DescentBB

So I have the option of upgrading my current modem/router from my provider for one that is dual band. Would it be worth it? Below is a list of my wifi devices.

Main floor - same room as modem/router
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Win 8.1 laptop.
2 Iphone ver 4

Same floor but 30 ft away
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Wii U
LG TV
LG Bluray

2nd floor, opposite end of Condo. Maybe 30 feet
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Nintendo 3DS XL
Nintendo DS Lite
Win 7 laptop.
Itouch ver 5

All of these connect to my current router and the wifi users do have issues with connections. Both laptops will lose connectivity periodically and also when coming back from sleep mode.

It's only $4 more a month to rent but if it won't help, I see no point in getting it. I have read up on it but would also want other opinions.

Thanks

Better to first find out what is the root cause of the bandwidth issues. Is it a noisy neighborhood with lots of wifi routers/devices in range? You say its a condo, so there are probably a billion other routers in range, in which case a dual band router will help assuming your client devices are also dual band (if not, then it won't help, and you instead just need to get a "louder" router). Is it your internet that is choking instead (that many devices fighting over a 3 mbit line for instance)? Does your router have a stats page that shows all the clients, the signal strength, and the data rates? Also try out some wifi network analyzing apps for your smart phones, they can help tell you how noisy the neighborhood is.

There are a tone of wifi around. I've analyzed the signals and it overlaps many others but my modem/router doesn't give me many options on changing the channel. I'm just wondering if my devices would work on the 5ghz frequency or not?

As long as your devices support 5 GHz then yes it would help considerably because the 5 GHz band has a boatload more channels than the 2.4 GHz band. Won't do squat for any devices you have that are 2.4 GHz only though.

The laptops dropping wifi after waking up might be a driver issue, try updating to the latest (and go straight to the wifi chipset manufacturer, skip the windows update/laptop brand versions).

Also, anything you can do wired, wire it, unless its constantly moving. Be creative, a good quality cat6 ethernet cable can be upwards of 300 feet long and still work fine, you can hide it behind almost anything, baseboards, furniture, the edges of carpet, false ceilings, etc. And even if you have 3-4 devices in a room that have wired ethernet support, you only need to run one wire from the router to the room, you can use a 5 port switch from there to branch off to each individual device. Think of it this way, a couple years of using crappy wifi will set you back about $100, for less than that you can figure out a way to get a wire less than 300 feet long from point A to point B without it being visible. And even if your devices don't have wired ethernet support, you can run the wire and then put a cheap access point at the end of it in the same room as the device, that will ram a decent signal/bandwidth through all but the absolute worst cases (but it will make an already crowded band even more crowded).

My wife just had her laptop not connect because the DNS wouldn't respond. This is the biggest issue with my ISP. I have to reboot the modem for her to be able to get on.

The laptop is a couple of months new so I'd figure it would work on the 5ghz. The Win 7 laptop is about 2 years old. I'll check for sure when no one is using them. Maybe I'll get the dual band if both of them support it.