Nighthawk M5 - 2.4Ghz / 5Ghz /or Dual Band option

[helvetica]

Hi all, forgive my inexperience with this forum and the way it is meant to work, my first forum, if memory serves right.

I have entered the world of mobile routers and now have a Nighthawk M5 mobile router (MR5100) - which I can't seem to find in the model drop down box?

a question I have, why offer the choice of; 2.4ghz or 5ghz or Dual Band - 3 options the M5 presents as wifi band choices one could make. (my inexperience says, offer dual band only)

what conditions and/or scenarios would have to be present for a need to select a band, eg, stormy weather?, in a high rise building?, any help appreciated and with thanks

[Razor512 · Accepted solution]

In looking more at your unit, the primary reason is due to the battery. It uses dual band by default, but if all of your devices can use a specific band, you can disable one of the WiFi radios to save power.

For example, if you will be within range of the 5GHz radio and all of your devices support that band, then disabling 2.4GHz radio will save extend the battery life of the unit.

[Razor512]

If it is for the AP that the 5G modem/router creates, then it all depends on the settings available. Some netgear WiFi routers (I have not had a chance to use the M5 yet) will not allow you to set a separate SSID for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band, in those cases, while ideally it is still good to have both bands and allow smart connect as well as client directed bandsteering to pick the band that it prefers. Beyond that, there are some edge cases where you may not want client devices to use a specific band. For example in a heavily congested area where the 2.4GHz band has no useful amount of available airtime, as in such a case, the 2.4GHz band may perform very slowly. In such a case, you may just enable only the 5GHz band and have everything on the 5GHz band.

If the modem has a battery for portable use, then they will also offer the option to only have 1 radio on in order to save power. For example, if it is on battery and all of your devices can use the 5GHz band, then it woudl likely be better to disable the 2.4GHz radio to save power.

[FURRYe38]

Please visit and post about this over in the Mobile Routers forum:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Mobile-Routers-Hotspots-Modems/bd-p/aircard

Thank you.

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@helvetica wrote:

Hi all, forgive my inexperience with this forum and the way it is meant to work, my first forum, if memory serves right.

I have entered the world of mobile routers and now have a Nighthawk M5 mobile router (MR5100) - which I can't seem to find in the model drop down box?

a question I have, why offer the choice of; 2.4ghz or 5ghz or Dual Band - 3 options the M5 presents as wifi band choices one could make. (my inexperience says, offer dual band only)

what conditions and/or scenarios would have to be present for a need to select a band, eg, stormy weather?, in a high rise building?, any help appreciated and with thanks

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[helvetica]

Thank you for your reply Razor,

I will need to do more homework.

some of the terminology used went over my head

[Razor512 · Accepted solution]

In looking more at your unit, the primary reason is due to the battery. It uses dual band by default, but if all of your devices can use a specific band, you can disable one of the WiFi radios to save power.

For example, if you will be within range of the 5GHz radio and all of your devices support that band, then disabling 2.4GHz radio will save extend the battery life of the unit.

[helvetica]

ok, that makes a great deal of sense, I do understand now. a big thankyou for your effort to explain!

[JohnPeng]

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@helvetica wrote:

ok, that makes a great deal of sense, I do understand now. a big thankyou for your effort to explain!

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Some old WiFi cilents, such as smart devices can only connect to 2.4Ghz WiFi. That is the device supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. You can set WiFi profile of the devices based on your WiFi clients.

2.4Ghz WiFi can provide wider coverage, but speed is slower than 5G WiFi.

Thanks