[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: External antennas on the likes of AC86U, is that the magic for range?

I am using several AC86Us as a mesh system. Several times tried to replace them with the likes of TP-Link, Linksys, and other prettier devices that support 6 or 6E. Having placed the newer devices in the same locations, they were all inferior when it comes to range at the fringe areas. Is it the external antennas on the Asus devices, like 86U, 88U, etc. that gives them the range advantage? The "decor" style APs have built in antennas and they are shorter, so is that why they are generally inferior when it comes to reach?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
snovvman said:
I am using several AC86Us as a mesh system. Several times tried to replace them with the likes of TP-Link, Linksys, and other prettier devices that support 6 or 6E. Having placed the newer devices in the same locations, they were all inferior when it comes to range at the fringe areas. Is it the external antennas on the Asus devices, like 86U, 88U, etc. that gives them the range advantage? The "decor" style APs have built in antennas and they are shorter, so is that why they are generally inferior when it comes to reach?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

External antennas can't hurt. The AC86U was a top broadcaster, and new AX models are equally good or a bit better. I started AiMesh in 2018 with AC68Us and immediately replaced them with AC86Us to make a 77' wireless backhaul from far side of brick house to detached brick garage.

I prefer the vertical formfactor... currently the AX86U Pro.

I had three AC86Us burn out... I do not trust them on my network anymore.

OE

snovvman said:
built in antennas and they are shorter

The actual antenna inside the plastic of external antennas is about 5cm long dipole. The rest is non-functional design element, no matter how long. Any 6GHz router or "mesh" will have shorter range due to higher frequency band with lower wall penetration. I've read statements how AX improves the range over AC - not true especially for 160MHz wide channel. The faster you go (higher modulation scheme, wider channel or both) the shorter the range. RT-AC86U was using BCM4366E and this chip was excellent in all products Asus or other manufacturer. Sometimes the radio module plus the end amplifiers choice plus the drivers support from Broadcom hit the sweet spot. If your RT-AC86U routers work well and don't show any signs of trouble - keep using them. This model has higher than average failure rate, but excellent when it works.

OzarkEdge said:
The AC86U was a top broadcaster, and new AX models are equally good or a bit better.

Indeed.

It's not just the antennae that make up the RF chain that makes Asus routers superior (specifically RT and GT model lines). It is attention to all the parts in those links. Including the SoC, the radio modules/CPUs, any amplifiers used, and many other peripheral factors, such as optimized drivers, SDKs, and other factors that other manufacturers don't seem to consider (from experience).

While the RT-AC86Us were the pinnacle of AC-class WiFi routers, they have long been superseded by AX-class equipment for a long time now.

Note that a single, entry-level RT-AX68U (sadly, EOL today), is drastically superior to the old king (actually 2x RT-AC86U) in the link below.

[ 386.4 alpha Build(s) ] Testing available build(s)
There are some odd regressions being discussed on the dnsmasq-discuss list from the PiHole guy (Dominik). https://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2021q3/015598.html https://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2021q3/015596.html I see Merlin is testing 2.86 out...
www.snbforums.com

Doubling the throughput while having the same or better range is what makes the upgrade to an AX-class router today more than worthwhile, particularly if you have the ISP speeds to take advantage of them (the current bang for the buck model today is the RT-AX88U Pro). And having a cooler running and more responsive router/network too.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Tabletop SMB APs?

I have a Sonicwall TZ570 as my firewall/router and have been using multiple AC86Us as mesh APs with Ethernet, before that, AC88Us and AC5300. I know they are overkill as APs, but I like the range that these devices offered. As I think about going AX, many have advised to use SMB APs instead. I agree. However, I do not want to ceiling or wall-mount the APs. I have looked at Ubiquiti, Omada, Zyxel, Ubiquiti, and Netgear. None has any good AX/Wi-Fi 6 tabletop options.

Does anyone know of any SMB AX/Wi-Fi 6 tabletop APs?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
Personally, I think table units with big antennas look ugly. I think a nice ceiling mount looks good and blends in. And is out of the way on the ceiling.

Adding cable to the ceiling is much easier than walls. You just punch a hole in the ceiling and run the cable.

UniFi U6 Mesh, perhaps? I have no personal experience with that model, but I use and like the U6 Enterprise from the same line.

BTW, just because it says "ceiling mount" doesn't mean you have to mount it on the ceiling. IME you could probably get away with just laying one of the UFO-shaped units flat on your table, if that's what you want. Horizontal range might not be great, but it wouldn't be nil either.

A creative look at UniFi's in-wall units might yield ideas too.

Ah, I thought I remembered having posted a picture of how I have my U6-Ents mounted, and here it is (over on UI's community forum). There's more than one way to skin a cat.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: BCM4916 process node?

Hi, I read that the BCM4908 is made using the 28nm process, and the B4912 is made using TSMC’s 16nm process, but I can’t find any information about the BCM4916 regarding process node online. Does anyone know which process it use?

[Assistant]
jixiangyuan said:
Hi, I read that the BCM4908 is made using the 28nm process, and the B4912 is made using TSMC’s 16nm process, but I can’t find any information about the BCM4916 regarding process node online. Does anyone know which process it use?
Why would anyone care what size process it uses?

ColinTaylor said:
Why would anyone care what size process it uses?
Maybe because it has something to do with the temperature and power usage of the cpu? If we are starting to ask questions, why would anyone reply to a thread about which they know nothing

jixiangyuan said:
Maybe because it has something to do with the temperature and power usage of the cpu? If we are starting to ask questions, why would anyone reply to a thread about which they know nothing
It just seemed like a strange question. I buy a router based on its features, availability and price. The size of the process used to create one of the chips inside it is not a consideration for me.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Lots of 2.4Ghz IoTs, will a 3x3 be better than 2x2?

I currently have several AC86Us meshed in a large home. I have a lot of 2.4 Ghz IoTs--over a dozen cameras, thermostats, temperature sensors, sprinkler controller, plugs, etc. I am itching to upgrade to 6, 6E or 7 because my phones and computers can take advantage of it. I have 1G Internet service and 2.5G switch with a fully Cat 6 wired home.

Because of all the 2.4 Ghz devices, would keeping a 3x3 2.4Ghz device be helpful? I see many 6, 6E, even 7 APs that only have 2x2 for 2.4Ghz. Would this reduce the performance of my IoTs?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
snovvman said:
because my phones and computers can take advantage

Computers may take some advantage, phones/tablets - unlikely.

snovvman said:
Would this reduce the performance of my IoTs?

Also unlikely. All your IoTs are 1/2-stream low bandwidth devices.

Hmm ... probably not, really. "IoT"-class clients are almost certainly non-MIMO or 1x1, so as far as single-client performance goes it's not going to make any difference whether the AP can handle more streams.

In principle, a 2x2 AP can send to two different 1x1 clients concurrently, and a 3x3 AP to three such clients, so the 3x3 AP might be able to handle a lot of clients better than the 2x2. I'm skeptical that that's actually going to happen in your setup though, because according to some googling the AC standard defines MU-MIMO only in the 5GHz band. The AX standard brought it to the 2.4 band, but it's unlikely your existing APs will do that.

