slow wifi / no 5ghz

XWrench3

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i know that i have an inexpensive, low performance laptop. but it seems like it is progressively getting slower, at least on the internet. i looked to see if i was connected at 2ghz or 5ghz, but i could not get an option to connect at 5ghz. this is a Lenovo G30-50. i am not sure where to find the wifi card specs, to see if it can connect at 5ghz or not. so can someone please point me in the right direction to find this spec.? also, if it turns out the wifi card is not 5ghz capable, would a dual band wifi dongle let me connect at the higher speed? thanx!
 
Open up Device Manager and check out the brand/model of the wifi card that shows up under the Networking section. Google or post it and it should show your specs.

If you were to get a different dongle (or a different internal wifi card) that allowed you to connect at 5ghz then yes it should work.
 
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Check the specs on your laptop because the majority of laptops have a locked bios that will not let you upgrade your wireless card (bios has to recognize the upgraded card), unless you get a custom bios installed to accept other wireless cards.

This Lenovo support link may help (even thought it's for a different laptop)
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-B-and-G-Series-Notebooks/Lenovo-G50-30-Wifi-Card-Replacment/td-p/4060474
I've never heard of this before, is it just a Lenovo thing? I've upgraded countless wireless cards on different brand laptops but haven't touched a Lenovo in a long time. Even HP which loves to lock **** down.
 
I've only heard that for dedicated GPU's, not wifi cards. Never had issues upgrading wifi cards in laptops here, either.
 
It has to be a wifi card that is on the mfg's "white list" I can't say for sure how many oem's are now doing this but getting a custom bios has now become more popular than ever because of these types of things.

There are other forums out there that will and can provide you with the tools to create your own custom bios and there are those that will do it for you too, but it is not something for the faint of heart
 
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i know that i have an inexpensive, low performance laptop. but it seems like it is progressively getting slower, at least on the internet. i looked to see if i was connected at 2ghz or 5ghz, but i could not get an option to connect at 5ghz. this is a Lenovo G30-50. i am not sure where to find the wifi card specs, to see if it can connect at 5ghz or not. so can someone please point me in the right direction to find this spec.? also, if it turns out the wifi card is not 5ghz capable, would a dual band wifi dongle let me connect at the higher speed? thanx!

Dual band = capable of connecting to 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks. It won't necessarily mean you'll connect at higher speeds

To be honest, even 2.4Ghz has plenty of bandwidth for most internet connections. What speed do you pay for from your ISP? I can max out a 100Mbps internet connection on a good 2.4ghz connection

Stand a few feet away from your router with the laptop and run a speed test on https://www.speedtest.net or https://speedof.me/
Are your download speeds close to what they should be or not?
 
so this is what i find for a wifi card or adapter; SSID: MySpectrumWiFie6-2G
Protocol: 802.11n
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 2.4 GHz
Network channel: 1
IPv6 address: 2600:6c4a:5f7f:f80c:0:9250:6934:c77d
2600:6c4a:5f7f:f80c:3d81:f848:606d:67f6
IPv6 DNS servers: 2607:f428:ffff:ffff::1
2607:f428:ffff:ffff::2
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.4
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.1
DNS suffix search list: home
Manufacturer: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Description: Realtek RTL8723BE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC
Driver version: 2023.45.1017.2016
Physical address (MAC): 38-B1-DB-50-15-99

which looks to me like a 2.4ghz only.

as far as the BIOS, unless Lenovo updates it, i am not going to mess with it. that is so far over my head, all i can see is the "con-trail".

i ran the speed test 3 times, and got between 43 and 51 mbps. this is a 100 mbps connection, though we seldom get all the way there. during slow traffic periods, i have seen in the hi 80's before. but that is with my wired desktop.
 
well, then i will order a dual band dongle. it would probably be a good thing to have anyway as a testing tool if one of the other laptops wifi acts up.
 
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