They are essentially two wireless routers in one box. You join what machines you want to each.
Not really. It just has two radios. 2.4 and 5 Ghz. 802.11n can use both bands at the same time for increased speed.
I don't think I'd even purchase a router that wasn't dual band these days with 2.4 getting so noisy. It's almost a necessary requirement now, especially if you want the higher performance of N.
The .11N standard get's its higher speed not by that method, but by using MIMO which is multiple antenas at both the transmiter and reciever.
The .11N standard get's its higher speed not by that method, but by using MIMO which is multiple antenas at both the transmiter and reciever.
The higher speeds require 4 MIMO channels of 40 Mhz. This requires you use both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands, normally two from each.
Which brings up the other point, you simply can't get the high speeds of 802.11n without a 5 Ghz radio because of the need for 40 Mhz channels. 2.4 simply cannot support more than two and 4 are required. If 2.4 is noisy then you can move all 40 Ghz channels to the 5 Ghz band.
All in all there is simply no reason to not have dual band, you severely limit your speed and performance if you don't.
I get a steady 300mbps connection anywhere in the house w/ both our laptops and with the desktop computers upstairs.
Did you actually measured it or you are reporting what ever the drivers table displays through the regular interface.
If you have 300Mb/sec. bandwidth all of the computers that are not close to the Router should provide a stable functional transfer of 400MB file in 11sec.
Give it a try.