It's not clear to me whether an AX AP can do simultaneous transmissions to legacy clients, or whether the clients have to be AX-aware to make that work. If it does work then a 2x2 AX-spec AP could actually outperform your 3x3 AC-spec APs through being able to use concurrent transmissions.

And on the third hand, with these low-spec clients concurrent MIMO transmissions can only be done in the download direction in any case, so it's not going to matter unless you have multiple download-hungry clients. Upload-hungry clients such as security cameras will see no benefit.

tgl said:
In principle, a 2x2 AP can send to two different 1x1 clients concurrently

It can't do that. There is no MU-MIMO on 2.4GHz 802.11n.

How many IoT devices support AX on 2.4GHz with Beamforming (required) and MU-MIMO?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Internal antenna router

Hey,

I'm looking for a single unit router for a 2 floor house each floor of 150 sq.m (1600 sq ft)
The router will be line of sight, so external antennas does not fit in.

I've been looking at the Asus XD6 or D-Link M30 AQUILA PRO but I find it hard to compare to other routers as most reviews and forum posts recommend routers with external antennas.

Do you have any recommendations for an internal antenna router for a 1 gbps connection.

Thank you for any help

[Assistant]
The XD6 should be OK. If you plan on a mesh system the XT8 would be better with WIFI backhaul.
And, there is nothing wrong with internal antenna. Many routers have at least one internal antenna as well as external.

Alright, thank you for the response.

I just realized that I created this in the wrong sub forum. Any admin, feel free to move it to buying advice

Asus ZenWiFi XT8 works well in single router configuration. It's perhaps the most popular ZenWiFi series model around. Available in black and white.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Slow speed from AX210 to Asus RT88U Pro

This is my first post. Hello!
I have been pretty puzzled by the speed I am able to get from from Intel AX210 devices connected to an Asus RT-A88U Pro on the Wi-Fi 6 on 5Ghz band

To make the story short. I have a small server with 2.5Ghz wired connection to the Asus Router. The server is running iperf3 server
I put a laptop with AX210 right next to the router, verify on windows that the signal is optimal and the negotiated speed is 2400Mbps
Run iperf3 client and get ~550Mbps. If I use the parallel option I can go up to ~1.5Mbps
I put my pixel 6a right next to the router, verify on Android that the signal is optimal and the negotiated speed is 2400Mbps
Run iperf3 client and get ~1.35Gbps. If I use the parallel option I can go up to ~1.75Gbps

Why? What I am missing in the AX210? I tried other devices with AX200 and AX211 and it's the same ~550Mbps.

Thank you all.

EDIT: Retested and updated the numbers.

[Assistant]
rodja123 said:
What I am missing in the AX210?

Updated OEM driver?

OE

Hello!

I updated the driver and the results did not change. However, I did narrow down the problem to... Windows!

I booted my laptop with a Linux live image and I can get 1.3Gbps single thread and 1.7Gbps multithread.

Now the question is: why is the Windows single thread perf so low?

Try a different test. Microsoft recently published a post indicating that iperf was a bad way to test throughput with WIndows, in part because the current build of iperf is old and not optimized in any way for Win32. Try doing a large file copy over SMB for instance. My own AX210/AX211 had no issue giving me in the 1.5-2.0 Gb/s throughput when copying files, with the laptop running Windows 11.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Need Help with Home Network Setup Involving Ubiquiti Antennas and Tenda Router

Hello everyone,

I'm relatively new to networking and have been setting up a network across two apartments, about 30 meters apart, one on the street level and the other on the fifth floor. I've managed to establish a connection using Ubiquiti antennas (ground floor in access point mode, fifth floor with NanoStation M5 in station mode), which I'm proud to have accomplished mostly on my own. The antennas seem to be working fine now, with signal strengths around 57 dBm and Transmit CCQ consistently above 95%.

My current challenge is with the internet connectivity that runs fine for a couple of hours but then drops, and I cannot figure out why. My setup includes a Tenda F3 router on the fifth floor, connected via LAN from the Ubiquiti NanoStation M5. I've set a static IP for the Tenda router and tried configuring DNS and default gateway settings pointing to my main router on the ground floor, but still face intermittent internet issues. I usually manage to temporarily fix the issue by rebooting the antenna on the ground floor.

I've enjoyed the learning process and overcoming various setup challenges, but I'm currently stuck and would appreciate any guidance or suggestions you might have.

Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Hm, I know what a Nanostation M5 is, but what do you mean by an unspecified "antenna"? Antennas rarely do anything unless connected to a radio

Also, it's far from clear where you are seeing the problem. Do you have any devices directly wired to the main router, and if so are they seeing problems? Same question for the Tenda router. Also, I kind of wonder why you have a router on that side at all rather than just a dumb ethernet switch.

EDIT: oh, after looking up the Tenda I realize you're probably using it as a wifi AP for devices on the 5th floor, so scratch that question. But you need to lobotomize its router functionality and just run it as an AP. This will involve putting it into "bridge" or "access point" or some similarly-named mode.

madjb said:
using Ubiquiti antennas

You are using correctly AirMAX for the bridge, but this DFS channel may be disrupted by detected radar communications. Stick to available non-DFS channels instead. You can also try 20MHz wide channel. At this small distance you can get 100% signal quality with maximum throughput. It can do kilometers distance as a bridge.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Extend range for neighbours

I have Starlink for internet with an aftermarket router that has fixed antenna. I live year round at a seasonal resort and want to share my internet with a couple neighbours in the summer. I don't want to mess around with guest networks etc and end up being the help desk if they have internet problems. I would like to be able to just give them my password and if they get it they get it. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on hardware either to make this happen. Can I just buy a router with removable antenna and attach an external antenna to increase range?

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @billybarty.

Set up the Guest WiFi and nothing changes (if they get it, they get it). No support needs to be provided there either.

billybarty said:
I have Starlink for internet with an aftermarket router that has fixed antenna. I live year round at a seasonal resort and want to share my internet with a couple neighbours in the summer. I don't want to mess around with guest networks etc and end up being the help desk if they have internet problems. I would like to be able to just give them my password and if they get it they get it. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on hardware either to make this happen. Can I just buy a router with removable antenna and attach an external antenna to increase range?
Click to expand...

Keep in mind anything your neighbors do or anyone else on your connection you are responsible for. Are you willing to take that responsibility ?

Be much safer for you to set up a guest network for them , not much trouble to set up , after all who knows what kind of crap they have on their systems , don't want that polluting your network


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: WRT1900AC handshake issues?

