Your computer does not see the 5GHz WiFi but sees the 2.4GHz (Windows)

Camilla Mo, Last Updated: 2 months ago in Network issues

You may have encountered such weird things: You put in your modem with two bandwidths, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Your computer only sees the one of 2.4GHz.

This might be caused by driver issues. Before you move on, it’s suggested that you update the driver first. If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

The other probably reason is that your computer may not have 5GHz bandwidth capability. You could check it by following the steps below.

1. Click Start menu.

2. Press Windows key and R (at the same time). A run dialog will appear.

3. Type cmd in. Click Ok.

4. On the Command prompt window, type “netsh wlan show drivers“. Press Enter.

5. Look for the “Radio types supported” section.

If it says that the network adapter supports 802.11g and 802.11n network modes, it means that the computer has 2.4 GHz network capability only.

If it says that the adapter supports 802.11a and 802.11g and 802.11n network modes, it means that the computer has 2.4 GHz and 5GHz network capability.

If it says 802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b network modes, it means the computer has 2.4GHz network capability only.

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The Great Seymour(Butz)

so i have ngb only. spectrum just bought me new modem and it get 5g but cant get on computer only on 5g tablet.
is there any hardware i could buy for comp to allow it to get 5g??
win 10 hp 23r110 about two years old
thanks
Duncan Fisher

Thanks for an easy way to check, now that I have and see that I actually have 5G but can’t find the 5G network, what then? Yes, I’ve tried moving closer.
marvin

I get 802.11n, b, g. is that the right order?
Lucas Nguyen

Can somebody help me? I upgraded from Windows 8 which was preinstalled when I first bought my laptop and now I don’t have access to 5G. My radio type is: 802.11b
ali

Hi i think something wrong here i got on my laptop ” If it says that the adapter supports 802.11a and 802.11g and 802.11n network modes, it means that the computer has 2.4 GHz and 5GHz network capability. ” which is doesnt work with 5g cant see anything . And I got older desktop and i can see messege If it says 802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b network modes, it means the computer has 2.4GHz network capability only.. but it works with 5g network . I m confused Also bot works with wireless and laptop distance is 3 metre and desktop upstairs . Can you help i got on laptop ar956x qualcom
- Edward
  
  HI,
  
  Base on your problem, I think that is because your laptop wireless adapter is set to received beacons from 2.4 GHz frequency only. To modify that, change the properties of your network adapter on device manager and set 802.11a enabled to see SSID of 5G. 802.11a comes with 802.11b to prevent the congestion on 2.4 Ghz spectrum, however, 802.11a can only provide throughput up to 54 Mbps.
  
  – Edward
SK

My computer has 802.11 b 802.11 g 802.11 n can I able to connect my system to 5g?
- Camilla Mo
  
  Hi SK,
  
  This means your system supports 2.4ghz.
David

Ihave a netgear router that has 2.4 and 5g, my atheros ar496x says b/a/g/n. The card can sometimes see one or the other sometimes, but whenever I try to connect, it either fails or times out. I’ve tried to reconfigure my adapter card but it is stuck on “802.11b preamble” with no other 802.11 options. Any tips?
- Camilla Mo
  
  Hi David,
  
  What’s the error message you got？
Michael Scott

Really? Yours says 802.11n TWICE?
Sweet!
David Johnstone

the correct reading will be seen as ….. 802.11= B G THEN N , NOT N G B . tech you are correct in those b g n , just there is confusion enough not to list them as they will be seen by someone with no real skillset. Me-myself , im sitting with a brand new dell and they didn’t even bother to give me 5ghz…nor did they list that this was not excluded/capable option anywhere.
Minecraft12345678910

I think I just found out why I can’t connect to my home Wi-Fi…My laptop has 2.4Ghz capability but my Wi-Fi is 5Ghz lol
דינדו מחמודי

so according to this my computer supports 5Ghz, but i still can’t seen it.
Agus

My laptop have 802.11a 802.11g 802.11n 802.11a what does that mean ?
i cannot connect 5GHz Wifi
- Ryan Trieu
  
