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Can't connect to 5 GHz wireless N network

I recently bought a Cisco Linksys E4200 wireless dual band router. I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini, running OS X Lion 10.7.2. I can see and connect to the 2.4 GHz network, but can't even see the 5 GHz network. Is the Mac Mini supposed to support Wireless N at 5 GHz? I also have an Early 2008 MacBook Pro (OS X 10.7.2), that has the same problem.


My girlfriend's phone can connect to the 5 GHz network (which has a different SSID), so I suspect that the problem is with the computers and not the router. The router is in plain sight in the same room as the computers, and is configured to Wireless N only at both 2.4 and 5 GHz. I also tried Wireless A and Mixed at 5 GHz, but the problem remained. Channel settings are automatic.


Any insight?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Mid 2011, 2.5 GHz i5

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 6:41 AM

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Posted on Jan 25, 2012 12:14 PM

The solution I just found is to go to About This Mac -> More Info -> System Report -> Network -> Wi-Fi. Under Interfaces, look for supported channels. I had to go into my router settings and make sure I was on a compatible channel. The second I did that, my 5 ghz network showed up and is working perfectly!

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Jan 25, 2012 12:14 PM in response to arttuk

The solution I just found is to go to About This Mac -> More Info -> System Report -> Network -> Wi-Fi. Under Interfaces, look for supported channels. I had to go into my router settings and make sure I was on a compatible channel. The second I did that, my 5 ghz network showed up and is working perfectly!

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Feb 28, 2012 5:42 PM in response to arttuk

I just installed a new Airport Extreme. My Macbook Air and iPad can both see the 5Ghz network, but my late-2009 iMac cannot. Looking in About This Mac>System Report>Network>Wi-Fi, the 5Ghz channels do not show up as supported channels.


I've seen this issue reported in numerous threads for numerous iMac models, but so far I have not found a reason for this issue or a fix/workaround. Anyone else?

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Jun 6, 2012 1:14 AM in response to arttuk

802.11d was my problem


My issue was that I had to change the 5GHz SSID on my Wi-Fi router to a channel that worked in all regulatory domains. Due to the large number of misconfigured wireless networks near me when I would wake up my MacBook Pro, 802.11d would kick in and turn off some of the wireless channels on the Wi-Fi card appearing to render my 5GHz network invisible. Once I did that it's been rock solid.


More details here:http://jeff-with-a-g.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/5ghz-wifi-on-your-mac-got-you-down. html

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Sep 6, 2013 1:23 AM in response to arttuk

ARTTUK : Here is best solution. I have similar router Linkys EA2700 and until today the same problem - MBA not see 5 GHz site . Solution is trivial - In router you must write SSID - name ,OTHER for 5GHz frequency , than for 2,4 GHz . For example "site1" for 2,4 GHz and "site2" for 5 GHz. Passport can be the same. My MBA after this will see both this sites . You will chooce "site2" for 5 GHz and this is all. In my MBA now is wifi on 5GHz average 140 Mbps and on 2,4 GHz 40 Mbps. 🙂

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Dec 7, 2013 11:20 AM in response to arttuk

Was very happy to find this post, and have tried all the suggestions above but my Macbook Air still does not connect to the 5 GHz network.


Our base station is Asus RTN56U. We tried putting the 5GHz on channels 36 and 48, no security, but my Air won't see it. Tried killing 2.4GHz just for fun. Still didn't see the 5GHz network. My husband's Thinkpad/Ubuntu sees it, of course.


Any ideas? My system report on network below


Thanks!!


en0:

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0xE9)

Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.100.15)

Locale: FCC

Country Code: US

Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

Wake On Wireless: Supported

AirDrop: Supported

Status: Connected

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Apr 29, 2014 12:01 PM in response to Jirka Dytrt

Thank you so much, after over a year having trouble with finding the 5 gHz network (My mac found it 10 % of the time, and my windows-partition found it 100% of the time), It´s stable. But I´m not shure If I should laugh or cry over the fact that I just had to change the name of the network...;)

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Oct 18, 2014 12:14 AM in response to arttuk

Hi Guys,


Just wanted to mention that resetting my 5GHz network to Channel 40 did the trick.


