How can we tell from a WiFi card spec whether the NIC is 2.4GHz or 5GHz, or both?

How can we tell from an HP WiFi card spec whether the NIC is 2.4GHz or 5GHz, or both?

I'm trying to help my sister buy an HP laptop on the web.

My problem is that I contacted HP Support (via their chat mechanism) because USA phone support is not open now, and technical support isn't open tomorrow.

All I want to know is HOW to tell if a WiFi card has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

For $300 at Costco, plus $30 for shipping, this seems to be a decent 15.6-inch display laptop:

formatting link
|-AMD-E1-|-Windows-10.product.100222779.html

The main drawback from that Costco offering is that the WiFi isn't "ac", there's no mention of bluetooth, and the laptop doesn't come with Office 2013.

But, we can fix that at the HP web site.

If we go to the HP site to buy it, we can customize it to add what Costco doesn't have (and get free shipping).

formatting link

  1. We start with the HP price of 0 which comes with twice as much memory as Costco's (4GB -> 8GB) plus free shipping (worth ), so it's only more than the Costco price.
  2. We add the Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 from HP for an extra 0 (either boxed, or already installed - I suggest they get the box for easier re-use later).
    formatting link
  3. We add a WiFi "ac" card from HP for an extra but is it dual band, 2.4GHz and 5GHz or not?
  4. We add an extra wireless mouse and keyboard (no wires!) for (because my sis wants that).
    formatting link
    The resulting price is 0 + tax (free shipping).

For that price, I see she gets a good laptop, but I chatted for half an hour with the HP sales chat people and they couldn't confirm if this 802.11 n/ac laptop has both

2.4GHz and 5GHz or if it only has one of those two frequencies.

HP chat sent me this URL but it just confirms that both "ac" and "n" don't have to be dual band; either one can be a single band. Also, it confirmed the 1x1 or 2x2 or 4x4 just means the number of dedicated data transmit and data receive antennas, which says absolutely nothing about the frequency.

formatting link

My question is ... How can we tell from the HP WiFi card spec whether the NIC is 2.4GHz or 5GHz, or both?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm
Loading thread data ...

Looks at the specs. If it says 802.11 followed by: b/g = 2.4 GHz only b/g/n = 2.4 GHz only a = 5 GHz only a/b/g/n = 2.4 and 5 GHz The key is the "a" as in 802.11a, which is 5 GHz only.

Broken link. Try: which says: 802.11b/g/n WLAN which is 2.4 GHz only. You might want to read the reviews.

A BlueGoof dongle can be plugged into the a USB port. Buy a few spares as I've been shipped defective receivers.

Office 2013 is usually extra. If you must have Microsoft Office, look at Office 365 or the various Office Mutations available. Or, use free open source software such as Libre Office or Open Office. There are also Office alternatives:

Still nym shifting?

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I am lost on the questions and answers that you guys are posting. I never hear of different WiFi to me all are universal speed depend on your OS system, and the host and router if in use. as much I know all laptops have capability to hook to WiFi but you will need password unless system is open. no to many of those around but you can be lucky.

How can we tell from an HP WiFi card spec whether the NIC is 2.4GHz or 5GHz, or both?

I'm trying to help my sister buy an HP laptop on the web.

My problem is that I contacted HP Support (via their chat mechanism) because USA phone support is not open now, and technical support isn't open tomorrow.

All I want to know is HOW to tell if a WiFi card has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

For $300 at Costco, plus $30 for shipping, this seems to be a decent

15.6-inch display laptop:
formatting link
|-AMD-E1-|-Windows-10.product.100222779.html

The main drawback from that Costco offering is that the WiFi isn't "ac", there's no mention of bluetooth, and the laptop doesn't come with Office 2013.

But, we can fix that at the HP web site.

If we go to the HP site to buy it, we can customize it to add what Costco doesn't have (and get free shipping).

formatting link

  1. We start with the HP price of 0 which comes with twice as much memory as Costco's (4GB -> 8GB) plus free shipping (worth ), so it's only more than the Costco price.
  2. We add the Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 from HP for an extra 0 (either boxed, or already installed - I suggest they get the box for easier re-use later).
    formatting link
  3. We add a WiFi "ac" card from HP for an extra but is it dual band,
2.4GHz and 5GHz or not?
  1. We add an extra wireless mouse and keyboard (no wires!) for (because my sis wants that).
    formatting link
    The resulting price is 0 + tax (free shipping).

For that price, I see she gets a good laptop, but I chatted for half an hour with the HP sales chat people and they couldn't confirm if this 802.11 n/ac laptop has both

2.4GHz and 5GHz or if it only has one of those two frequencies.

HP chat sent me this URL but it just confirms that both "ac" and "n" don't have to be dual band; either one can be a single band. Also, it confirmed the 1x1 or 2x2 or

4x4 just means the number of dedicated data transmit and data receive antennas, which says absolutely nothing about the frequency.
formatting link

My question is ... How can we tell from the HP WiFi card spec whether the NIC is 2.4GHz or

5GHz, or both?
Reply to
tony944

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Tony Hwang wrote:>>

formatting link

Hi,

-AC mode runs on 5GHz band, -N can run on either. So, it'll be dual band card, 2 stream one(2 antennas) Full -AC needs 4 antennas and there are almost no such thing yet for users. Of course it'll have Gbit Ethernet controller too. Does it have Bluetooth? Bluetooth mouse and keyboard?

