What are the Meaning of Different Network Options?

[Mike_SV]

Initially I assumed that [1x1] meant single band (2.4 GHz) and [2x2] meant dual band (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) but the following options are listed for the HP ENVY - 17t laptop. It is my understanding that 802.11ac protocol only works on the 5 GHz band so the third option has to be dual band otherwise it couldn't communicate with many of the routers currently in use since they support only the 2.4 Ghz band.

1. 802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1]

2. 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth® [1x1]

3. Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth® [1x1]

4. Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth® [2x2]

HP seems to be going backwards since I have a 6 year old HP G70 laptop that came standard with a dual band 802.11n network adapter but lately it seems HP has single band 802.11n network adapters in many laptops and there isn't even an option to upgrade it.

Can someone clarify what those designations means. If [1x1] doe not mean single band and [2x2] does not mean dual band, how does someone determine if the first two options are single band or dual band since the "n" protocol can work on both bands?

I'm not concerned about the "ac" protocol since few routers support that protocol but I am concerned about whether the network adapter is single or dual band since I live in a condo complex and neighbors are on the 2.4 GHz band which causes my WF-FI to slow to a crawl but if I'm on the 5 Gz band, the WI-FI runs at full speed.  I was very surprised when I purchased my HP "all in one" system to discover that it only had a single band network adapter and I had to purchase a 3rd party network adapter so that my WI-FI wouldn't slow down to 3 mbps instead of running at line speed (29 mbps).

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

This article does a good job of explaining the difference.

http://superuser.com/questions/323347/laptop-wireless-networking-options-1x1-vs-2x2

The way I tell if a wireless card is single or dual band is that if it is listed bgn, it is a single band (2.4 GHz) card, and if it is listed abgn or agn or ac it is a dual band card.

[Mike_SV]

Thanks. It appears you are correct since my old G70 laptop has a network driver that supports a/b/g/n protocols. Strange that is the way you have to determine if it is single or dual band since nobody ever used the "a" protocol since the "a" protocol only works on the 5 GHz band which network cards for PCs didn't support until the dual band "n" protocol was introduced. Now they are supporting the fast "n" and "ac" protocols and network adapters are now supporting the slow "a" protocol which nobody would use since the network adapter has fast "n" and "ac" protocols.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

On my router, I set the 5 GHz band to be N only and that seems to make my Intel 5300 ABGN wireless card work at its max speed of 450 MBPS.

It only runs at 144 MBPS on the 2.4 GHz band in mixed mode.