Hello! Perhaps one of you will be my wireless network savior who knows I have a weird issue with my router (WRT1900AC) and some of my wifi appliances (Pixel 6, Garmin Watch). When I open an app over my wifi connection, it takes minutes to get an handshake or I simply get a timeout. The solution is to desactivate the wifi, go LTE and then go back to wifi and it works. Once connected, the wifi connection is good, speedtest are normal. It's been 2 years I got that issue but I always found a way to circumvent it. I thought it was the Pixel 6 so I made a full reinitialization last weekend and I still got the issue. If I use another mobile phone as hotspot, I don't have any issue, so I'm pretty sure the issue is with the Wifi. The issue is more important now that I got a Tesla and it takes ages to get connected to the car. Moreover, the Garmin Watch isn't able to connect to the wireless router anymore. Laptops connections are fine, no issues there. I'm running stock software on the WRT1900AC, lastest firmware, my next solution would be to install DDWRT or any other custom firmware. But I'm pretty sure it's a simple setting that mess everything up but I'm not enough wireless-savvy to know what could it be.

Settings :
Wireless speed : 5Ghz
Security : WPA2
Wifi mode : A/N only
Channel : 48 - 5.240ghz
Width : 40Mhz

Wired connections are correct and stable.

Any idea is welcome, I'm sure it's just a simple setting but I don't get it. Once connected, everything is fine, it's really the handshake part that takes too much time as which point it can timeout.

Thanks a lot!

[Assistant]
Mercador said:
Hello! Perhaps one of you will be my wireless network savior who knows I have a weird issue with my router (WRT1900AC) and some of my wifi appliances (Pixel 6, Garmin Watch). When I open an app over my wifi connection, it takes minutes to get an handshake or I simply get a timeout. The solution is to desactivate the wifi, go LTE and then go back to wifi and it works. Once connected, the wifi connection is good, speedtest are normal. It's been 2 years I got that issue but I always found a way to circumvent it. I thought it was the Pixel 6 so I made a full reinitialization last weekend and I still got the issue. If I use another mobile phone as hotspot, I don't have any issue, so I'm pretty sure the issue is with the Wifi. The issue is more important now that I got a Tesla and it takes ages to get connected to the car. Moreover, the Garmin Watch isn't able to connect to the wireless router anymore. Laptops connections are fine, no issues there. I'm running stock software on the WRT1900AC, lastest firmware, my next solution would be to install DDWRT or any other custom firmware. But I'm pretty sure it's a simple setting that mess everything up but I'm not enough wireless-savvy to know what could it be.

Settings :
Wireless speed : 5Ghz
Security : WPA2
Wifi mode : A/N only
Channel : 48 - 5.240ghz
Width : 40Mhz

Wired connections are correct and stable.

Any idea is welcome, I'm sure it's just a simple setting but I don't get it. Once connected, everything is fine, it's really the handshake part that takes too much time as which point it can timeout.

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Try changing the control channel to 36 or some other non DFS channel. Also if you have the option set bandwidth to 20/40/80 and see if that makes any difference and your wireless mode auto versus your current A/N setting.

On it. Also, Steam Deck is fine (linux). I wonder if it's the Pixel that have an issue with certain application. I tried a Pixel 7a and got the same issue; when configuring it, it said that the network is too slow to configure the mobile phone... The network is plenty fast.

Channel 36: no changes
Bandwidth : 20hz no changes
Wireless mode : Auto no changes


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Any 2230 m.2 wifi card that actually has usable 6 GHz?

Looking for help finding a 2230 m.2 wifi module that support WIFI 6e that is actually usable.

I was very hyped to jump into 6 GHz bands, got myself ASUS AXE16000 and was really bummed to realize that total of single device that I own can connect there reliably, which is my mobile phone.

Long before getting this quad-band router I got a bunch of Intel AX210 modules and replaced the cards in all laptops and desktop PCs that has wifi (lots of fun when you need to remove VRM heatsink to access vertical 2230 m.2 port to replace wifi card).

The problem that I have not anticipated was the regulatory domain database and Intel's firmware that does not trust what user specifies as region, instead it by itself somehow figures out region and then, only then, it enables the 6 GHz channels. The region that I live in do allow for indoor 6 GHz for whats it worth.

The problem is, I cannot get the 6 GHz bands to unlock (confirming with `iw reg get`) until I restart my route (axe16000), this does something that makes all the ax210 realize the region code and unlock bands. What it means is that I cannot have my PC use 6 GHz band because after it boots, it have country code set to 00 and until I reboot router, it does not update country code and does not let me use 6 GHz. I did not figured out what is the exact steps to force the Intel's ax210 firmware to check the region, perhaps it is that when APs it tries to connect to is unreachable it then does the magic, but this is so awfully unreliable.

So, do any of you actually any hint if there's on the market any 2230 m.2 module that has 6 GHz bands unlocked or at the very least is better than Intel ax210 at figuring out the region? I see the Qualcomm QCNFA765 is a thing but googling gives me absolute no answer whatever or not this card can do 6 GHz, all I could found were some random articles that this card works and does not underperform, some claims 6 GHz also works there but absolute no details of value there.

[Assistant]
I did use QCNFA765 (chipset should be WCN6856 or Fastconnect 6900) for over half year along with AXE11000 ; stable and very good performance in Wifi 6 & 6E(I can connect every 6G channel except channel 217) . However , since my country not allow indoor 6G yet , I have to modify this WIFI driver's registry after this M.2 adapter installed in laptop ; once registry was modified , I got 6G connection easily in few seconds of handshake process .

As for Intel adapter , I had tried 1690i and AX211 , these two adapters were hard to get 6G connection in my place , their Wifi 6 worked good though . No idea how to modify Intel's driver till now.........

0mk2 said:
The region that I live in do allow for indoor 6 GHz for whats it worth.

And...

What region is that?

Egg said:
I did use QCNFA765 (chipset should be WCN6856 or Fastconnect 6900) for over half year along with AXE11000 ; stable and very good performance in Wifi 6 & 6E(I can connect every 6G channel except channel 217) . However , since my country not allow indoor 6G yet , I have to modify this WIFI driver's registry after this M.2 adapter installed in laptop ; once registry was modified , I got 6G connection easily in few seconds of handshake process .

As for Intel adapter , I had tried 1690i and AX211 , these two adapters were hard to get 6G connection in my place , their Wifi 6 worked good though . No idea how to modify Intel's driver till now.........

Click to expand...
hi，Is there a tutorial on modifying the WiFi network card registry？


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Unifi 6 Wireless performance issues

Hi guys

I hope you are doing good.

We bought Unifi U6 Enterprise access point for about 200 devices connected to the access point. We have 600Mbps internet connection. We have 3 Unifi devices.

I have set separate SSID (2g-1, 2g-2, 2g-3, and 5g-1, 5g-2, 5g-3) for 2ghz and 5ghz. Each Unifi devices connected directly to network switch (Mikrotic) via cat7 cable.

The issue is when 50 devices are connected then internet is good (getting speed of around 150Mbps) but when 150+ devices are connected then internet becomes very slow. And some devices are also unable to connect to 2g and sometimes 5g.

Please suggest on how to improve performance, should I set manual channel width, on each device (2Ghz and 5Ghz). Should I set roaming which doesn't seem to help much. In future, more Unifi devices will be added. Please suggest or another solution if any.

Currently, i have set separate SSID due to the above issue. Unifi-1 has only SSID 5g-1 5GHz and another device 5g-2

Note: Not using meshing. U6 Enterprise device supports 600 connected devices but actually in reality it doesn't.

