Dual Band Modem Questions

[roker]

I was reasonably happy with my new wireless network running my laptop, printer and old PC from my Netgear DGN 2000 Modem/Router. Not knowing much about wireless it took me endless hours to set it up by occasionally contacting their support. Then after 6 months, I lost my Internet, everything stopped communicating and the light went red on the router. It did not take much technical knowhow to figure that my 6 month old router had packed in, so I returned it to the retailers and I was given another Netgear router but they had no stock of my existing one, so I got a Netgear DGND 3300 v2, a dual band router.

This was more complicated to set up, and the first note in the box said that the wizard would not work on UK ISPs and to do it manually.
I tried to use the same settings and passwords as original but It had different settings from the old router for example: the speed was set: b+g, now it is : up to 30Mbps @ 5GHz & 54Mbps @ 2.4 GHz, I did get it working by guesswork but it has raised lots of question.

The last router had 802.11n function also at which I did not use,
Does this router have to be on 5GHz to use the N function?
How do I know if my Laptop supports 5GHz ? it supports 802.11n.
Why does my laptop now show my SSID as Dave2 in the “Network and Sharing Centre” when I have set the router to Dave the same as the last router, and it shows as Dave in the currently connected box?

I am on a vertical learning curve here and would welcome some education on these matters.

 

[PohTayToez]

Does this router have to be on 5GHz to use the N function?

No, N can work through either 2.4Ghz or 5GHz, but there aren't very many occasions when you wouldn't want to run it on both. 5Ghz offers better performance, but some wireless devices may only work on 2.4Ghz.

How do I know if my Laptop supports 5GHz ? it supports 802.11n.

Easy way? Just set it on 5Ghz only and see if you can get it to detect the network. Otherwise you'll have look up the specifications of the particular wireless card installed in your laptop.

Why does my laptop now show my SSID as Dave2 in the “Network and Sharing Centre” when I have set the router to Dave the same as the last router, and it shows as Dave in the currently connected box?

I you probably still have the settings from your old router saved, likely under "Dave". When you saved connection settings to the new router it probably just created a "Dave2" rather than overwriting the old.

 

[roker]

Thanks PohTayToeZ.
Regarding the last answer, does my laptop recognise a different router even though I have the same setting?
How can I switch off the 5Ghz because I am not using this and I think it will be more?
There is little on instruction with the new router.

 

[PohTayToez]

Regarding the last answer, does my laptop recognise a different router even though I have the same setting?

I believe so, yes. I think it goes off of the MAC address, which would be unique even if everything else is the same.

How can I switch off the 5Ghz because I am not using this and I think it will be more?

What do you mean, "be more". There really is very little reason to switch off the 5Ghz band even if you're not using it. But if you really want to the option is normally in the basic wireless settings.

Setup Manual
User Manual

 

[roker]

Sorry I missed a word out,"to be more secure" apparently this is not the case.
I have found how to switch off the 5 GHz, its in the speed settings, by setting up to
= 130Mbps at 2.4 or up to 270 mbps at 2.4. But there is not much point now so I will leave it on both settings.
I assumed it would transmit on both frequencies