Determining if a Windows system supports the 5 GHz Wifi band

The Wi-Fi network adapter in a Microsoft Windows system may support dual band wireless connections, i.e, both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands for a wireless local area network (WLAN), or it may only only support the older 2.4 GHz standard. A radio frequency (RF) band is is a group of frequencies containing many channels. To determine if a wireless adapter can support both the 2.4 and 5 GhZ Wifi standards, you can obtain a command prompt and type the command netsh wlan show drivers. 

C:\>netsh wlan show drivers

Interface name: Wireless Network Connection

    Driver                    : Dell Wireless 1540 802.11a/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz)
    Vendor                    : Broadcom
    Provider                  : Broadcom
    Date                      : 10/26/2011
    Version                   : 5.100.82.112
    INF file                  : C:\Windows\INF\oem8.inf
    Files                     : 5 total
                                C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\BCMWL664.SYS
                                C:\Windows\system32\bcmihvsrv64.dll
                                C:\Windows\system32\bcmihvui64.dll
                                C:\Windows\system32\drivers\vwifibus.sys
                                C:\Windows\system32\bcmwlcoi.dll
    Type                      : Native Wi-Fi Driver
    Radio types supported     : 802.11n 802.11a 802.11g 802.11b
    FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes
    Hosted network supported  : Yes
    Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP
                                Shared          None
                                Shared          WEP
                                WPA2-Enterprise TKIP
                                WPA2-Personal   TKIP
                                WPA2-Enterprise CCMP
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
                                WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined
                                WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
                                Vendor defined  TKIP
                                Vendor defined  CCMP
                                WPA-Enterprise  TKIP
                                WPA-Personal    TKIP
                                WPA-Enterprise  CCMP
                                WPA-Personal    CCMP
    Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP
    IHV service present       : Yes
    IHV adapter OUI           : [00 10 18], type: [00]
    IHV extensibility DLL path: C:\Windows\System32\bcmihvsrv64.dll
    IHV UI extensibility ClSID: {aaa6dee9-31b9-4f18-ab39-82ef9b06eb73}
    IHV diagnostics CLSID     : {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}


C:\>

In the example above from a Windows 7 system, you can tell from the "Driver" line, which is "Dell Wireless 1540 802.11a/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz)" that the adapter supports both the 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless standards, but if you issue the command on a system where it isn't apparent from that line, look for the "Radio types supported line" to determine if the Wifi adapter supports connectivity to 5 GHz devices as well as to 2.4 GHz wireless routers and access points. E.g., for the example above, I see the following:

Radio types supported : 802.11n 802.11a 802.11g 802.11b

If you see 802.11a listed, then the wireless adapter supports the 5 GHz band, which has a maximum raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, though actual realistic maximum achievable throughput is in the mid-20 Mbit/s range.

So you can search just for that value with netsh wlan show drivers | find "802.11a". If you see "802.11a" returned by the find command, you know that the 5 GHz band is supported.

C:\>netsh wlan show drivers | find "802.11a"
    Driver                    : Dell Wireless 1540 802.11a/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz)
    Radio types supported     : 802.11n 802.11a 802.11g 802.11b

C:\>

The 802.11n standard can be used in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency bands with a maximum theoretical data rate of 600 Mbit/s, i.e, a much higher data rate than 802.11a. However, if you see it in the radio types line, but not 802.11a, also, then the adapter does not support the 5 GHz standard. E.g., here is the results from the same command issued on a Windows 10 system with a Qualcomm Atheros AR9885 wireless network adapter that does not support the 5 GHz RF band.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh wlan show drivers

Interface name: Wi-Fi

    Driver                    : Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter
    Vendor                    : Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
    Provider                  : Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
    Date                      : 3/12/2015
    Version                   : 3.0.2.181
    INF file                  : C:\WINDOWS\INF\netathrx.inf
    Files                     : 1 total
                                C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\athwnx.sys
    Type                      : Native Wi-Fi Driver
    Radio types supported     : 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n
    FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes
    802.11w Management Frame Protection supported : Yes
    Hosted network supported  : Yes
    Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP-40bit
                                Open            WEP-104bit
                                Open            WEP
                                WPA-Enterprise  TKIP
                                WPA-Personal    TKIP
                                WPA2-Enterprise TKIP
                                WPA2-Personal   TKIP
                                Vendor defined  TKIP
                                WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
                                WPA-Enterprise  CCMP
                                WPA-Personal    CCMP
                                WPA2-Enterprise CCMP
                                Vendor defined  CCMP
                                WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
    Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP-40bit
                                Open            WEP-104bit
                                Open            WEP
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
                                Vendor defined  Vendor defined
    Wireless Display Supported: No (Graphics Driver: No, Wi-Fi Driver: Yes)


C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh wlan show drivers | find "802.11a"

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

The 802.11b standard supports a throughput up to 11 Mbit/s using the 2.4GHz band. It does not support the 5 GHz band, nor does the 802.11g standard, which incresed the maximum data rate to 54 Mbs, but also only supports the 2.4 GHz band.

The 802.11ac standard is another wireless networking standard that supports the 5 GHz band. This specification provides support for multi-station WLAN throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second (Gbs) and a single link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (Mbs).

You can determine what Wifi standard is currently being used for the wireless connection on a sysetm by issuing the command netsh wlan show interfaces and checking the "Radio type" line. E.g. for the Windows 7 system in the example above, I can see that the 802.11n standard applies.

C:\>netsh wlan show interfaces

There is 1 interface on the system:

    Name                   : Wireless Network Connection
    Description            : Dell Wireless 1540 802.11a/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz)
    GUID                   : e210d8db-12d1-454c-ad6e-bdcdf92efc1e
    Physical address       : 08:3e:8e:4e:33:cf
    State                  : connected
    SSID                   : Imps
    BSSID                  : c4:04:15:4c:fe:eb
    Network type           : Infrastructure
    Radio type             : 802.11n
    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal
    Cipher                 : CCMP
    Connection mode        : Auto Connect
    Channel                : 11
    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 117
    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 117
    Signal                 : 82%
    Profile                : Imps

    Hosted network status  : Not started


C:\>

References:

  1. Checking if your Windows computer has the 5 GHz network band capability
    Linksys
  2. Wireless protocols IEEE 802.11 A B G N compared
    Date: November 15, 2015
    Glass Onion Blog - Cheat sheets, post-its and random notes from the desk of a programmer
  3. Netsh show networks
    Date: November 13, 2015
    MoonPoint Support

 

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Created: Sunday February 14, 2016