Thank you

[Assistant]
kashifmax said:
Note: Not using meshing. U6 Enterprise device supports 600 connected devices but actually in reality it doesn't.
I can't believe you actually thought marketing is correct. Nobody believes in marketing.

coxhaus said:
I can't believe you actually thought marketing is correct. Nobody believes in marketing.
First time experience really.

You have to think like a copy writer! So up to 200 devices means, maybe with the wind in the right direction and 199 of the 200 in sleep mode.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Windows HP laptop takes a long time to connect to Wi-Fi

Our HP Spectre often takes a long time to connect to the 5GHz Wi-Fi on the RT-AC68U. Everything is latest updates, not a new issue. If I just sit and wait it might take up to a few minutes after boot to connect. Sometimes, instead of waiting, I can restart the adapter and it will connect immediately. Every once in a while it will connect immediately at the log in screen as expected.

After connection there is no problem until the next reboot.

Wondering if there are settings on the router or the laptop that could make the connection faster and more reliable?

We also have a couple of NVIDIA Shields that seem to take more than a few seconds after being turned on (out of sleep, not booted). What makes this strange to me is that they seem to have an active connection all the time, so there shouldn't be any delay in connecting to net resources.

[Assistant]
I've seen this happening with RT-AC68U with newer clients. Some AC Wave 2 and AX connect only after Wi-Fi on/off. One such client is my own HP laptop. Keep in mind BCM4360 was an early AC Wave 1 radio that arrived with the first AC-class routers in 2012 and compliant with Draft specifications. I did play with settings, nothing helps. Newer products apparently are too far apart in technology. The same laptop connects instantly to my APs or to newer Asus routers. Perhaps another reason to replace RT-AC68U?

Swap WIFI card?

I recently acquired a Mediatek 6E card and its complete garbage next to an intel AX200/210. Very slow resume and has throughput accelerations issues on 5G band.

jasz said:
Swap WIFI card?

Unfortunately, with many modern laptops this is not possible. They are built like tablets with everything on single PCB or integrated into the SoC used.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Trying to confirm or dispel some rumors on .m2 Wifi 2230 cards

Hey all system info is a N7 B650E Premium board from NZXT. This is the AMD Platform.

7800X3D
Current wifi module is 6E

I recently got a wifi 7 router. The beast ASUS GT-BE98 Pro which so far is a really nice router. My system as I stated above is on a N7 B650E Premium board.
This board came with a 6E card on it but it also has a 2230 m2 slot that supports CNVIo. I was thinking of throwing an Intel 1750 Killer in there to take full advantage of Wifi 7. Now I've read the statements saying Intel's wifi 7 card do not support AMD. That has been the general statement out there. However while researching what I found was supposedly the reason it wasn't working on some of the boards was due to lack of CNVIo. Trying to confirm or dispel the information out there. I don't really want to go the PCie card route. I figured I would see if anyone on here has any experience with this.

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @jkr2k8.

The best is to simply buy these inexpensive parts and test in your own environment. If it doesn't work, return/resell the card.

Myself? I wouldn't put too much hope that it'll work, but I'm always happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Let us know how you make out.

jkr2k8 said:
CNVIo
Intel only.

MSI is selling a Qualcomm based 7 card for $50. The other option would be MTK or RTL. The Intel BE cards are still locked to lower bandwidth last time I checked.

Tech Junky said:
Intel only.

MSI is selling a Qualcomm based 7 card for $50. The other option would be MTK or RTL. The Intel BE cards are still locked to lower bandwidth last time I checked
I'm assuming you're talking 2230 not pcie.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: APIPA start range

Hi,
I have a serious question!
Why APIPA alway start with 169?
Why it doesn't start with 120 or 195 or something like that?
What is the matmatical purpose behind it?
Thanks

[Assistant]
This is the specific IP range of non routable to Internet addresses designated for this specific purpose of self assigning an IP with no DHCP available.

Tech9 said:
This is the specific IP range of non routable to Internet addresses designated for this specific purpose of self assigning an IP with no DHCP available.
Thanks for your information, but my teacher ask that question for all the students, he said if you answer it, you will get 2 Average marks in the Network.
He said what is the matmatical Purpose behind the 169 IP that chosen to be APIPA start range ?!
He said you can solve it with 2 step of multiply and divide?!
It has relation with something like 2⁸ subnet?

zhiyarrasuly said:
matmatical purpose

I don't know what "matmatical" is to begin with.

More information about APIPA here:
https://www.spiceworks.com/tech/networking/articles/what-is-apipa/


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Repeater setting requirements

Hi,
I hope that the community is doing well.

Recently I bought a Tenda router that has a repeater mode among other features. For easiness lets consider this scenario.

3 Tplink routers. SSID: CUP.

1 Tenda router. Set repeater mode and connected to CUP

For more coverage, same CUP SSID is set in Tenda.

Question. Will it effect the repeater mode. Or should I set different name in Tplink for repeater mode to work perfectly.

What is the best way. Advice needed.

Thank you

[Assistant]
kashifmax said:
Hi,
I hope that the community is doing well.

Recently I bought a Tenda router that has a repeater mode among other features. For easiness lets consider this scenario.

3 Tplink routers. SSID: CUP.

1 Tenda router. Set repeater mode and connected to CUP

For more coverage, same CUP SSID is set in Tenda.

Question. Will it effect the repeater mode. Or should I set different name in Tplink for repeater mode to work perfectly.

What is the best way. Advice needed.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Same SSID, most repeaters actually don't let you set a separate one, the ones that do are more advanced but there really isn't any reason to unless you want to force certain devices to only use one or the other.

drinkingbird said:
Same SSID, most repeaters actually don't let you set a separate one, the ones that do are more advanced but there really isn't any reason to unless you want to force certain devices to only use one or the other.
Thank you very much for your quick reply.
Yes you are correct. There are some routers that allow up to 2 or more different SSIDs for example Unifi pro.
So your advice is that same CUP SSID should be used across all routers and repeaters.
Thank you

kashifmax said:
Thank you very much for your quick reply.
Yes you are correct. There are some routers that allow up to 2 or more different SSIDs for example Unifi pro.
So your advice is that same CUP SSID should be used across all routers and repeaters.
Thank you

Most routers allow multiple SSIDs (main and guest, or in the case of high end ones like Unifi, as many of each kind as you want). Repeaters (or router in repeater mode) usually keep the SSID or allow you to add _EXT to it. Some do allow you to totally customize it.

But unless you have a reason to want them separate, just keep the same one. One case I did separate them was with someone's Blink camera system that needed an extender/repeater for one camera. We did not want anything else connecting to that extender, and since blink automatically allows SSID or SSID_EXT I put the _EXT on the repeater so only the blink camera would use it.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: QQ private protocol AND Kerberos

Having blocked QUIC , and this MAY be wholly unrelated, I now see on today's logs 685 MB "QQ private protocol" AND 1.15 GB of "Kerberos" Can someone please advise what those are ,and like QUIC , do they avoid Logging on the Router?.

