WiFi Connection Issues: 5Ghz band not found? How do I determine wifi settings & limitations

Mine says 802.11d      I have never heard of 802.11d????      My computer worked fine before upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.  I am so frustrated that I am just about ready to go back to 8.1. 

I just bought new laptop with windows 10 already installed and it is supposed to be dual band 802.11 b/g/n, but it too doesn't see the 5 Ghz band.  All my smartphones see the 5Ghz band as did my computer that I upgraded to 10 before the upgrade.

I have the latest Linksys router, purchased just a few months ago.

My Network adapter onboard this laptop is a Realtek  RTL8188EE  wireless lan  802.11n  PCI-E-NIC

When I click on update the Network adapter listed above, it says It is up to date.

Please help

Hi Richard,

I have searched for information about the wireless adapter installed in your computer and found that your wireless adapter has 802.11n standard, which supports 5GHz bandwidth.

unfortunately, I was unable to find the Wireless adapter make and model. Let us know the make and model of the Wireless adapter.

While you reply, check if these settings help.

1. Go to Desktop mode
2. Select Charms > Settings > PC Info
3. Click Device Manager (located in the top left of screen)
4. Click the > sign to expand the Network adapters entry.
5. Right-click the wireless adapter and click Properties.
6. Click the Advanced tab, click 802.11n mode, under value Select Enable.

Hope the information provided is helpful. Do reply, if you need further help.

This isn't right, best I can tell; 8022.11n doesn't mean that it can support 5Ghz, a,b,g,n does but not b,g,n, so n is not sufficient.  What am I missing.

If your network adapter supports 5 ghz but will only connect to the 2.4 band.  Try this: open adapter properties -> select configure -> select advanced -> look for a property called "disable bands" -> disable the 802.11 b/g band. 

By doing this you allow your adapter to only "see" the 5 ghz band.  You will have to manually go in and change the setting back in order to connect to a 2.4 ghz band again.

If you search on the net for ways to force 5 ghz, all you get is a bunch of people telling you to name your 2.4 and 5 ghz ssids differently, which is not always an option. 

If your adapters advanced options do not allow you disable the b/g bands then you will need to do something else :)

WiFi adapters will usually connect to a 2.4 band because 2.4 has greater range/signal strength.   Many hotels have 2.4 and 5 ghz but they name every access point the exact same thing because they are a hotel, and hotels have to make things as simple as possible for the slower folks.  So you end up with 30 access points, all in range and all the same ssid.  Your adapter will show you ONE when you search for a connection.  One third of the 2.4 ghz access points are on channel 1, a third are on 6 and a third are on 11 (why bother using the other channels I guess)  The 5 ghz will have some on the low end 36/40, 44/48 and some on the high end 149/153m, 157/161.  If your close to a 5 ghz access point then use it, if the 5 ghz bands have a low signal then use 2.4.  You can find free wireless networking tools online that are easy to use.  They are actually free and they will show you every wireless access point in range of your adapter whether they have the same name or if they are not broadcasting their ssid.  If you don't see any 5 ghz bands then there are none or you don't have an adapter capable of connecting to them.

Hi Wilson,

It seems like the card you have now is 802.11b only and this allows the card to operate at 2.4GHz. As you have already upgraded drivers and still it shows 802.11b. 

You may contact DELL support and check if this card supports 802.11n. Also check if there is any updated driver that enables 802.11n on this card. 

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/