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Using Ubuntu 14.04, I checked and see that my laptop is capable of connecting to 5 GHz but is not using it. I tried to move right next to the router and re-connect, but it still uses 2.4 GHz band.

Is this chosen by my laptop for a good reason or I should force it to use 5 GHz?

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  • It is worth to have a try with 5 GHz. My experience is that if the 2.4GHz band is overcrowded, the signal strength may be better so the laptop perfers it over 5GHz, but the throughput will be very bad when transfering big files. Jul 16, 2015 at 5:25

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The 2.4ghz will get more range most of the time in my experience however if you are close to the router the 5ghz frequency will be less crowded depending on your environment and will often have more bandwidth. Are both the 2.4 and 5ghz SSIDs named the same, if they are try changing the name of the 5GHZ one to end in something like _5 and connect to it manually. I have seen some devices default to the 2.4ghz SSID if they are both named the same.

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To be simple, just keep in mind the following rules:

2.4G : longer range, slower transfer rate, generally more chance have interference with other wireless device

5G : shorter ranger, higer transfer rate, generally lesser chance have interference with other wireless device

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