Confused About My WiFi Model

[JTacc]

Hello All,

I just got a brand new Dell 7000 laptop and the first thing I noticed when I got it home was that the wireless connection was very slow. I also cannot connect to my wireless AC router on the 5 GHz channel. I then looked up the specifications for the Dell 7000 that I just purchased and here is what it said about the wireless card:

- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 

- Wi-Fi 802.11 a (optional)- Bluetooth 4.0- Wireless Display (optional)

I was immediately confused by what the a (optional) meant. So I assumed it meant that i can turn it into an 802.11 a by updating the drivers/firmware.

So I came to Intel's website and ran their automatic detect software and it told me I have the http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/wireless/db-ac7260 Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260.

I then ran a Windows command (netsh wlan show drivers) to check the radio information and here is what I got:

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

Why is Windows telling me I do NOT have an AC wireless adapter and yet the Intel site is telling me I do?

I was even more confused after that but I went ahead and clicked the link that the site gave me after detecting my card as a dual band wireless AC and downloaded and installed all the drivers but I still can't connect to my 5 GHz network.

Can someone please help me figure this out? If this laptop does not have AC capabilities then I must return it because my entire home is setup with AC.

Thank you,

Jan

[tvete · Accepted solution]

According to radio types supported, you only have b, g, n. No A and AC which only operates on 5 GHz. Return your laptop and make sure the replacement has AC WiFi on the specs.

Intel Wireless detector is broken that it can't tell the difference between single band N, dual band N and dual band AC versions of 7260.

Whatever device manager or netsh tells you, it is what it is.