We use 1 main ASUS Router and 1 Node ASUS Router. Maybe Kereberos is something to do with that ?.

ADDED: I now think that QQ Protocol is likely a VPN . Kerberos still don't know.

[Assistant]
whydoesmyhearthurtsomuch said:
I now see on today's logs

What exactly logs are you looking at?

QQ is a messaging platform and Kerberos is an authentication protocol. I don't know if someone in your family uses QQ, but for Kerberos in GB traffic most likely whatever generates the logs has issues identifying the traffic correctly. Why are you stressing yourself so much with this router and logs? That exactly do you want to "catch" there?

Tech9 said:
What exactly logs are you looking at?

QQ is a messaging platform and Kerberos is an authentication protocol. I don't know if someone in your family uses QQ, but for Kerberos in GB traffic most likely whatever generates the logs has issues identifying the traffic correctly. Why are you stressing yourself so much with this router and logs? That exactly do you want to "catch" there?
Click to expand...

Thanks and noted. To be honest I am not that experienced in routers and networks etc so was just concerned not having hackers on or anyone accessing stuff they shouldnt etc etc. Anyway I am not pretty much happy with it now and thanks for your advice.

whydoesmyhearthurtsomuch said:
concerned not having hackers
whydoesmyhearthurtsomuch said:
I am not that experienced in routers

Since majority of security issues originate from inside the LAN the worst "hacker" possible is someone with no experience playing with the router settings.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Hotel Internet slow, very slow

At hotel in NH, Hilton Homewood Suites. Internet was fine till yesterday and it slowed way down. I have aAX210 wifi adapter, Sager laptop.
Any help in fixing this slowdown. I think someone is streaming heavily, or it may be the personal wifi being genrated close by. Best speed is 1.5 Mbps

My data
SSID: Hilton Honors
Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Security type: Open
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
Driver version: 22.200.2.1
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 149
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 400/400 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::379:d1af:96da:f174%12
IPv4 address: 172.20.6.188
IPv4 DNS servers: 172.20.1.0 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC):

[Assistant]
You call the front desk and complain.
There's nothing you can do about it from the user side.

Steve40th said:
At hotel in NH, Hilton Homewood Suites. Internet was fine till yesterday and it slowed way down. I have aAX210 wifi adapter, Sager laptop.
Any help in fixing this slowdown. I think someone is streaming heavily, or it may be the personal wifi being genrated close by. Best speed is 1.5 Mbps
View attachment 58398
My data
SSID: Hilton Honors
Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Security type: Open
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
Driver version: 22.200.2.1
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 149
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 400/400 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::379:d1af:96da:f174%12
IPv4 address: 172.20.6.188
IPv4 DNS servers: 172.20.1.0 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC):
Click to expand...
Your chart is showing 2,4 Ghz channels. You might want to consider using a 2.4 channel but they aren't great. If this is the best you are getting for 2.4 Ghz likely the 5 Ghz is even worse.

Using a travel router sometimes can help. You can set it in a location where the best signal from the hotel is and then it will rebroadcast a stronger WiFi signal to the rest of your room. Look a GL-iNet makes great travel routers.

CaptainSTX said:
Your chart is showing 2,4 Ghz channels. You might want to consider using a 2.4 channel but they aren't great. If this is the best you are getting for 2.4 Ghz likely the 5 Ghz is even worse.

Using a travel router sometimes can help. You can set it in a location where the best signal from the hotel is and then it will rebroadcast a stronger WiFi signal to the rest of your room. Look a GL-iNet makes great travel routers.
Click to expand...
Thnx, I will look into going straight 2.4ghz, and the GL-inet gear. Does it just buffer up a good amount of data then send it, or just boost up the level of the signal it receives. Can't exactly put it in the hallway, lol


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Nominal WiFi Speeds

In what circumstances do people get real-world wifi speeds that approach the theoretical maximums implied by the various product names (e.g. AX5400)? I am upgrading my home's wifi 5 multi-AP system (Omada), and while I am getting improved performance, it's coming nowhere near where I would hope, given its advertised speed.

Old: AC1350 (EAP225) - I got ~350-400mbps on a single client.
New: AX5400 (EAP670) - I'm getting ~650-750mbps on a single client.

Are those speeds typical? Should I expect better? Is this just a fact of life, given that my house has...y'know...walls? Would I get similar results with a "slower" set of APs (eg ax3000)? Or should I just return everything and stick with my wifi 5 APs, which were working fine.

[Assistant]
feelyat said:
Old: AC1350 (EAP225) - I got ~350-400mbps on a single client.
New: AX5400 (EAP670) - I'm getting ~650-750mbps on a single client.

This is about right for AX class client. Translated to everyday user experience - perhaps you'll notice no difference. Your credit card will show current balance difference.

feelyat said:
Would I get similar results with a "slower" set of APs (eg ax3000)?

Yes, the speeds will be about the same to the same clients. Your credit card will show less current balance difference. If your Wi-Fi 5 APs do what you need - keep them.

feelyat said:
Are those speeds typical?

Most common clients and speeds:

AC 1-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 433Mbps, throughput up to about 350Mbps
AC 2-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 866Mbps, throughput up to about 600Mbps
AX 2-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 1200Mbps, throughput up to about 850Mbps
AX 2-stream, 160MHz - link speed up to 2400Mbps, throughput up to about 1700Mbps

160MHz wide channel is not guaranteed to work and not a good idea for multi-AP system.

Tech9 said:
Most common clients and speeds:

AC 1-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 433Mbps, throughput up to about 350Mbps
AC 2-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 866Mbps, throughput up to about 600Mbps
AX 2-stream, 80MHz - link speed up to 1200Mbps, throughput up to about 850Mbps
AX 2-stream, 160MHz - link speed up to 2400Mbps, throughput up to about 1700Mbps

160MHz wide channel is not guaranteed to work and not a good idea for multi-AP system.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Why is that information so hard to find?

If your Wi-Fi 5 APs do what you need - keep them.

Yeah, that was my initial position. Given that I have 1gbps fiber WAN, I think I'm going to go ahead with the upgrade to AX, with one of the more compact APs, just to get the most out of the service. It's hard to argue that it's a compelling upgrade, though, since most of my wireless devices don't really get a huge benefit from the extra bandwidth.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Netgear Orbi RBK 852 Help

I have the Netgear Orbi RBK 852 Router. It comes with 1 RBR 852 and 1 RBS 850. I have various issues. From slower speeds to frequent disconnects. I first got the router in 2020. I had SpaceX Starlink as my ISP at that time. Just about a year ago our small town got 1 gbps fiber. Worked great with the Orbi at first. After a few months I noticed the ping went up and the download and upload speed went down a bit. I think my house was one of the first in my neighborhood to get hooked up so perhaps that’s why it was so great in the beginning. I know nothing about all this stuff. I’m disabled and in poor health. The internet is really my only window to the world. I just want my speed to be as fast as it can be. I need help trying to diagnose my issues. My modem is a Calix 803G. If that helps.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
The Orbi 850 series just had a new firmware release not long ago. Log into the Orbi app and run a firmware check. If no new firmware is available power down the Orbi for 2 full minutes then start by powering the router back on first once that’s up then put power back to the satellite Orbi and wait for the LED to turn blue. See if that helps. Orbi’s can be very temperamental at times.

