Newfoundland

And we are off! WiFi 7 launches this year looking at CES. Asus offering one on the 6Ghz band at 11525 and 10Gb ports. 46Gbs theoretical over all bands total. MSI have a wired looking one as does TP link. I bet Samsung release the first client and I’m hoping that we see a VR unit that will support it but it’s draft again. Begs the question, will we see the standard quicker this time round as WiFi 6 was hit by the Covid pandemic.

Yes WiFi 6E uses the 6Ghz upto 160Mhz and no issues with DFS unlike the 5Ghz where 160Mhz depending on country uses the DFS channels which is a problem as it has background resources working away and you lose 160Mhz if radar is detected as it has to move off DFS for a set amount of time. As that happens the router communicates to clients a change is needed then drops down. Not all DFS events are positive though so false detection can be an issue. WiFI 6 uses both 2.4 and 5Ghz and has a set of standards but not all routers or APs support the full feature set ie. Some 2.4Ghz don’t support WiFi 6 on some models, others are draft and so on. Its real use of WiFi 6 is for condensed areas where it benefits but it does offer better latency depending on client and setup. With 160Mhz the client must be compatible so your card is where as my iPad or iPhone can only do 80Mhz. The next issue for gaming is depending on the hardware it’s a waiting game for clients to connect. If you have a 2x2 5Ghz stream then it’s 1, 2x2 client at a time, a 4x4 would be 2 clients who are 2x2 or 4, 1x1. If the client is 3x3 then its max is 2 as a 1x1 client can also connect. When say you have 20 clients on say a single AP then latency increases as they all have to wait in turn and if one or more clients have errors in transmission then that adds more latency. Add into it the bandwidth a client needs ie.VR then that eats resources other clients need and you have issues. plus to obtain max throughput the client to achieve max QAM must be close which also applies to Mu Mimo clients and there you need 2 or more compatible clients to see any benefit. In condensed areas the noise limits the performance of 5Ghz at 160Mhz so you might end up with retransmissions even though the client shows a good connection rate. Same applies to 80 on 5Ghz so some use lower transmit power and a narrow channel ie.40Mhz on 5Ghz where neighbouring interference is an issue. on average I get around 2 to 3% retries on my iPad for example which indicates that it’s roaming at those points as I can see under the UI plus I’ve mapped out my property to keep the signal as close to optimum as possible for my clients vs APs. Retries can also happen if a client is close to the router or AP where the signal is too strong and errors occur. It’s just finding the balance of coverage vs interference and number of clients vs APs. The More APs then channel selection and interference can be an issue has you have to select different channels and watch the coverage vs transmit power or else you create more noise. That’s the weak point for mesh systems that offer basic controls for example as they tend to operate all on the same channels unless they are more aimed at the higher end of the market with a good control system built in.

Sadly I don’t use a PC so I’ve no experience with that card or setup. I looked it up and I can’t see where it supports 6E, just WiFi6 by the looks of it. https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/products/sku/130293/intel-wifi-6-ax201-gig/specifications.html

U.K. jolly expensive round my neck of the woods as I live in one of the most expensive areas in the U.K. I think the local town came out as the most expensive place in the U.K. Ridiculous prices and full of bankers and financial types.

True draft WiFi 7 will take a while but draft 3 WiFi 6 routers did well and they appeared in 2019. Yes 6E is limited on a gig connection but 6E was designed not only to increase throughput but lower levels of interference and lower latency so a VR for example matched to a PC with a compatible card gives you freedom of an open environment rather than having wires suspended from the ceiling. 6E can handle more clients too due to the increase in throughput. Yes you could say that the AP needs to match that but 6E has far more usage than just throughput. 6E will be very useful for high density environments and that’s really what it’s about. Unfortunately most tend to think it’s all about speed but it’s not. It’s why 2.4Ghz and even 5Ghz suffer, more so because end users use max output in the belief it’s best when in fact the noise level increases and a client see a strong signal but has poor communication which is why it’s never a good idea to run at max transmit unless the environment suits it. You would need to check the throughput of the switch to its outputs. As we know most switch’s don’t always share the full input to output, That bumps the price up and I would prefer a managed switch with a lot more than 10Gb internal movement and have a good degree of control. Layer 3 at least. Mine is with 4 10g sfp ports with 320Gbs switch capacity coupled with 48 port max 2.5Gb which is where my APs are connected too. Unfortunately the routers switches are limited to 1Gb but it has a 10g sfp port which is connected to the switch. But once again a normal house hold will see no difference and a gamer even less. I think it’s around £500 a month here for the big package.

