How do I turn off 5 GHz on 2nd gen. Airport Express?

How do I turn off 5 GHz on 2nd gen. AirPort Express?

You can't. The 2nd Gen AirPort Express is a simultaneous dual band router.....so both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are always on.....or....both are always off if you disable the wireless.

What you can do is assign a different name to the 5 GHz network, so the 2.4 GHz network will have one name and the 5 GHz network will have a different name. Both networks will continue to use the same wireless network password.

Not sure if that would help your real issue......whatever it might be. More details would help.

If Brother Support is correct......then we cannot help.....and you will need another printer or another router.

The same instructions apply to all of the AirPort routers......AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Time Capsule

Let's make sure that you really do have a 2nd Gen AirPort Express. It will look like this on the back of the device

If this is what you have......

On your iMac......Open AirPort Utility......(It's located in your Utilities folder). If you don't know how to find it the Utilities folder......

Click anywhere on the open desktop so that the Finder menus are displayed at the top of the screen

Click the Go menu

Click Utilities

Open AirPort Utility

Click on the picture of the AirPort Express

A smaller window will appear

Click Edit in that smaller window

The next window will display headings for Base Station, Internet, Wireless, Network, Disks at the top of the window

Post back on your progress and we will continue

I'm curious where this will lead!

Nowhere, I am afraid, if the Brother Support folks are providing correct information, but you can try the following to find out.

Click Edit

Then, click the Wireless tab at the top of the next window

Click the Wireless Options button near the bottom of the window

Enter a check mark in the box next to 5 GHz network name

That will automatically add "5 GHz" to the name of the 5 GHz network

The name of the 2.4 GHz network will remain the same as it was before

Click the Save button

Click the Update button at the lower right of the window and give the AirPort a full minute to restart

Now start over with the printer and set it up to connect to the 2.4 GHz network name.

Since the printer will be connecting only using 2.4 GHz......5 GHz is not involved at all.

If 5 GHz really does have to be turned off......you might be able to connect the printer to the AirPort using an Ethernet cable if that is an option. Otherwise, I'm afraid that you will need a different printer, or a different router if the printer must connect using wireless.

You will need to restart your Mac(s), perhaps a few times, before they will update with the new wireless settings that you have saved on the AirPort Express.

Then, when you click the WiFi icon for available networks on a Mac, you will see your "old" network name, which is now only 2.4 GHz. You will also see your network name with 5 GHz added on the end....which is now only the 5 GHz network.

You will need to choose which network you want your Mac to connect to. Same for other devices.

Things are much simpler if you can use Apple's default settings......in which both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz use the same wireless network name. If your wireless devices are working correctly, they will automatically choose either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz based on their capabilities and distance in relation to the AirPort Express.

For example, my Mac will automatically connect to 5 GHz if it is in the same room or close proximity to the AirPort router. When the Mac is a few rooms away, it automatically connects to the 2.4 GHz signal.....since 2.4 GHz signals are significantly stronger than 5 GHz signals. Same for the iPad, iPhones, etc.

If you have an older device that can only connect to 2.4 GHz, then that device will always connect at 2.4 GHz....since it has no choice otherwise.

Unfortunately, some wireless devices are not able to automatically and correctly choose between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, so they get confused when they see a network that is broadcasting both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals with the same name.

Printers in particular are notorious for this. The printer manufacturers in general are at least 5 years behind with their wireless technology.

So, when a printer is having trouble trying to connect to a network with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals using the same name, it sometimes helps to split the two bands up and assign different names to each band. Then, you can manually "point" the device at either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz network.

Later on, if you want, I'll show you how to have your Mac automatically connect to the 2.4 GHz network or the 5 GHz network when it starts up.

Did the printer connect to the 2.4 GHz network correctly? If not, then might want to go back to the default settings to keep things simple.

The only catch is that I now want to return the wifi to dual band. I've deleted the '5GHz' network and restarted our Macs a couple of times but my original network seems to remain active on 2.4 only.

Does this also mean that you went back into AirPort Utility and removed the check mark in the box next to 5 GHz network name? If you did not do this, now would be a good time.....since you will have two separate networks.....2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.....until you do this.

After you update the AirPort, then you need to restart all of your Macs and other devices.

Then, go into System Preferences / WiFi / Advanced on each Mac and delete the network with the 5 GHz suffix attached to the network name if it still appears there.

I can't remember if I removed the checkmark but I did delete the 5GHz network

Check as follows:

Open AirPort Utility

Click on the AirPort Express icon

Click Edit in the smaller window

Click the Wireless tab at the top of the window

Click the Wireless Options button near the bottom of the window

Make sure that the box next to 5 GHz network name is not checked

Save any changes

Click Update at the lower right of the window to restart and apply the changes