a puzzle

I have just upgraded to EE fibre with BrightBox2. Now my mobile phone and laptop connect to the router via Band 5 GH.Also my laptop can see Chromecast (old version) which is on Band 2.4. However my wife' mobile phone can only connect to the router via band 2.4.,Why!!

What sort of phone? My Windows phone only does 2.4Ghz.

My phone is Motorola x force which run on android 6.

He meant your wife's phone .

Yes the wife's phone and is it 5G capable?

My wife' phone is Motorola 2nd generation which has 2.4 band. It seems to me that my phone and my laptop,both have 5 band can talk to Chromecast which has 2.4 band, but the 5 band on my new EE router cannot talk/connect to my wifes' phone which has 2.4 band. I am sorry, it is confusing.

If the phone only supports the 2.4 band then it can only connect to the router using that band. But other devices connect to the router using the 5 band as they support that. Except the Chromecast, which will use 2.4. They can all talk to each other via the router. You really don't need to worry too much about which band a device is using as long as it works.

Do you actually have a problem with something not working, or is it just the speed that concerns you?

Hi, many thanks for your reply. You said" they all talk through the router", has resolved the matter for me.I assumed wrongly that devices talk to each other directly as they are all in the same network.

Networks can be constructed in that way (they are called ad-hoc wireless networks) but this is not what you have. In an ad-hoc network the devices would have to be able to communicate on the same band.

If they did talk to each other they wouldn't be using the router's WiFi.

But they don't, they all go thro' the router and the router mediates between their speeds.