PureSpeed said:
The Orbi 850 series just had a new firmware release not long ago. Log into the Orbi app and run a firmware check. If no new firmware is available power down the Orbi for 2 full minutes then start by powering the router back on first once that’s up then put power back to the satellite Orbi and wait for the LED to turn blue. See if that helps. Orbi’s can be very temperamental at times.
Unfortunately I’ve done all of this. At the beginning of each month I always power cycle all of it. I unplug my ONT from the wall outlet, unplug Orbi router from surge protector, unplug satellite unit from surge protector and I also unplug my un managed Ethernet switch. I wait about 1-2 minutes. I then plug the ONT back in… I then wait for the lights to all come on solid geeen. Once that’s done I start by plugging the Orbi router back in. I let it start up completely. It blinks on and off white for a bit and then it kinda pulses. Kinda like the white at the bottom fades in and out and eventually it stops doing that and is just shows no night. I figure it’s connected by that point. Then I plug in the satellite and let it start up completely until it stops showing the white light too. Finally I plug the unmanaged switch back in. That’s all I do. For some reason, when I first got fiber, it was insanely fast! Now not as much. IDK what the deal is. I’d buy a new and better router but the reason I went with mesh is to have consistant Wi-Fi throughout the house. Which I do. It is just slower than this time last year. Also, at the time… this Orbi got great reviews. If I were to go with a regular router I’d probably have dead spots again. I know that you can hard wire AP’s to the router and it’s supposed to help but I live with my grandma. She’s 90 years old and has foebidden me from connecting an Ethernet cable to the main Orbi router and dropping it down through the floor of the room the router is in, running it all the way across the basement and up through the floor in our dining room where my satellite is to hook it via an Ethernet cable. I asked her about using the MoCa setup and she said she took our old co-ax we once had out completely. Disconnected it and everything. I have a hookup in my room I think but that’s where the main Orbi is. No point in that now.

as long as there is coax outside of the house you could easily run a couple coax cables and go the moca route


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: WiFi 7 has been certified.

Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7™ | Wi-Fi Alliance
www.wi-fi.org

For what?

[Assistant]
Official 802.11be IEEE Task Group timeline is here.
IEEE P802.11 - TASK GROUP BE (EHT) - GROUP INFORMATION UPDATE

Depending on which milestone you choose, certification looks like Sept or Dec 2024

thiggins said:
Official 802.11be IEEE Task Group timeline is here.
IEEE P802.11 - TASK GROUP BE (EHT) - GROUP INFORMATION UPDATE

Depending on which milestone you choose, certification looks like Sept or Dec 2024
I wonder if that will be too late for the iPhone 16 next year? I was thinking about buying a new iPhone but I was going to wait and not buy the 15 hoping to get better WI-Fi support in later hardware.

coxhaus said:
I wonder if that will be too late for the iPhone 16 next year? I was thinking about buying a new iPhone but I was going to wait and not buy the 15 hoping to get better WI-Fi support in later hardware.
In the past, Apple has gone slow in bringing new Wi-Fi standards into its products.
I really don't know what practical benefit you'd get from 7 in a phone.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Lenovo notebooks connect to 802.11g only instead of 802.11n

I bought a used Thinkpad P52 with an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9560 WiFi card. Windows 11 Professional 64 bit 23H2 is installed. The latest Intel driver 23.30.0.6 from Lenovo support is installed for the card.
WiFi works via an LTE router Speedport LTE II 2.4GHz (300Mbps), with a Telekom SIM with max. 50Mbps download speed.
The WiFi settings on the router are 802.11a/g/n, 802.11n bandwidth 20/40MHz, WPA2-PSK, AES.

My old HP Pavilion notebook with a Realtek WiFi module and two Android cell phones connect with 802.11n mode and I always get 40-50Mbps download speed.
However, the P52 only connects with 802.11g (54Mbps) and struggles to reach 20Mbps, no matter how I configure the adapter settings. Removing the driver, restarting, reinstalling - nothing helped.

Before the P52 I bought a T570 with a AC 8265 Wifi card which had the same issue. Neither in the Intel nor in the Lenovo forum there was found a solution for this issue. I sent the T570 back to the seller because I thought there might be a hardware failure. Now the P52 from a different seller has the same issue so that I don't think it is a hardware failure but an issue with the Intel Wifi cards in Lenovo notebooks.

Attached is a network report created with the Intel System Support Utility. (Changing the setting IEEE11nMode:Wireless-Modus 802.11n/ac:"3. 802.11ac (2)" to  802.11n doesn't make a change.)

[Assistant]
Have you tried removing the driver completely, rebooting, and installing the latest Lenovo driver, rebooting again ?
Disable the hardware first, then uninstall, etc.

degrub said:
Have you tried removing the driver completely, rebooting, and installing the latest Lenovo driver, rebooting again ?
Disable the hardware first, then uninstall, etc.
Thank you for your answer. Yes, I did that also. (Added this to the OP.)

You can also see if that machine was allowed to run Linux on the Lenovo support site. Each family of machines has a tech sheet that lists all the variants including OS options. If it does, try running a "Live" version of Linux ( do not install) and see if it detects the wifi card correctly and connects as N instead of just G. Then you will know it is not a hardware issue. Even if one of the Linux distributions is not listed you can try Ubuntu or another live distro anyway.

Have you tried your router with a/g/n turned off and only N turned on ? Keep the router on 20/40 bands only. Only increase the width if that works. The wireless environment may not allow higher because of interference from nearby or interior reflections.
i would do that first.

Also, do you have direct line of sight on the AP/Router when testing wifi ? Preferably within 10-20 ft ?

It may be that the card is locking onto G because that is the most stable.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: diy antenna for home, wireless help a very newbie, just signed up

ilding a connifer antenna from the old galaxcy ones,want to pick up local signals or hot spots or access points, have a couple linkskys router and cable gateway coming what plug oronnection do i hook the antenna to,rpsma,cable plug coax, or into the plugin jack that says internet,will the external antenna work bothways, collect signals in and send out

[Assistant]
Your keyboard is broken. I don't understand what you are trying to say or ask.

building a conifer antenna,,im going through cancer treatments, have hardly no feeling in hands and fingers, thanks for responding so fast

Modifying Conifer Antennas for Wireless Networking

OE


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Synology RT2600ac and WPS

Following the instructions for my RT2600ac, I went to Wi Fi Settings > WiFi Connect > WPS and set it to use WPS to connect the smartphones of our guests to the guest_lan I configured.

I then took my wife's iPhone, and after tapping the WPS button on the Synology router and seeing that button was blinking, on the iPhone I navigated to Settings > WiFi > our guest_lan > Join This Network. No password was entered and after two minutes the WPS button stopped blinking.

