How to get 5ghz wifi on pc

With the constant change of standards and speeds, a lot of users have found themselves confused with the sheer number of available options for wireless connectivity. One of the most confusing issues is the dual band problem, specifically concerning wireless networks that emit at 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

This issue means that even though your router is able to emit at both frequencies, and you have it set up so it does (or the faster, 5GHz one only), you can’t find the network on your computer. This may be confusing, but the letters in the name of your router and wireless adapter after the 802.11 standard have an important role here. There are routers and adapters that can only work on 2.4GHz, and there are some that work with both.

To solve this issue, there are a few things that you should do. Keep in mind, however, that it is possible that you need to buy new hardware if for any reason you are dead set on using 5GHz.

Method 1: Check if your router and wireless adapter support 5GHz wireless

To do this, you will be required to do a bit of online research for your specific model. Follow the instructions to see if your router and adapter even support this frequency.

Take a look at your router and see the model. Do a quick search online for that router, which should land you on the manufacturer’s website. What you’re looking for is either supported frequencies or supported radio bands. If the router supports a 5GHz wireless network, it will be stated in its specifications. If you can’t find such a thing, look for the letters after 802.11, and use the following information to figure out if you can use the 5GHz frequency:

• the adapter supports 802.11a 5GHz
• the adapter supports 802.11b 2.4GHz
• the adapter supports 802.11g 2.4GHz
• the adapter may support both 802.11n 2.4GHz, and 5GHz, but not necessarily
• the adapter supports 802.11c 5GHz

Generally, a router that states it’s 802.11a/g/n, or 802.11ac will work at 5GHz. However, a router that is 802.11b/g/n has a slim chance of supporting that frequency, and you may need to upgrade.

If your router supports 5GHz connectivity, the next thing to do is to check your adapter. Open Device Manager by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard, typing Device Manager and opening the result.

From the list of drivers, you see in the Device Manager, expand Network Adapters and locate your wireless adapter. See its name, and see whether it says anything about the radio bands it supports. If it doesn’t say anything, use your favorite search engine to get to the manufacturer’s website, from where you can see whether it supports 5GHz using the guide mentioned in the first step.

If your adapter supports 5GHz bandwidth, you can move on to the next method, which deals with issues with compatible hardware. If not, you will need to change the adapter on your computer in order to get your wireless working at 5GHz.

Another way to check if your adapter has 5GHz capability is through the command prompt. Press Windows + R and type “cmd“. Once the command prompt comes forth, type “netsh wlan show drivers“.

Method 2: Enable 802.11n mode on your adapter

If your hardware is compatible with 5GHz bandwidth, but you still can’t use it, it might be simply disabled, in which case you will need to manually enable it.

1. Using the Device Manager as mentioned previously, locate your wireless adapter.
2. Right-click it, and select Properties from the dropdown menu.
3. Within the Advanced tab, click 802.11n mode. To the right, set the value to Enable.

When you’ve done this, click OK and restart your computer. You should now be able to see your 5GHz network.

All things considered, it is fairly easy to get lost in the sea of standards currently available. However, following the aforementioned methods will give you a fully functional 5GHz network in no time, provided you have compatible hardware.

5GHz WiFi not showing up in your Windows 10 or windows 11 computer is a very common issue. There are literally thousands of queries out there asking why is 5G Wifi not showing up, how to enable 5G WiFi, why they can’t connect to 5G WiFi, and more. These issues usually come up when users change their WiFi Router, update their OS, change hardware components of PC related to WiFi, update device driver, etc. The most common of them all is when users get a new router. When the router is set up, instead of their PC’s WiFi Adapter detecting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bandwidth signals, it only detects 2.4 GHz bandwidth signal.

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There are various reasons because of which the problem of 5GHz WiFi not showing up in Windows 10 or windows 11 may occur. It could be either of the following problems:

1. Your computer’s hardware does not support 5GHz bandwidth.

2. Your WiFi Router does not support 5GHz bandwidth.

3. 5GHz is not set up properly either in your PC or in your WiFi Router.

