So you're saying that if it supports 802.11n at 5Ghz then it should also support 802.11a?
Dunno.

Yeah your wireless card does not support 5Ghz.

5Ghz is terrible at getting through walls anyway. You might be better taking the router back and getting a 2.4 Ghz only device if you want to save some dollar.

There is two kinds of 5Ghz

Basically there is older laptops like your vista one. These will support likely 54Mbps on 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz.

Newer laptops are usually 75Mbps, 150Mbps or 300 Mbps on wireless N 2.4 ghz. No 5ghz.
All apple laptops etc that's not older than 3/4 years old works on 5Ghz and 2.4 generally.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 26-Apr-13 00:19:44)

well b/g/n suggests full backward compatibility at 2.4 so why not a/n at 5

at the ragged edges of range it has fallen back to the older / simpler coding methods anyway.

Yes. Dual Band (as in 2.4GHz and 5GHz) wireless n devices are backwards compatible with 802.11a. It is a requirement of the 802.11n standard. (802.11a compatibility is not required in 2.4Ghz only devices and 802.11b/g compatibility is not required in 5GHz only devices)