I am sharing my wifi with a Linksys E2500 router, which allows you to name each frequency (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz) of wireless network a different name. A user told me that if each band has a different name, it does not allow his computer to connect to both bands simultaneously to double the bandwidth for his connection. He says he can connect to either network independently when they are differently named. How can a device transmit a data stream along two separate bands simultaneously?
This Netgear webpage says that a simultaneous dual band router (e.g. the Linksys E2500 router) has "Twice the bandwidth", vs. "Same bandwidth as single band router" in a selectable dual band router.
It also says, "Separate networks avoid interference" in a simultaneous dual band router, implying that the bandwidth for a given connection is not doubled by simultaneous connection to both bands.
Best Answer
The user had channel bonding with his own internet connection (prior to sharing my wifi) which doubled his bandwidth. Channel bonding in wifi combines two adjacent channels in the same frequency band to increase throughput between wireless devices e.g. how to set up channel bonding on Intel wireless adapters. More info on channel bonding on the Linksys E2500. He probably had a modem with channel bonding if he had double the bandwidth while using the Linksys E2500 router with the same settings and the same network adapter with the same settings.
Devices cannot interoperate across bands unless dual-mode network adapters or APs are used. When the router has two bands with the same name, the client device chooses a band.