4. Outdated or Improper WiFi Adapter Drivers installed on your computer.

In this piece, we are going to talk about different ways to find out the reason behind and solution for5G WiFi not showing up issue. Some of these methods are just for probing purpose and will only tell you whether your PC or WiFi Router is compatible with 5GHz Wifi or 5G WiFi. Other methods will tell you how to enable 5GHz WiFi to fix “5G WiFi not showing up” problem. We will also be working with WiFI Drivers if the primary methods to enable 5GHz WiFi do not work.

The first thing to do is give your PC and WiFi router a check if they do support 5GHz WiFi or not.

Table of Contents

• #1 – First Check whether Your Computer For 5GHz WiFi Support
• #2 – Check If Your Router Supports 5GHz Bandwidth
• #3 – Enable 802.11n Mode On Your WiFi Adapter
• #4 – Set Bandwidth To 5GHz Via Device Manager
• #5 – Update WiFi Driver Automatically
• #6 – Update WiFi Driver Manually
• #7 – Roll Back WiFi Driver Update
• #8 – Edit router Settings

#1 – First Check whether Your Computer For 5GHz WiFi Support

The first step is to check if your PC has 5GHz bandwidth compatibility. Here are the steps to check the same:

Step 1: On your keyboard, press Windows + R keys at a time. This will open the Run dialog box.

Step 2: Type cmd in the Run box and press Enter to open Command Prompt.

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Step 3: In the Command Prompt window, type the following command:

 netsh wlan show drivers

This will show the wireless LAN Driver properties on your computer.

Step 4: From the result that opens up in the Command Prompt window, look for Radio types supported.

In this section, you will see 3 network modes. Following are the network modes with what they mean:

a) 802.11g 802.11n: Your computer only supports 2.4GHz bandwidth.

b) 802.11n 802.11g 802.11b: Your computer only supports 2.4GHz bandwidth.

c) 802.11a 802.11g 802.11n: Your computer supports both 2.4Ghz and 5GHz bandwidth.

If you get the Radio types supported as any of the first two, then you need to upgrade your WiFi Adapter Hardware. If you have compatible PC, and get 5g WiFfi not showing up issue, then go to the next step and see if your WiFi Router has 5GHz support or not.

Note: For those people , whose computer Does not support 5.4 GHz , they can enable 5.4 GHz on laptop / PC by buying external USB WiFi Adapters.

#2 – Check If Your Router Supports 5GHz Bandwidth

To check if your router supports 6 GHz bandwidth or 5G, you will have to do some internet research. But before you go ask Google for this info, go find the box in which your router came. It would have the information if your router supports 5GHz.

If you can’t find the info on the box or can’t find box itself, go look for your router manufacturer name and model number. It is usually mentioned below the WiFi router device.

Now go to the manufacturer’s website of the router and look for the product with exactly the same model name. If you can’t find their website, take help of Google. Research and find out resources with the description of the router model you are using. There, you can see if your router supports 5GHz bandwidth or 2.4GHz bandwidth.

If it does, then proceed to the next step to solve the 5GHz WiFi not showing up problem.

#3 – Enable 802.11n Mode On Your WiFi Adapter

You have reached this section if both your PC and WiFi Router support 5GHz bandwidth or 5G, and you still can’t connect to 5GHz WiFi. In this step, we will try to enable 5GHz WiFi bandwidth by following these steps:

Step 1: Press Windows + X and click on Device Manager from the list of options that appear.

Step 2: In Device Manager, look for Network adapters and click on it to expand its menu. From the expanded menu, look for Wireless adapter. Right click on the Wireless adapter driver, and click on Properties.

Step 3: A new Wireless adapter properties window will open up. Here, go to the Advanced tab. Look for 802.11n mode and select it. After selecting, change the value on the right side to Enable. Click Ok.

Step 4: Restart your computer and see if you can find the 5GHz or 5G WiFi network in the list of Wireless Network Connections.

If this method doesn’t work for you, try the next method to enable 5GHz WiFi or 5G WiFi.