I'm using a late '13 MBP Retina, just upgraded to OS X Yosemite, with a Asus NT-66U router. No problems with the 5GHz network until the upgrade to OS X Yosemite. 5GHz Channel now at 40 seems to give a solid connection. Thanks!

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Dec 27, 2014 4:30 PM in response to arttuk

I'va a mac mini late 2014 and taking a look at supported channel I see

Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 144, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165


I'm missing channels: 36, 40, 44, 48.... that are EXACTLY the one provided on 5ghz by my Belkin N750 DB N+ router.

Is is normal?


btw my old macbook aluminium late 2008 had those channel.

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Jan 6, 2015 1:04 PM in response to NicOnlyOne

Well I ran through all the posts in order to connect to the 5Ghz issue and nothing work. Here is what I did in order to have a late Mac mini(2007 with Lion) logon wirelessly. First thing is to remove and forget the network in is entirely, then when you see your 5ghz SSID display under new networks select it then the error will occur. Here is what I did in order to get this working. I disabled the SSID for the 2.4ghz because I'm using the same name) then I enable the WiFi password to use none. Once that was completed the Mac mini was able to connect to the 5Ghz SSID and with that I verified that there was a bug somewhere because I could now confirm the MAC mini can use the 5Ghz. The next step was I left the Mac Mini connected and log onto my access point and re-enable the WPA/2 encryprtion so that it is password protected, and as the Mac Mini disconnected I attempted to relog (this time with a password) and it work perfectly. And last but not least I enabled my 2.4Ghz and now all my devices are connected with 5Ghz and when they're out of range they connect to the 2.4ghz band

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Oct 2, 2015 8:30 PM in response to arttuk

Hello All,


Just had a problem with my older Macbook Air being unable to connect to the 5GHz network. "Invalid password" error.


The fix turned out to be:


- I removed the space in my WiFi SSID, so the SSID was all 1 word.
- Changed the broadcasting channel to a set value rather than automatic.


Hopefully this helps if some of the other fixes don't work!

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Jan 15, 2016 11:59 AM in response to arttuk

I had difficulty with my iPad2 seeing the 5Ghz signal on a Netgear dual band modem/router (model DGND3700). After reading this help link figured out that these settings will work:


Wireless network 5Ghz a/n

Name (SSID): YourWifiName

Channel: 157 (channel 36,44 & 149 did not work)

Mode: up to 300Mbps


*works with or without enabling SSID


Security WPA2-PSK (8-32 characters or 64 hex digits)

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Feb 4, 2016 2:24 AM in response to arttuk

I had this problem too and found this post. I don't know if those complicated solutions worked for someone but for me the simplest way to fix the problem was to go to my WiFi router settings (usually via internet by typing the IP address 192...) and change the 5G channel name. And voila!

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Jun 26, 2016 3:57 AM in response to justathome

I had the same problem as the OP and my imac did not detect my 5GHZ network. I switched from automatic channel settings to a dedicated one, channel 48 (I've no idea if that's good or not!) that is supported in my imac network settings. When I had the setting on auto selection for the channels most of them were not supported for my imac. Thanks for the solution.

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Sep 7, 2017 1:06 AM in response to arttuk

I'm having the "5GHz wifi cannot connect" problem.

My 2011 MacBook Pro shows country code JP and 5GHz channels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140.

My ISP supplied router allows only channels 149 153 157 and 161 and is locked.

There are no other wifi signals at this location. I thought the MBP would adjust its country code and available channels based on router broadcast but this seems not to be happening. There is no identifier in the country code portion of the wifi scan table.

How can I force the MBP to switch to my available 5Ghz channels?


Thanks

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Oct 17, 2017 6:25 AM in response to arttuk

In case it helps anyone, in my case Mac was able to connect to the 5GHz access point, but with an extremely high latency e.g. ~1,000 ms pinging the home router, networking would practically be useless. I have followed the instructions outlined in the answers before me and my Mac WiFi supported channels were inline with the router settings. Through trial and error I have found a higher channel on two access points to resolve the high latency ping issue and networking resumed as expected using both access points.

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Can't connect to 5 GHz wireless N network

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