8 GB memory is good. You don't have to spend 140.00 on MS Office. Freeware Openoffice is compatible with MS Office. Let her try it and you can buy MS later on student discount. And what cpu, and Video controller?(what is native resolution?) I am sure the laptop will have HDMI port and sufficient no. of USB port. And my(very robust game machine with enough cpu and video controller power) daily use laptop is 14", i7 quad cpu, 8GB memory Nvidia 740M video card and DVD r/w drive, etc. gotten for ~500.00 on eBay. Built-like tank. Never let me down. I never owned HP laptop. Personally I just don't like it. But I used many different Enterprise grade HP work stations or server. Most people use Intel 7260 dual band WiFi card. I have it in all our laptop except my wife's Asus GX60 which has Bigfoot Killer N card. I seldom use desktop any more. At home I use 17" Asus ROG with SSDs, 16GB memory, Nvidia 840m video card, i7 quad cpu, Blue ray R/W drive, etc. I use this for my real work. triple boot, W7 x64, Ultimate, W10 Pro and Ubuntu. (What real work? I am retired old fart, LOL!)
Reply to
Tony Hwang

So, if it doesn't have "a" (all by itself and not with "ac"), then it's not 5GHz? Is that correct?

This link worked for me just now:

formatting link

Sad story. Long story. Experience. Nothing else is Microsoft Office. You and I can handle any office lookalike program, but teachers can't. Office 365 is stupid, for anyone buying only 1 copy of Home & Student, and who is still using Office 2007, which means they'd pay for Office ten times over with the subscription than with the one price.

Back to the "a", which is 5GHz and "g" which is 2.4GHz. What if it's 802.11 b/g/n/ac ?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

Maybe. Maybe not. Jeff just explained that only "a" has 5GHz. The rest can be 2.4 GHz.

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

Basically, the WiFi cards for the Costco & HP web pages, do NOT list the frequency. I won't recommend a laptop that does not have *both*

2.4GHz and 5GHz.

I just want to know how I can be sure of that, when they don't bother to list the frequencies in the WiFi specs!

Here is the HP spec for that laptop:

formatting link

I can't tell which WiFi card has *both* 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

Does this link work for you?

formatting link

Look at this screenshot:

formatting link

If I press the customize button, I have three WiFi card choices.

  1. 802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1]
  2. 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1]
  3. Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [1x1]

Which of those is *both* 2.4GHz and 5GHz? How do I know?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

No. Both 802.11a and 802.11ac are 5 GHz only. Just look for the "a" and it should be able to do 5 GHz in some manner.

The WLAN card is listed as "802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1]" which will NOT do

5 GHz.

Are you sure? Office 365 can be installed on 5 machines. If the skool has 5 machines of any type, which makes the price for each machine about $20/year. Meanwhile, Home and Student is $140 and should last about 5 to 7 years before it become too old to use. At an optimistic 7 years, that's the same $20/year per machine as Office 365.

No such thing. In order to do "ac", it will need to also do "a". So the typical designation will be: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I know who Jeff is. -a is another mode consumers do not bother. I can buy a legit key for MS Office 2015 for 30.00 or so. Download it and use that key to activate. Always worked for me. I even bought keys for my surveillance camera use on Synology NAS. Real =AC mode, 80MHz wide is full -AC with 4 MIMO(4 antennas) and some will work on MU-MIMO(yet to come by Qualcom, Quantenna, etc.) You just specify dual band card as an option. Some HP laptops don't like any card. HP has white list of WiFi card.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Yes, it works, after about 90 seconds of loading content from all over the web.

I would guess the number 3 will certainly do 5 GHz. However, the web designers truncated the letters that designate the all the protocols, listing only the highest (fastest) 802.11ac. Presumably, that would include all the lesser protocols, including 802.11 a/b/g/n. However, I can't be certain without knowing the Intel model number of the wireless card.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Who cares about -b ancient slowest mode. G, N, AC. If it is AC card or router AC is downward compatible with slower modes.Student version lacks some features and miscellaneous things. Why do you think it is cheaper? WiFi is 2 way street one laptop has AC card does not mean it'll be faster, corresponding device at the other end should be AC capable too. If AC card talks to N card speed will be that of N.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

The option Intel -AC card with Bluetooth is what you want then. This one is dual band(2.4GHz, 5GHz) This is AMD cpu based laptop. A10 is the top end one. Video card... Rxxxx. xxxx at higher number is better one. Any more questions? Don't forget to read reviews on this model to see whether buyers are happy or not.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Again No. 3 Looks like basic dual band being 1x1, not 2x2 or 3x3.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I'm still confused.

Number 3 is: "Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth [1x1]". So, what does that tell us?

Are we saying the "ac" is both 2.4GHz & 5GHz by virtue of the "a" in "ac"?

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

Unfortunately, the "typical" designation doesn't help us here. The HP spec, as you have seen, just says "ac" for the high end card.

formatting link

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

I'm sure, but only because of arithmetic.

She's a teacher. Not a school.

She only has an ancient WinXP desktop that has Office 2007 on it. When she gets a new laptop, she needs a new Office anyway.

  1. Renting Office 365 for a laptop costs 0/year and can be put on 4 more non WinXP machines that don't actually exist. After 7 years, renting cost her 0 for Office for that one laptop, which is more than the laptop costs.

  1. Buying Office 2013 costs her 0, and can be put on one desktop and one laptop. Since the desktop is WinXP, the additional license is moot, so, it costs her 0 for 7 years (or 10% less with the teacher discount).

It's a no brainer, to me; but this isn't the question in the OP, so it's just an offshoot discussion which isn't at all confusing to me.

Reply to
Ewald Böhm

There is one advantage. The dog eating the homework it too old to be believed these days. Now the excuse is, "My mother didn't pay this month's Word rent so it won't let me print"

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.