#4 – Set Bandwidth To 5GHz Via Device Manager

Here’s another thing that you can try to enable 5GHz WiFi and solve the “5GHz WiFi not showing up in Windows 11” issue.

Step 1: From the Method #3 mentioned above, follow Step 1 and 2.

Step 2: Go to the Advanced tab of the Wireless Adapter Properties. In the Property box, select the Preferred Band option. Now, on the right from the Value drop-down, select the Prefer 5.2 GHz band option. Then, click on Ok.

Step 3: Restart your PC and see if it can detect the 5GHZ or 5G WiFi network now.

If this method to fix 5G WiFi not showing up problem doesn’t work, you will have to tweak the WiFi driver in the upcoming steps.

Note: If your PC doesn’t support 5GHz, you will not be able to find the Band option in the Property box.

#5 – Update WiFi Driver Automatically

Updating WiFi Driver at times does the trick and solves the issue for you. To update WiFi Driver automatically, you can follow these steps below:

Step 1: Open the Device Manager tool. To do so, press Windows + X and click on the Device Manager option.

Step 2: In the Device Manager window, look for the Network adapters option. Click on it to expand it. From the expanded menu, look for Wireless Adapter driver. Right click on the Wireless Adapter option, and from the context menu, click on the Update Driver Software option.

Step 3: A new Update window will open now. Here, you will get two options; one to update driver automatically and other to manually update driver. Click on the Search automatically for updated driver software to begin the automatic driver update process.

Step 4: Follow on-screen instructions to complete the update. When done, restart your PC and see if your PC can detect 5GHz or 5G network.

Step 5: If not, you can carry out methods 4 and 5 again to make sure.

This will most probably fix the can’t connect to 5GHz WiFi issue.

Note: There are chances that your PC will tell that your WiFi driver is up to date and has the latest driver installed when you try to automatically update it. In this case, manually update WiFi driver.

#6 – Update WiFi Driver Manually

To update WiFi driver manually and fix the 5GHz WiFi not showing up in Windows 1o issue, you will have to download the latest WiFi Driver on your PC manually. To do so, first, go to your PC or Laptop manufacturer’s website. From there, download the latest WiFi Driver, compatible with your Operating System.

When done, follow these steps:

Step 1: From Method #5, follow Step 1 and Step 2.

Step 2: From the Update Window that will open, select the Browse my computer for driver software option.

Step 3: Now, browse and select the folder with the downloaded WiFi driver, or browse and select the downloaded driver yourself. When done, click Next. Follow on-screen instructions till the WiFi driver installation is complete.

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Step 4: Restart your computer and see if you were able to enable 5GHz WiFi on it.

Step 5: If your PC cannot detect the 5GHz bandwidth, try methods #3 and #4 again to enable 5GHz WiFi support.

#7 – Roll Back WiFi Driver Update

This method to fix 5GHz WiFi not showing up in Windows 10 or windows 11 is for those users who were able to access 5G network before, but now are unable to. Chances are that your Windows 10 /Windows 11 got upgraded and the WiFi Driver was updated as well. The latest driver must be having some issue, thus, your PC is unable to connect to or detect 5GHz bandwidth.

Here are the steps to Roll Back WiFi Driver update:

Step 1: Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 from the Method #3 mentioned above.

Step 2: In the Properties window that opens, go to the Driver tab. There, look for Roll Back Driver and click on it. Then follow the instructions to roll back the driver to its previous version.

Step 3: When done, Restart your PC and see if this process worked for you.

#8 – Edit router Settings

1. Log into your Router settings panel.

2. Locate 5G wireless settings and change channel to 36.

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3. Save and you will now be able to discover 5g.

Finally,

these methods will solve the 5GHz WiFi not showing up issue for your PC.

You can also download this PC Repair tool to Locate and Fix any PC issue:
Step 1 - Download the Restoro PC Repair Tool
Step 2 - Click on Start Scan to find and Fix any PC issue automatically.

If your PC hardware is not compatible with 5GHz WiFi bandwidth, you might want to consult with your PC manufacturer’s help desk to see if something can be done to upgrade it.

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