VR to start with and multiple clients that use high resources. People think that if one device gets say 500 that’s great but I can swallow that up with VR. The days of cable are fast disappearing and as we head towards WiFi 7 while it will limit coverage on a single router due to the increase in frequency the latency will be very low. 6Ghz already helps with lower latency and less noise and is more than a match for cable on a one client connection at max QAM. I’ve not gamed on cable for ages but I have a fairly complex system with multiple APs running at correct outputs so clients are dedicated to various APs at low noise levels. Like most things tech moves forward, people use more smart devices, automation starts to increase, client devices increase, an ever evolving eco system that relies on wireless technology. it’s why Companies like Ruckus, Cisco, Netgear, Unifi, Asus, Juniper and all the rest invest heavily and why Mikrotek, Broadcom, intel and Qualcomm invest millions into research to increase the productivity of wireless technology to these companies. so an 8Gb connection might be great for a company who has servers or has a large client base on WiFi where they need that to handle the load like at an Apple conference (will have far more spread out on various outlet platforms to handle client base)or university but a house hold property gains nothing and even more so for gamers who use a small amount of data to game on say COD and at that point no one is going to be using a simple router to handle networks that might have dozens of APs around a site. Hell I can get 10Gb with Swiss here if I want to pay the obscene amount and that’s up and down but it’s pointless as I would need to spend a good couple of grand on switches and APs which are simply not needed for my use. One of the APs I have can handle 600 clients and that’s a total over kill but it covers the 6E and I need that as it’s compatible with the rest of my system. crunk asked and that’s the honest truth, a gig is plenty for households, pair with a good system and it covers your needs easily. Downloading from a single source that does not limit is not a good example of its use.

No, it’s great if you host servers but for general use with a property with APs the best on Wireless side is a 2.5 connection and then the rest is a rack system and switches which will be expensive and you are still limited on the WiFi side.

Move house closer to cabinet. Not sure on how you could move property but that would work !

I’ve no idea how they all tend to work. Unifi have a service but it’s not available over here. I’m thinking I may just end up using a mobile rather than worrying about voip. I can use my echo devices to call most people

Some router companies offer Voip, do you think we could talk Netduma into it 😊

Good old BT. if you are not looking for a paid voip service then the simple Amazon echos would work. I’ve use them but it’s just for basic use so no message system and so on. like you we have just had the old cables installed so it’s something I need to look into as well when I move over.

No it’s fine, it holds the firmware but clears memory so you are all good.

Did it Find an internet connection on setup?

That’s great. Use the rear pinhole to reset. Hold it in for 20 seconds, release and then allow it to fully boot up before setting up.

If the update went to plan you need to reset and do a fresh set up. once you have done that and it’s up and running then do a test to double check your lan speeds are working as intended.

Were you updating over WiFi? Is so double check the firmware version installed as the client doing the upgrade loses connection. If it’s not updating its best for Fraser or Liam to pop in as they’ve already started the procedure to get you up-to-date and I will just confuse the issue.

It’s under settings, you will see the WiFi tab. Take your time to explore the features so you get to know the layout if it’s now running ok. The chances are both 2.4 and 5Ghz are already on the correct settings but you can double check.

Set the 2.4ghz to 20Mhz and use this channel for IoT devices. Set the 5ghz to 80Mhz. if you are using both your isp and R2 WiFi at the same time insure they are not on the same channel to help with interference. Positioning is very important to obtain the best performance, you may get a tad more out of the R2’s WiFi. The best I’ve achieved on average is 450Mbps.

Ah sorry I looked at your profile and saw you had the XR500, that’s got the tick box but yes I believe you had it set to 160Mhz. Fingers crossed that’s fixed it.

That may not be related to preamble. What width is tour 5Ghz set you ie 80Mhz? don’t tick the 160Mhz, that will cause devices to drop that don’t support it. Run a WiFi scanner to see if the 5Ghz drops or is not showing when the problem cops up.

If you don’t have 802.11b devices I would try short, you may not notice any difference though.

To be fair to Bert I’ve seen some really awful fibre connections in the US where base pings were really poor. That boils down to the isp and that maybe why some try to source a way of finding a better connection but of course you can’t really sort out issues when the connection is poor to start with but if it helps to some extent that’s good news. If you post a vid it would be great showing the ER4 SQM. Always nice to compare when you have time to do so.

I think Netduma quote around the 350 mark that above does not require QoS depending on the network, Unifi quote 300, in fact they have it set on by default at 300 or below on the UDM range so you need to disable it if you don’t wish to use it. my rather low 57DL and 11UL benefits from it which is what it should be doing if it works correctly.

That depends on the environment and devices. Long is normally the default for compatibility for older devices. How are you testing your line?

Let me show you the UDM at work using FQ CoDel. Having cake or FQ CoDel means nothing unless it’s working correctly and yes there are bugs in Duma but they will get sorted on the NG side I hope. Any type of QoS must be implemented well but where Duma will acknowledge an issue you try getting Unifi to do the same. I’m posting about this issue for at least 2 previous firmwares and not one comment on their support forum. Notice it does not work on the upload and after several painful hours I’ve managed to get the upload to work but the download now has the issues. If I was to plug the R2 in, can’t on the UDM as there is no DMZ so you run into NAT issues I get a perfect latency connection. this vid is on their support forum and has been totally ignored. now unfortunately when it comes to routers none are perfect, they all have their faults but it then boils down to support. In your case you could raise the issue direct with NG support to egg them on, some times they listen and will work with you. Regarding the throughput on the ER4 no people still complained and saw poor results, you could whip it on and try it to see what you get then do a little video as I’m always interested to see how different routers perform. on a gig line you really should not require QoS on unless you have some huge household requirements. At that point you just hope your isp has great peering so you enjoy a nice connection. Auto congestion setting at 100% is probably correct as it’s not finding an issue.