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Is this router really WiFi 6?


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@Netduma Fraser I have a few questions now regarding the WiFi 6 and if it's even possible on this device.. 

After doing some research, trying to solve why the routers wifi speeds are running extremely slow, I came across a few article's from other sites and from WiFi alliance that state for any wifi 6 routers/AX chips they must support WPA3. I remember this being something that other routers required for me to use 160mhz and to take full advantage of WiFi 6 in the past. However, the R3 doesn't provide or seem to have WPA3. This leads to my question, does this router truly provide WiFi 6 or does it state it has WiFi 6 but can't utilize the true functionality of it because of not having WPA3? Here are 3 links and screenshots showing that this is a requirement:

https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/security

https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/wi-fi-alliance-launches-wi-fi-certified-6-certification-program

https://www.extremenetworks.com/resources/blogs/wireless-security-in-a-6-ghz-wi-fi-6e-world#:~:text=The Wi-Fi Alliance mandates,ax radios must support WPA3.

 

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Hi !

... WPA3 It's just the latest wifi encryption standard!

To put it simply: it’s an additional safety criterion!

I assure you... nothing to do with the bandwidth of Wifi 6 or anything else...

 
 
 
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WPA3 is needed for 6E its not a mandatory feature of WiFi 6. 
 

all the subsets under WiFi 6 are not mandatory unless it’s registered with the WiFi alliance who list their requirements. However many of the features under WiFi 6 were aimed at helping within congested environments and increasing MU MiMo if clients supported it as well as client battery saving and protected management frames. Some features were never added but along pops WiFi 7 and that’s another step up towards a better WiFi future.

A router does not require WiFi alliance certification. While they aim to help to bring a standard it’s not required and to be honest 99% of consumers don’t even know what WiFi alliance is. More importantly is does not guarantee a quality product, it’s simply aimed at standards.

Don’t forget a client must also support WPA3 as well as supported WiFi 6 and we still see a general lack of IoT for example that are well behind standards. As long as you have a nice long and complex password I can’t see an issue. The chances of anyone wanting to spend time getting into a home network is very small. 

 

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It is not mandatory to obtain Wi-Fi certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance for a newly developed Wi-Fi based product. However, obtaining certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance ensures that the product meets industry standards for interoperability, security, and performance. 
 

All hardware isn’t the same.  Older routers could achieve greater WiFi performance by using specific chipsets from certain vendors. Maybe Netduma will release a pro version of their router with beefed up hardware. 2.5g WAN port. WiFi Alliance certified chipset etc. I would rather see a steady cadence of firmware updates though. If you review the forum there are quite a few issues. Need to get those resolved before the reviews start coming in. 

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22 minutes ago, cljackhammer said:

It is not mandatory to obtain Wi-Fi certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance for a newly developed Wi-Fi based product. However, obtaining certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance ensures that the product meets industry standards for interoperability, security, and performance. 
 

All hardware isn’t the same.  Older routers could achieve greater WiFi performance by using specific chipsets from certain vendors. Maybe Netduma will release a pro version of their router with beefed up hardware. 2.5g WAN port. WiFi Alliance certified chipset etc. I would rather see a steady cadence of firmware updates though. If you review the forum there are quite a few issues. Need to get those resolved before the reviews start coming in. 

Chipsets are not WiFi alliance certified, they just meet the standards set out by the WiFi alliance. It’s what the company supports. The chipset within the R3 meets all the standards required but the WiFi alliance is a private company and many companies from Netgear, Unifi, don’t register all their products for certification. 
in theory the Alliance is a good idea but it requires money from a company to join it. 
it gets complex as depending on chipset mu mimo might be halved, ie a 2x2 turns to a 1x1. It’s where standards fall apart as the client and chipset may change.

ive a pixel 8, supports WiFi 7 but only does 160Mhz and not 320Mhz. These standards don’t always work out well but the question is will most notice.

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I have a 6E router a Netgear RAXE500 that has a Broadcom BCM4908 1.8Ghz quad core SoC that has the ability to do all the subsets of 6E but its up to the vendor to decide for SOHO routers what to use for the user and the clients also need to support WPA3 etc most routers have WPA2-WPA3 AES and a good password is the best protection. As to the R3 I would say its more wifi 5.5 than 6 from what I can see and its not stellar Wi-Fi which as a home replacement router will have to deal with IoT clients which don't always come with Ethernet ports, like phones, wifi cameras and tablets etc. I would not trust the R3 to do that well as it has not from what I can tell been tested in a Lab environment like a Octoscope. people think this router is gaming only well if it was then the wifi would not matter, but its touted as a home router, so Wi-Fi is very important.

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Makes sense, so the cpu shouldn’t be the bottleneck. So, it might be Duma OS? I observe extremely high CPU usage when not even doing downloads.  I just viewed CpU usage with only a PS5 connected idle and one of,the CPU’s is pegged at 100%.

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3 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

As others have mentioned above, it's not required and doesn't impact speed/range. This is the chip being used: https://www.broadcom.com/products/wireless/wireless-lan-infrastructure/bcm6756

I saw that Broadcom SoC, a 2x2 not a 4X4. It actually supports 6E too. I wonder if the R3 used Broadcom drivers instead of generic drivers if the WI-Fi would be more stable?

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47 minutes ago, cljackhammer said:

Makes sense, so the cpu shouldn’t be the bottleneck. So, it might be Duma OS? I observe extremely high CPU usage when not even doing downloads.  I just viewed CpU usage with only a PS5 connected idle and one of,the CPU’s is pegged at 100%.

We've fixed that for the next version I believe

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