  That means you have 5ghz and 2.4 ghz capability and I can’t explain why ;-;
- Michael Scott
  
  Really? Yours says 802.11a TWICE?
  You rock!
Ethan Henderson

My Pc says i have 4 of these codes i have 802.11a 802.11g 802.11n 802.11b so what does that mean
Leonie

Ok, so according to the above information my computer doesn’t support 5g. However, when I was living at my previous address I was able to connect to our NBN modem on a 5g network. Since I have moved, I can no longer connect to the 5g network. The modem was previously running through the phone line. At our new address it is connected through WLAN (this is the only way it will work) can anyone explain why I can no longer connect to 5g?
Sachin Shepherd

I have 802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b network modes in my pc.Is it possible if I add 5Ghz wireless USB adapter so it support to my pc or not?
- 4403V
  
  Were you able to get an adapter to work for this? Currently having the same problems for my laptop as well.
Edward

The black box displays for a second and then disappears. I’m not able to read that fast. Most likely stupid HP laptop problem.
- benfranklin
  
  You need to hit enter on the cmd command, so that the window opens and stays open.
Shoeb Sayed

this is helpful. my smartphone has 5ghz but laptop do not. thanks a lot.
- Nanocrisis
  
  if your phone does and your laptop does not, then why not try wifi tethering using your phone’s 5ghz connectivity. Kind of like a wifi dongle.
  - Shoeb Sayed
    
    thanks but m happy with 2.4 as its range is wide. i m already using 4 megs on hsia
Macorini

Thank you: Super helpful!
Laura

Thanks to you I finally found the right information. Sad for me my laptop doesn’t support 5g, will have to use alternative.
Tom F

Thanks for your clear explanation.
My Toshiba Radio apparently device does not support the 5g.
So now to look for the adapter and check my router specs.
Danny

Ok, so I have a slight problem.. my laptop has ac n and a wifi. my phone galaxy s7 edge has a ac wifi card. my router is a 150mbps on wifi and 1g bit on lan.on my phone I have not seettings on the adapter and I get 70-80 mbps down and 60 up. on my laptop when the network adapter is on auto or n setting it gets not more then 35 40 down and 16 up speed. but when I make the settings on ac for the faster speeds the laptop does not see the network anymore ?!?!?! what is the problem and how to fix it ?
- 4403V
  
  Were you able to find a solution to this? Currently having the same problems for my laptop as well.
John

Thanks it was helpful. It shows I don’t have 5g sad for me. I will look to find out how much it will cost to up grade.
Cliftone

THANK YOU !!! For your clear & easy directions! Unfortunately for me I have the 802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b …. but your info here keeps me from buying an adapter & new modem/router…

I get 100mbps only IF I use an ethernet cable… but when I go strictly wi-fi it drops to 48 -50 mbs …. uuuugh!
- Kerri
  
  Yeah, me too. It’s a relatively new Dell laptop. Very annoying!
  
  His diagnostics steps were easy to follow and gave me the information that I needed.
Rafal

For Dell Vostro 3650 to make it support 5GHZ use this card:

Atheros AR5B22 AKA DW1901.

The stock Intel Centrino card was rubbish. I wish I replace it earlier…
Paul

I recently purchased a Tp-Link Archer T6E and when i do this scan its telling me 802.11n 802.11a 802.11n 802.11g 802.11b. Does this mean that the box which says both 5ghz and 2.4ghz is wrong or do i have a setting wrong?
- Tamara-rxc Downey
  
  The TP-Link that you have supports 5g, it is a great adapter for the price. Don’t forget your whole system has to support 5g otherwise the Archer does what it should and defaults to what your system can support, which sounds like 2g. What Wi-Fi router do you have? That could be the bottleneck, or if you’re on cable modem it may not support 5g or your provider has it turned off. I’m with Eastlink, they charge me more saying I get higher speeds, but they have 5g turned off on their modem. If I want it on I can pay even more…scam artists, but the only other choice is Bell which isn’t any better.
AMRO

i was using 5.0 GHZ and i got a problem with my laptop my hard drive needs to be replaced i lost all data and everything and i changed my HD and after reinstalled windows 8 i stop receiving the 5.0 GHz signal only i can see 4.2 GHz after i found out that is because Wireless adapter card not supporting 802.11ac
so my question is why before i was able to use 5.0GHz
and after reinstalled the windows back on the same laptop i’m not able to see it in my networks only i’m seeing 4.2 GHz
- Enzio
  
