.

3)  if i connect to the router through ethernet, is it the 5ghz or 2.4 ghz connection, or are the 2.4 and 5ghz only pertaining to wifi.

Thanks

 

1- Yes it can run both 2.4 and 5 at the same time. Depending on devices receiving the single can see both or just 2.4 (Wish I paid attention to my WiFi card before I got it for my PC, my router supported 5GHz but WiFi card didn't... bummer)

2- You could use an official "Repeater / Extender" sold from the store or get a compatible router and flash it with DDWRT/Tomato and modify it to do the same. (Pretty sure the Repeater repeats the signal, and extender extends the wireless range. I always thought they're the same.)

3- Pertains to Wireless bands.

Welcome

[littlepigboy5]

Very helpful, but im still unclear about the two networks.  will there be two networks?  like if i go on my ipad for example, and go to wifi will i see both networks or just the 2.4 ghz one.  and if there are two networks, are they named the same thing, and only appear on their respective devices?  Also, if i use this, http://amzn.to/1oBlxwA,%C2'> it effectively extend both networks?

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

If it's giving out 2.4 and 5ghz then you will still only see one network(ssid) if you have 2 wireless access points with different ssid then you will see both if both wireless access points have the same ssid you will see one and should switch between them automatically depending on the signal strength / quality.

Yes the range would be extended. But will only extend what it supports. Ie if your main WiFi is 2.5 and 5ghz but your extender only supports 2.5 then you won't get an extended 5ghz band.

[littlepigboy5]

so if i have 3 linksys e2500 routers, one in the middle of my house, and 1 at the top and 1 at the bottom of my house as extenders.  I will have a 2.4ghz and a 5ghz network all throughout my house?

[Nerd Rage LBC]

If it's giving out 2.4 and 5ghz then you will still only see one network(ssid) if you have 2 wireless access points with different ssid then you will see both if both wireless access points have the same ssid you will see one and should switch between them automatically depending on the signal strength / quality.

Yes the range would be extended. But will only extend what it supports. Ie if your main WiFi is 2.5 and 5ghz but your extender only supports 2.5 then you won't get an extended 5ghz band.

 

You can have 2 bands broadcast at the same time with separate names like the RT-N66U for example. In the router settings you could name the SSID's separately (as well as separate passwords) so you could distinguish which one is which (given that your devices can detect the 5GHz as well)

 

Dual band broadcast settings

 

As for the extenders I don't know if they extend multiple bands, maybe like a dual band extender? I only tried one band, pretty sure you could with DDWRT making an additional virtual network maybe.