Next I opened the SRM in my browser, logged onto the router, went to Wi Fi Settings > WiFi Connect > WPS and saw [Connection Status Ready]. I tapped the WPS button on the router again, saw it was blinking, looked at the browser and saw [Ready] had changed to [Connecting], but again, the iPhone will not connect.

The Synology instructions do say [Tap the WPS button on your client device] but of course there is no such button on an iPhone.

Any suggestions?

[Assistant]
Not enabling WPS on modern iPhones is an active choice Apple has made. It's not a fault on your router! Thanks to its insecurity WPS is usually best turned off!

Crimliar said:
Not enabling WPS on modern iPhones is an active choice Apple has made. It's not a fault on your router! Thanks to its insecurity WPS is usually best turned off!
BINGO! And there's the answer. Many thanks, Justin

If you use the "DS Router" app on your phone, you can generate a QR code to share with trusted devices...

WPS, as mentioned, isn't the best way to set up wireless connections...

Oddly enough, Synology requires WPS to be enabled on the root/host routers for their mesh implementation - by hitting that WPS button, you can knock the mesh nodes offline...

Also note, across IOS, sharing WiFi passwords is actually pretty easy....

Try sharing your password - Apple Support
Friends and family can share passwords between their iOS devices.
support.apple.com


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Troubles w/Rosewill RNX-N300RT As Wifi/Ethernet Bridge

Hello and thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this...

I need to replace the old Asus RTN-10 that I have been running w/Tomato as my Wifi/Ethernet Bridge because it is sometimes acting funky...

I have an old but far less used Rosewill RNX-N300RT on which I have installed DD-WRT v3.0-r55630 std (04/03/24) for the TP-Link TL-WR841ND v7 - which appears to be compatible and has worked fine for other things in the past.

I have followed the instructions at this tutorial to the best of my ability. When things did not go quite as planned (see below), I also tried this one and got what seems to be about the same results.

Here is what happens... I have tried this several times...

After rebooting the router upon completion of the tutorial, I find that my connected Windows PC always ends up with a viable, ethernet connection to my main router via the bridge (I see the Rosewill's router name). And Windows even says that there is internet available on that connection. So far, so good!

I can then actually use my browser, email, etc for perhaps 2-4 minutes (certainly no more than 5 minutes) without any problems. I can run speed tests and actually see faster results than with the old Asus/Tomato bridge.

But after that brief interval, internet connectivity simply disappears (although Windows still reports internet available). I can reach the bridge and maybe even the main router in my browser. But I can do nothing else. Pings, emails, web pages, etc - nothing works. They just time out with errors.

I feel that I am on the very cusp of a working replacement for the old Asus device. But I am missing something here.

Thanks

[Assistant]
To be honest, you've got old hardware that is likely beyond the use-by date...

A quick google search turns up OpenWRT deprecating this device for having insufficient storage. I think there are at least two explanations for what you're seeing: device is running out of RAM after a few minutes' operation, or it's overheating. Either way, I doubt it's worth putting effort into. Buy something a tad newer and beefier.

Thanks to all. I agree that it IS OLD. But it has seen very little use. Funny that it seems to work just fine as a plain, old router. I like to try and keep stuff outta the landfill. But this may be a case where I cannot...


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Home / small biz wireless network advice

I have a home/small home biz networking architecture that's grown into a franken network over the years.

So here's the basic user story/requirements/need:
We have a large family with a requisite large three story home with many iot and mobile devices (over 80 or so) distributed over the house. I and the wife both often work from home and we are frequently on video calls. I used to host servers in the house for work and fun (e.g. minecraft for the kids) but have moved most of that to cloud services. Overall, I'd things to be simple, if possible. No managed services or consoles needed with one exception below.

In terms of how things are set up, I have pfsense acting as the firewall and the main router. Most of the permanent fixtures (printers, tv, chromecast audio, etc.) are given static routes. There are 3 access points, the engenius being the 'business' and the ac86u being the main 'home' although I haven't partitioned things beyond that. There are no vlans. Each AP has their own distinct ssid - auto negotiation hasn't been a requirement although I might be talked into it. The only new feature that I'm strongly considering is better network mgmt administration so I can control my kid's network access. The basement router is there for streaming video in our entertainment room to the FireTV as the signal strength wasn't quite strong enough. Luckily, the home is wired with ethernet and there are plenty of drops throughout.

So... if you were me and you were starting fresh now in 2024, what wireless architecture would you use? Mesh? APs? I assume we should consolidate to one vendor, but which? Asus for aimesh?

Attached is a simple diagram of the network.

Much appreciated!

[Assistant]
Cheekymonkey said:
The only new feature that I'm strongly considering is better network mgmt administration so I can control my kid's network access.

You have to recreate on your pfSense firewall the Parental Control rules you want to implement. There is no built-in Parental Controls on a business oriented router OS. You can do application filtering, IP-blocking, DNS-blocking, DNS interception, etc. For VLAN network segmentation you need APs with VLAN support. Your home routers used as APs don't have it, unless you can script it yourself. Perhaps a home "mesh" product like Nest, eero, Deco, Orbi, AiMesh, etc. will be easier for you and more cost efficient?

If you are used to pfsense and like it, do not move off that. Nothing you can find in the consumer space is anywhere near as good, or as stable, for router and firewall functionality (I've been through Orbi, AIMesh, UniFi, and more). However, replacing your wireless APs behind the router could be worth doing. Do not even think about mesh; if you have ethernet drops where you want to put APs, you are miles ahead already. Independent APs are fine unless you notice problems when roaming around the house.

For the specific task of limiting your kid's network access, can you do it with firewall rules on pfsense, or were you hoping for something higher-level? I don't know too much about what's good in that area.

The easiest to do is DNS interception and redirection to upstream filtering DNS like Cleanbrowsing plus blocking avoidance Proxy/VPN/DoH/DoT/DoQ. Should be good enough and can be done per client. The issue - no control if the kid's personal devices have access to mobile network. One click and all local network filters are gone.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Is it a good or bad idea to split SSIDS?

What's the latest thinking on splitting SSIDs between 2.4 & 5GHz frequencies? I have around 30 smart switches, lights & other home automation devices which need a 2.4GHz connection and have set them up with the router in 2.4GHz mode only then turned on 5GHz again once they are connected. Are there any advantages to keeping the 2.4GHz frequency as a separate SSID or is it best to let each device decide which is the fastest connection using a shared SSID?

[Assistant]
With a modern router there is no real advantage to using different SSID's. I got away from that several years ago and have had no issues. Yes, your milage may vary and there are still diehards who insist on using different SSID's. Let the router and clients decide which band, channel and bandwidth to use. You have better things to do besides messing with router settings..

I moved to split SSIDs recently because my IoTs are really sensitive to needing 2.4 band on setup. No real difference in performance as far as I can tell…

If you want full control of your network, want to have the easiest time when troubleshooting as needed, and want each device to be connected to the band that gives the entire network a performance boost, split the SSIDs.

