Wifi6 Router Help

FatalError · 18 Dec 2020 at 20:12

Hi all,

I have recently upgraded to virgin gig1 and receiving around 940mb down and 50mb up wired on my pc.

I want to make the most of the connection on my wifi devices and have a few wifi6 devices that can utilise the speeds a wifi 6 router can offer. What I am looking for is a wifi 6 router with a multigig port that will make use of future gig+ speeds. I know the hub4 doesn't support gig+ ports so thats a bottle neck there at modem level but hopefully vm upgrade it.

My current set up is a rt-ac3200 in router mode with the sh4 in modem mode. I then run a 25/30 meter cat 5e (will be replaced) upstairs to another rt-ac3200 router acting as an AP.

Can you please recommend me a router that can handle the 900mbps throughput over wifi? I will probably buy 2 to mirror the set up I have today.

Also heard about wifi6e, maybe thats worth waiting for?

Avalon · 18 Dec 2020 at 20:33

You shouldn’t need to replace the 5e for 10Gb unless it’s crappy CCA or you terminated it with your (or someone else’s) teeth. I would also suggest a WiFi 6 AP is a more logical solution at this stage, multi gigabit is a short sighted compromise, 10Gb or bust and that’s a market sector that has limited options off the shelf and all of them scream bleeding edge at this stage. The other option is to build something, but if you add an WiFi6 AP now that can be carried forward if that’s the route you choose to go down.

FatalError · 19 Dec 2020 at 00:53

Ok thanks, can you recommend me a good WiFi 6 access point?

Budget is no problem, can spend upto £350.

Whats the real world throughput like on these devices? Is the 900mbps achievable?

WJA96 · 19 Dec 2020 at 06:53

What is the device sending/receiving the WiFi6 signal? If it’s 4x4 WiFi5 then you’ll still see something like 450-600Mbps. If it’s 2x2 WiFi6 then you’ll probably see about 700Mbps. If you have a 4x4 WiFi6 device then 1400Mbps is the sort of number you should be looking for. As far as I’m aware, there are no 4x4 WiFi6 clients and very few 2x2 WiFi6 clients.

For most uses 1Gbps internet is massive overkill and even when I’m downloading a film from Sky or Amazon they throttle the download to about 350 Mbps anyway. I only see full speed downloads on iPlayer and that’s only if I do it at 3am.

Your plan to run a cable is very good and, as suggested by @Avalon, I’d hang a Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi6 access point off that. Either the 2x2 UAP6-Lite (about £90) or the 4x4 UAP6-LR (about £200). Bear in mind though that unless your wireless client device is WiFi6 you won’t see the speeds advertised. And there are still very few WiFi6 phones and tablets, so I’d just go with the £90 option at the moment and get the faster one when you’ve got clients that can actually make use of the speed.

Avalon · 19 Dec 2020 at 06:57

WiFi is a variable technology, it depends on the AP, client, environment and what’s between them, also the rated speed is rarely what you will see (60% ish is safe). If you want gigabit and faster speeds, run a cable.

That said something like the U6-Lite is £80ish per AP and 2x2, the 5Ghz is rated to 1.2Gb, combined 2.4+5 is 1.5Gb, the U6-LR is slightly more expensive, but is 4x4 and rated to twice what the U6-Lite can move. Remember both of those have a 1Gbit backhaul, so the fastest speed you will be able to pull WAN to AP is gigabit, and if multiple devices try to do that, it’s shared. Accepted logic is if it can be wired, it should be, that generally leaves mobile devices like tablets and phones with limited storage along with IoT devices which need bugger all bandwidth, so it’s rare you would need near gigabit speeds on those sorts of devices unless you were trying to do something odd, like stream remux 4K video to a tablet. So the question that may need consideration is do you actually have a use for higher speed other than Speedtest and if you do, would that be better served by running a cable at a fraction of the cost?