Sunday, August 01, 2010

2.4/5 GHz Wireless USB adapter for Apple Dual Band Time Capsules

If you own a dual band Time Capsule from Apple, you may have noticed that you have the option to run your 802.11n signal over the 2.4 GHz band, or have it run over the 5 GHz band while having a separate 802.11g signal broadcast over the 2.4 GHz band.

The latter option is the desired one, because 802.11g devices bring down the performance of an 802.11n network a little bit. So if your dual band Time Capsule is configured for both G and N to run on the 2.4 GHz band, while performance will be good for 802.11n devices, it will not be maximized. Therefore, when possible, if you have both 802.11n and 802.11g devices in your home, you want to have your dual band Time Capsule broadcast an 802.11g signal over 2.4 GHz, and an 802.11n signal over 5 GHz. This will allow your Macs with internal dual band Airport Extreme-N cards to utilize your optimized 5 GHz 802.11n network, while any 802.11g devices in your home can still connect to the time capsule over the 2.4 GHz band.

The problem many Time Capsule owners encounter is getting a dual band Mac compatible wireless device for Macs that don’t have an internal dual band Airport Extreme-N card.

The solution to this problem comes from Alfa Networks in the form of model AWUS051NH, a new dual band 802.11a/b/g/n long range wireless USB adapter. This Wi-Fi device is Windows compatible as well, but comes with Mac software (Mac users note that the CD in the retail box is a mini CD, so if you have a slot loading drive, you will need to contact us when purchasing to obtain a current driver link for the Mac software).

Once you install the device and set it up per the instructions, you can use the utility program that gets installed to scan for and detect wireless networks. You will need to take the one-time step of clicking on the Advanced tab in the utility program and change Wireless Mode from 2.4G to 2.4+5G so that the device will be able to detect and connect to 5 GHz 802.11n networks.

The best part about the AWUS051NH? It’s price. Click here to see our current price.

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