What is the named 5 GHZ band for?

When you tick the 5 GHz Name box in AirPort Utility, that will assign a separate name to the 5 GHz band or signal of the main WiFi network.

For example, if you set up the AirPort router using the default settings, both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands use the same wireless network name..... it will be up to each WiFi device to connect to either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz signal based on their capabilities and distance from the AirPort router. This is by far the simplest thing for users to do and is the reason why Apple uses this type of setup as the default for AirPort routers.

But....some users want to insure that their WiFi devices will always connect to the 5 GHz signal for faster speeds. In that case, the user would tick the box next to 5 GHz name in AirPort Utility / Wireless / Wireless Options. This will add "5 GHz" to the name of the network and create a separate signal from the 2.4 GHz signal. The 2.4 GHz signal continues to use the original name that was assigned as the name of the wireless network created by the router.

So, if a user originally set up the AirPort router to use a wireless network named "DesertRat", both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals are broadcast using that same name.

If the user later decided to tick the box next to 5 GHz name in AirPort Utility / Wireless / Wireless Options, that would assign a name of "DesertRat 5GHz" for the 5 GHz signal while the 2.4 GHz band would continue to use the "DesertRat" name for 2.4 GHz.

The user would have to manually select either the "DesertRat" or "DesertRat 5 GHz" signal from each WiFi device.

Opinions differ on the importance of assigning a separate name to the 5 GHz network. It does allow a device to connect at the highest speeds.....but......5 GHz signals are much weaker than 2.4 GHz signals, so if you tell your Mac to connect to "DesertRat 5 GHz" and the Mac moves a few rooms away from the router, the Mac will continue to try to hold onto the 5 GHz signal even though it is significantly weaker and likely much slower at that given location than the 2.4 GHz signal.

Personally, I use the default setting of the same name for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. When my Mac laptop is close to the AirPort router, it connects at 5 GHz automatically. When it moves a few rooms away, the Mac will automatically switch over to the 2.4 GHz signal because it is stronger and actually faster than the 5 GHz signal at that point. When the Mac moves back closer to the router, it will switch back over to the faster 5 GHz signal automatically.

It is not possible to assign separate names to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals on the Guest Network, because there is no option to assign a separate name to the 5 GHz band on the Guest Network in AirPort Utility.

Unless you like to experiment with different settings and manually switch between networks, I see no clear advantage to assigning a separate name to the 5 GHz network.

But, some users swear by using a separate name for the 5 GHz network, so there is no one setting that is best for all users.

My neighbor......who uses WiFi for just about everything on his devices that roam all over his house.....used to be one of those guys, but after I showed him that he would get consistently better performance with a lot less effort by using the same name for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals, he now feels that this is probably the best setting for most users.