A SOHO company just installed new 802.11a wireless APs. All company laptops have gigabit LAN ports along with wireless-g cards. Which of the following is the issue with this setup?

The correct answer is D. The laptops are only capable of functioning on 2.4GHz spectrum. 802.11a (Wi-Fi 1) operates exclusively on the 5GHz frequency band. 802.11g (Wi-Fi 3) operates exclusively on the 2.4GHz frequency band. The two standards are not cross-compatible. Since the laptops only have wireless-g cards, they are physically incapable of communicating with…

Networking concepts

Question

Options

AThe laptops will have a max wireless speed of 300Mbps
BThe wired network is likely not backwards compatible with the gigabit LAN ports on the laptops
CThe wireless system will only function at a slow 11Mbps
DThe laptops are only capable of functioning on 2.4GHz spectrum

How the community answered

(23 responses)

B
4% (1)
C
4% (1)
D
91% (21)

Explanation

802.11a (Wi-Fi 1) operates exclusively on the 5GHz frequency band. 802.11g (Wi-Fi 3) operates exclusively on the 2.4GHz frequency band. The two standards are not cross-compatible. Since the laptops only have wireless-g cards, they are physically incapable of communicating with the 802.11a APs, which broadcast only on 5GHz. The laptops would need 802.11a or dual-band (802.11n or later) wireless cards to connect. The gigabit wired ports are irrelevant to the wireless connectivity problem, and 11Mbps is the speed of 802.11b, not the limiting factor here.

Topics

#802.11 standards#wireless frequency bands#2.4GHz vs 5GHz#wireless compatibility

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