Up grade to wifi 6E from wifi 6

wizard · 31 Dec 2023 at 11:41

Currently on Netgear wifi 6 mesh and thinking of upgrade to Deco XE75 Mesh.

I appreciate many would say it is a "small upgrade benefit" but I think wifi 7 (especially the devices) are quite a long way off. Also, I am on 1Gb broadband package and the family needs are well covered.
So far, we have 6 wifi 6 capable devices in the house and likely to get more.

Is this a good upgrade thought please?

WJA96 · 31 Dec 2023 at 12:53

Wifi6E really only delivers in the same room (WiFi7 will be even worse) and once you leave the room you get WiFi6 or even 2.4GHz WiFi4.

So what are you really trying to achieve? Your TV, audio and anything IoT runs at 100Mbps or less and any streaming service is happy with half that, so why do you need 1.6Gbps on your phone or tablet? Even WiFi6 is excessive for what most folks need at home.

I always suggest putting anything you can on a cable because that gives you nailed on 1/2.5/5/10GbE speeds and frees up WiFi for anything that can’t be on a cable. If you have money to invest, run cables.

jp7152 · 31 Dec 2023 at 13:05

The main benefit of WiFi6e is that it's extra capacity that wasn't previously used. Meaning your neighbors or other Wifi probably won't be sharing the same bandwidth. If you are already getting gig+ speeds on your wifi 6 then you are not likely to really see any benefit. It's also worse at penetrating walls. That said if you have a lot of devices in a small space then it is good!

wizard · 31 Dec 2023 at 18:39

jp7152 said:
The main benefit of WiFi6e is that it's extra capacity that wasn't previously used. Meaning your neighbors or other Wifi probably won't be sharing the same bandwidth. If you are already getting gig+ speeds on your wifi 6 then you are not likely to really see any benefit. It's also worse at penetrating walls. That said if you have a lot of devices in a small space then it is good!

One thing I should have mentioned - my current wifi 6 mesh supports up to 30 devices and I have already reached 36. The Deco supports upto 200 (not that I need 200!)

jp7152 · 31 Dec 2023 at 19:30

If it only supports 36 and you are at 30 you are probably close to being cpu limited on the access point. That could improve performance as well with an upgrade.

Caged · 31 Dec 2023 at 19:46

Are you sure it only supports 30 devices, or is it recommended for 30 devices per node?

If you aren't actually having problems then save your money. I wouldn't bother upgrading Wi-Fi unless you're skipping a generation either, 6 to 6E seems pointless.

wizard · 31 Dec 2023 at 20:15

jp7152 said:
If it only supports 36 and you are at 30 you are probably close to being cpu limited on the access point. That could improve performance as well with an upgrade.

It is the other way round - supports 30 and I have 36.

wizard · 31 Dec 2023 at 20:18

Caged said:
Are you sure it only supports 30 devices, or is it recommended for 30 devices per node?

If you aren't actually having problems then save your money. I wouldn't bother upgrading Wi-Fi unless you're skipping a generation either, 6 to 6E seems pointless.

Support upto 30 - I am only going by the Manufacturer Spec. Amongst the devices, I use Ring door bell and cameras - sometimes I get poor reception with health check on those devices.

Caged · 31 Dec 2023 at 21:03

Very unlikely that changing to an AP that uses the 6GHz band is going to help with coverage issues.

wizard · 1 Jan 2024 at 10:38

Caged said:
Very unlikely that changing to an AP that uses the 6GHz band is going to help with coverage issues.

I take it by AP you mean a mesh satellite? Also, I do not have coverage issues - just over the manufacturer's Devices limit.

WJA96 · 1 Jan 2024 at 11:14

wizard said:
I take it by AP you mean a mesh satellite? Also, I do not have coverage issues - just over the manufacturer's Devices limit.

I really don’t think you are. Did you have another thread about this where I found another Netgear document that said the number was significantly higher? You’re 20% over what you think it should be now. Have you tried loading it up with friends/family and seeing if it makes a difference?

wizard · 1 Jan 2024 at 11:59

WJA96 said:
I really don’t think you are. Did you have another thread about this where I found another Netgear document that said the number was significantly higher? You’re 20% over what you think it should be now. Have you tried loading it up with friends/family and seeing if it makes a difference?

Good suggestion. Will try the loading with a friend and see what happens. I tried disabling some devices to come under 30 and sure enough all of them work perfectly. Restoring them back to 36 makes some perform below par. This makes me think that I might have reached the maximum device support.