  5GHz mode may be a, an or ac. The mode setting must be the same for wireless router and pc network adapter. If the latter does not support ac, then the router must be set to a or an.
- Michael Scott
  
  I think you mean 2.4……..not 4.2
  Obviously, some sort of setting changed (in your Windows setup) between installations.
  Reinstalling your OS should have no impact on your built-in wireless adaptor….and certainly changing your hard drive would have no impact either.
alpay

thanks. my computer doesnt support 5ghz :/
Doug

Every time i hit enter to run the command it closes down, any advice?
- Stu
  
  use “cmd” first to open shell window. Then key in command to view supported modes
Jay

Yeah, I just tried entering that in and it says that it’s not a valid command. So it’s invalid.
- DeanaMC
  
  Don’t use the quotations.
Sana Ullah zafar

i have a problem in netsh wlan show profiles. when i can run it for others network profile it can not show the profile it can show the older profiles which i can run before . what can i do for other wifi signal profile please .
PConroy

So how can you tell when buying a new laptop if it will recognize 5G?
Lucky

My phone does not catch the 5gh wifi made by my laptop(hotspot). What should i do????
Tyler

Hello can someone link me a wifi adapter that is 802.11 (a/g/n) please.

Thanks
- gia ellis
  
  Hi Tyler, I am in the same boat you are in trying to connect to my 5G wifi and only have 802.11 (b,g,n) Did anyone ever respond to you about the kind of adapter to buy to fix the issue? Please let me know. Thanks so much.
  Gia
Tom

I have an OOOLD Dell Insperion running Vista. And it CONNECTS to my 5G network. Driver is dated 2007 on an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945abg. I even checked in the router and it shows connected to 5G. I checked the radio types and it show a, b, & g. Call me crazy but I am connected.
- Fern
  
  Hi
  at my old address which had another modem from cable/internet company it did support 5g – I had it – I know it showed both, and I only have n,,b,g but now with another updated modem its not there?
  would that have something to do with? it doesn’t make sense & it’s driving me insane !
Ahmed K.

Hi;
I need to measure RSSI for 5.2 GHz. Do you have any software works with window to do that.
Thanks
Alin

My computer says
“802.11b 802.11a 802.11g and 802.11n” but my wifi list still doesnt show the 5GHZ network.

What to do?.
- anduril16
  
  I’m having the same issue. Mine shows 802.11b, a, g, and n, but it won’t connect on anything 5GHz.
  
  Does anyone have a solution to this
  - pdpollock
    
    re-read the last two lines. your computer is only compatible with 2.4
    - Adriel T
      
      I’m not sure what you’re reading or I’m missing but this site specifically says that if network diagnostics in the command prompt says that your network adapter supports 802.11a, g and n then you can operate on either frequency. His laptop, like mine, shows that our adapters support 802.11a, b, g and n which means that they should support both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz frequencies. I very seriously doubt that if our adapters show that they support the 802.11b type of network in addition to the a,g, and n networks, that would somehow make our laptops incapable of supporting those types of wifi connections.
    - doug
      
      Thats not what it says. If it’s capable of a, it’ll do 5ghz.
  - KEITH CHALMERS
    
    I went into my wifi router administration page and found connected devices and saved them . Before doing that, check firewalls on router and computer to be safe , don’t forget to turn them back on. Then find the computer / device you want to connect to 5g and get the name of the device and the mac. Address to then type it in . This is how I fixed my connection problems but I still have some issues when I come home. It wants to connect to 2.4g always. I selected connect automatically on the 5g wifi and sometimes it will take 2-5 minutes before it pops up on the wifi list. I’m no wizard but something I did corrected my issue. Good luck man.
- Freddie
  
  Go into your router settings and change your 5g channel to 36. That should help
Donald Williams

So what happens when you have the 5ghz and 2ghz and now after a few months the 5ghz wont show on either of my computers but does show on my phones?
Diana D.

