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General rule of thumb for me is to run both frequency bands on the same SSID and let the device figure out which one it prefers to attach to. There are a bunch of different factors that can affect which works best: noise floor for the area, amount of space you are covering (5ghz does not penetrate walls as well 2.4ghz), devices that only support the 2.4ghz band, etc. The device is usually going to be able to figure which band it can push data over better, so let it try and then fiddle if there are problems. Some new routers will listen for channel crowding from other routers/AP in proximity and automatically assign to least crowded channel, but that isn't universal so it's typically worth loading up a laptop with InSSIDer to see which channels are the least noisy to use. You probably already read this when you were doing research, but the 2.4ghz channels are overlapping so make sure you are only using 1,6, or 11. 5ghz channels don't have the overlap issue. On Mon, 23 Dec 2013 15:35:37 +0000, Al Puzzuoli <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Just curious if there is a definitive answer to this, or does it depend on the environment? Right now, my specific situation is that I'm configuring a new home router for my Mother, so the less complexity the better. I'm tempted to use a single SSID for both bands, and then just set the wireless properties on her laptop to prefer the 5.8GHZ band. I guess the disadvantage to this route is that I can't be sure she's actually connecting on the 5.8GHZ frequency? Are there any other reasons for going one way verses the other? There doesn't seem to actually be a correct way to do this, Googling just turns up about a 50 50 split of opinion. >Thanks, >Al > >