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Difference Between 2.6GHz and 5GHz?

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Wheaty214
Posts: 1687 - Karma: 841
So I'm looking at getting the Netgear Nighthawk router for my house, it runs a dual band, one being the 2.6 and the other being the 5. What is the difference? What devices should be ran on each band?

Thanks everyone.
Oct 1 2015 4:03PM
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Peter.
Posts: 23796 - Karma: 13,014
it comes down to whether your devices are wireless B, G, or N

http://homenetworkadmin.com/wireless-b-vs-g-vs-n-vs-ac-difference/
Oct 1 2015 4:06PM
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itzki
Posts: 444 - Karma: 1,344
Basically 2.6 is what most wifi devices run on, and 5 is like a secondary band you can use if 2.6 gets too crowded. Essentially what happens is your network gets bogged down the more devices being used on one frequency, so dual band is a method of trying to even out usage in a high wifi-use household. The downside is the connection drops much faster the further away you get because it's a higher frequency. I also have that router and it's pretty kick-ass on just the 2.6 band with my whole family using multiple devices at once. I think it would only really need to be used if there were, say, a party at your house, or extended family over. Otherwise, it's still a sweet heavy use router and extends throughout my entire decently-sized house.
Oct 1 2015 4:44PM
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Elg
Posts: 2998 - Karma: 3,880
difference is about 2.4GHz
Oct 1 2015 4:46PM
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