Thanks for trying to help
Part 1: under the wireless card properties in windows 7
Dell Wireless 1601 802.11 a/g/n adapter
Atheros Communications Inc.
Driver date 2/19/2013 version 10.0.0.227
Under the advanced tab, there is not a' mode' property, the properties are
802.11b preamble
adhoc 11n
dynamic MIMI power save
Network address
Receive buffers
Scan Valid Interval
Transmit Buffers
Part 2: Yes, it will see and connect to other 2.4 ghz networks, but it will not see 5ghz networks that my iphone5 is seeing (and can connect to).