do all (draft) N clients support dual band?

[zjohnr]

I'm afraid this post once again falls into the "dumb question" category. Apologies if the answer to this question should be obvious to me, but it just ain't.

I can read and understand (well enough) the difference between a single and dual band wireless router. But what has never really been clear to me is that if I did buy a dual band N router ... just a hypothetical as I am not actually thinking of doing this ... would my N client device actually be able to use 5 GHz band?

FWIW, my sole N client at the moment is a MB403LL/A MacBook. I really have no knowledge of any of the details of its wireless support other than that it supports some flavor of draft N. Below is what I found in the "About this Mac" info.

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x88)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.24)

(The Broadcom reference actually confuses me. I thought Apple was using Intel's wireless implementation. ... Oh, well. )

-irrational john

 

[jdabbs]

There are nine chips in the 43xx family, some of which are dual band. I am getting dubious results from Google as to the exact chipset (wrong card for listed specs), but another way of determining 5 GHz capability is to verify that .11a is supported.

 

[zjohnr]

I am getting dubious results from Google as to the exact chipset (wrong card for listed specs), but another way of determining 5 GHz capability is to verify that .11a is supported.

Do you mean as in "IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible"? If so, then yes, it supports it.

Don't all of the current batch of wireless clients support 802.11a? Though I can't imagine ever actually being in a situation where it would (still) be used.

I had imagined that 802.11g had become pretty much the default with maybe 802.11b still hanging on in some places. Not the case?

-irrational john

 

[jdabbs]

Yes, provided that's a/b/g/n. While many mini-pcie cards are abgn, 2.4 GHz-only is common for USB clients.

 

[thiggins]

The spec is here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?p...=16777216&src=support_site.psp.macbook.search

The key is "IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible". If 802.11a is listed on a wireless adapter or product, then it supports operation in the 5 GHz band.

You should also be able to check your wireless adapter settings / properties and see if there is a 5 GHz band setting.

And no, not all draft 11n devices or client cards support dual-band.

 

[zjohnr]

You should also be able to check your wireless adapter settings / properties and see if there is a 5 GHz band setting.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But if there is a way to access the 2.4/5.0 band setting within OS X Leopard, I haven't stumbled across it yet.

The MacBook is interesting. I find I like it ... in the sense of actually using it ... a lot more than any previous laptops I've owned. And I personally am constantly impressed by just how attractive and solid the hardware feels to me.

But, OTOH, there is what I think of as "dumb blond empathy syndrome". I constantly hear this imaginary Apple voice in my head saying, "There, there, dear! Don't you worry your pretty little head about that. I'm taking care of everything. Just trust me."

I guess the problem is ultimately me. When it comes down to it, I'm not really an "appliance computer" type of person.

I'll have to try booting Windows XP on the MacBook and see if it provides any way to select which band is used. (I'm just curious. )

-irrational john

 

[thiggins]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But if there is a way to access the 2.4/5.0 band setting within OS X Leopard, I haven't stumbled across it yet.

Oops. Forgot about the Apple approach to things...
Anyway, your MacBook supports dual-band.

 

[zjohnr]

And no, not all draft 11n devices or client cards support dual-band.

Now that I know to look for 802.11a in the specs it is interesting to see just how many laptops turn out to support, for example, "just" 802.11b/g/n. I'd never considered the lack of support for 802.11a worth noting before.

Still, doing a sort of random, anecdotal spec-walk over at newegg.com I also saw a number of laptops that offered 802.11a/b/g/n. Not surprisingly, the "cheapest" laptops were the most likely to omit the dual band support. But I didn't really see that paying more guaranteed you'd get the dual band support.

Anyway .... thanks again for the insight. It's a little thing but it's always nice to have found yet another little piece of the larger puzzle.

-irrational john

 

[tdream]

Oops. Forgot about the Apple approach to things...
Anyway, your MacBook supports dual-band.

It supports dual band, but not simultaneously. And it doesn't bond channels either, ie 20+40

 

[thiggins]

There is no single dual-band adapter that supports both bands simultaneously.

I think you mean that it doesn't support 40 MHz channel width in 2.4GHz? It should in 5 GHz.