Count me among the grateful. My new Comcast router came with the second 5GHz signal, and I could not get it to work. Turns out I’m in b/g/n land. You saved me the trouble of trying to update drivers that won’t make any difference–thank you!
shindo

well what if you have my case where the card supports g,b,a,w,and n?
Juan Paulo

I’ve just installed driver easy and I’m currently updating my driver, (actually it is very slow) (sometimes error occurred while downloading) it says “The remote name could not be resolved: ‘dow1drivereasy.com’. Help please..
- Juan Paulo
  
  Its now working with almost 40kb per sec dl
- camilla mo
  
  Dear Juan Paulo,
  
  Please understand the speed of Driver Easy Professional (Speed Limited) version is limited.
  You would mostly encounter this issue if you are using Driver Easy Professional (Speed Limited) version.
  
  To get higher download speed, it is highly recommended that you use the Paid version.
shafi

its really helpfull..i really like it..thnx
Makayla

OK so we don’t have a computer or laptop. All we have is our android smart phones. It’s says my 5-G isn’t inrange. Is it because I’m using my phone. I’ve already got the remote for the wireless printer downloaded. Will this not work?
Dani

I’ve wondered why my PC never found the 5G network. Thanks!
Tai

hey guys…if your device are not support 5GHz,it’s doesn’t matter…buy an AC adapter plug in to your laptop.and install it .you will automaticly see 5GHz network.
- Ryan
  
  What is an AC adapter? I need to get it for my laptop.
- Neza62
  
  My current one worked OK, until I upgraded to Windows 10, and now it no longer recognizes the AC Adapter; I called Linksys and learned that they currently do not have a driver for Windows 10. Hopefully, there are some products available that will work.
  - HiDiHo
    
    Guys it’s Windows 10 that is the problem (fix it microsoft!)
    I have a adapter 300Mbit but Windows 10 is stuck with 150Mbit
- Bill
  
  AC Adapter plug ???/ do you mean the AC plug for power of does AC Adapter plug you are refering to mean something else?
- Allison
  
  Youre the real MVP. Thank you so much.
Fotografo mostoles

thx for the info!!!
Rodger Bird

Thank you for your clear explanation.

I have been trying to get 5GHz operation on a Desktop and a laptop only to find it states “802.11n 802.11g and 802.11b”. I wish I had seen your article before wasting a couple of hours looking for drivers etc. At least I learned something!
Sara Johnson

Wow ive been trying to get my 5ghz to work for 2 days straight and thx to ur post i was able to see my pc doent support that frequency thx soooo much Sara
M. Orr

I am running Windows XP SP3 on my desktop and the WinXP OS does does not recognize the “netsh” command. I have a Linksys 2.4GHz Wireless adapter card supporting 802.11g and 802.11b. The signal strength is low and I cannot connect to either of my neighbors WiFi which is Xfinity and AT&T Uverse. So it appears I do not have the right radio bandwidth. If I get a 5.0 GHz wireless adapter card for my PC would I then be able to connect to neighbors WiFi service? I need to be able to participate in a Live online real-time vehicle auction which moves at lightning speed. Input is welcome.
- Raj
  
  There are quite a few options that you can try.
  
  1. Use a USB add-on wifi card that has antenna and can bring ‘N’ type wireless protocol with it.. Most of the times that is sufficient…If the distance between the router and PC/laptop is more and there are walls/hindrances between them 5G add ons are less likely to work.
  
  2. Use an internal add-on wifi card that has antenna and can bring ‘N’ type wireless protocol with it.. But that depends upon whether you have empty slots available.
  
  3. You can also use wifi signal repeaters but they are less likely to work.. if you decide to go this route,,make sure you are buying the brand that matches with the router.
  
  4. There are some powerline repeaters which are easy to install and mostly effective. also depends upon the electrical wiring.
  
  5. Last but not the least, you can buy another router and bridge both of the routers and boost signals, strength and range..
  
  Depending upon the technicality involved I would suggest trying the option1 first.
  
  cheers,