'Auto' on a router is a good way to quick frustration. And a single SSID on consumer routers is just another form of dumbed-downed 'auto'.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Solved avoid wireless interference between 2 routers

Hi im i only have basic understanding of wifi and setting up home networks.

I have a small restaurant / bar and have 2 ISP.

Both wifi routers are close together i have no choice due to space limitation.
I have set the routers wifi to different channels and mhz as follows

Router A 5g network CH 149 Mhz 80
2,4g network Auto

Router B 5g network CH 36 Mhz 40
2,4g network CH 11 Mhz 20

my question is using the above settings will it prevent interference between the networks?

[Assistant]
Set Router A 2.4GHz channel to 1 or 6 @ 20MHz and you should be OK. Try and keep as much distance as you can between both routers.

How close is "close"? These channel settings are OK, but it's widely considered a bad idea to put wifi transmitters within a foot or two of each other, regardless of their channel settings.

tgl said:
but it's widely considered a bad idea to put wifi transmitters within a foot or two

How far apart are radios and antennas in tri-band routers with split 5GHz band, for example?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Solved Mysterious Netgear signal

I have Asus GT-AX6000 router. When I run WiFi analyzer it shows Netgear on 2.4GHz n. Very strong signal from within house and when I change the 2.4GHz channel on Asus router it changes to that channel too. I don't have any Netgear devices to my knowledge, what could this be?

[Assistant] Apparently the Arlo security base station is a Netgear device.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Cisco looking to the future for Wireless.

I came across this Cisco video on Cisco plans to use AI to make a better experience for the user.
MSN

[Assistant] AI and networking. Not a better experience for the user, at all.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: POssibility to turn single TP-link EAP225 access point off during night time, site is Omada OC-200 managed

Hej everyone, after having gotten advice here a couple of years ago, just before Covid hit big time, I purchased 4 TP-Link EAP225's with an OC-200 Omada controller. This system is very reliable and I use it with great pleasure.
Now I have found the possibiity on single accesspoint interfaces to turn off the radio during night-time, but via the controller I can only turn the whole site (all 4 AP's) off for a specified time.
Does anyone know if there is a possibility to turn off the radio of a single AP during a specified time-range? I've googled and searched for quite a long time and did not find an obvious answer. I do know that I could program this in a switch, but this AP is not connected to a managed one, so it would require me to purchase a managed switch, which I'm not inclined to do if not necessary.
Thanks in advance for thinking along!

[Assistant]
Can't you log in to the AP directly and establish a couple of cron jobs?

Okay, that's the "web" interface. If you can set up cron jobs that way, then try "forget"ing the AP, set them up, then re"remember" it. Maybe they'll "stick."

I'd try SSHing into the AP and command-line the cron jobs as a first attempt in any event.

Hmm while the plan does sound good I'm not sure if I'm knowledgeable enough to achieve this. Thanks for the tip though


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Looking for India WiFi Router source

Hi folks, my company is looking to buy bulk WiFi routers in India and while searching for suppliers, I stumbled upon this thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/american-made-routers-and-access-points.85420. Can anyone recommend some good manufacturers in Taiwan, Vietnam, or India? Not looking for the big/popular names - would prefer small or medium-sized manufacturers.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @flan_.

Wrong forums.

Search the web for those small/medium manufacturers you're interested in.

flan_ said:
Hi folks, my company is looking to buy bulk WiFi routers in India and while searching for suppliers, I stumbled upon this thread. Can anyone recommend some good manufacturers in Taiwan, Vietnam, or India? Not looking for the big/popular names - would prefer small or medium-sized manufacturers.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Send me a PM with a few more specifics and I might be able to point you in the right direction.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Solved Wireless Scheduler on TP-Link EAP110

Are you familiar with TP-Link's UI for these access points?

I would like to set up a schedule to (for example) turn off the AP's radio from 9pm to 7am. The interface is a tad un-obvious. It seems easy enough to enable the scheduler, create and modify a profile, associate it to the desired SSID, and define it as a "Radio OFF" event (see image below), however:

I can't enter (for example) a start time of 21:00 and an end time of 07:00. The interface gives an error, telling me that the end time must be greater than the start time. In the image, you can see that I can set up a "Radio ON" schedule from 7am to 9pm. The radio's initial condition is the ON state, of course, so I'm not sure this will work - guess I can find out soon!

Spoiler: Wireless>Scheduler>top of page

Spoiler: Wireless>Scheduler>bottom of pg

Does the scheduler only associate and run one profile? For example if I create two "Radio OFF" events to satisfy the UI's requirement
that (end time > start time), I could create one from 9pm to midnight (23:59) and one from midnight to 07:00. (I don't like the one-minute gap, but...)

Or does this work 'the other way?' Can I disable the radio on the "Wireless Settings" page and set a "Radio ON" event from 07:00 to 21:00? Does the scheduler override the radio checkbox setting on "Wireless Settings" page?

Spoiler: Wireless>Wireless Settings

Thanks for the insight.

In case it's helpful, firmware version is shown here...

Spoiler: Device Info

[Assistant] Did a test, of course. It appears that, if you create a "Radio ON" event in the scheduler, the radio turns OFF when the event time window expires, so doing this is as simple as entering the ON event- no OFF event needed.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Cisco WAP571 all choose the same channels

I've got 3 Cisco WAP571 AP''s running configured as single point setup. This also enables channel management. Where i always have been thought to avoid overlapping channels, the WAP channel management chooses the same channel (6) for 2.4GHz and (36) for 5GHz for all 3 AP's. Is this ok?

[Assistant]
I always run separate channels on wireless APs. Auto channel selection is different from single point setup. I guess it could be your neighbors effecting your channels. You need to scan using like Inssider Wi-Fi software and figure out your channels around you. Then you can lock the channels for the best through put around you. 5 GHz can be your friend because is does not go far.

So turn off your wireless and scan the channels around. Turn on 1 wireless assign your channels and get it working. Now scan again check channels figure out the best channels assign the best channels to the next wireless AP. Then scan again and assign the best channels. This will cover 3 Aps. Lock the channels once you figure it out. Scan channels from the location where the AP is located. It can be different from one side of the house to the other with neighbors.

For 2.4 GHz I would use 1,6,11 channels. Figure out where they would work best in your house based on neighbor's channels. Once you go to all this work make sure you lock them.

If you have to setup blind without scanning software then use channels 1,6 and 11 each. Pick one channel and assign it to one of your Cisco WAP571 APs each. Do the same with the 5 GHz channels. This will get you started. It may not be the best but it will work. Lock channels of course.

Did you get this fixed? Interested minds want to know.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Changing the DNS entries delivered by DHCP on a Velop 4200 mesh system

My Cuz bought a new Velop system a couple months back and his whole household is complaining about the new crappy internet. We tracked the issue to DNS not being available on and off. The sys defaults to using itself as a DNS Proxy. So DHCP is giving out the gateway address as the DNS server IP. I want to change it two a couple entries that I have found always work. 8888 and 8844 in dotted decmil notation. But he cannot find an entry for that. We found what I think is the routers dns entrys and changed it. Did not get propaged to the clients, released, renewed and reboots all of them and the router. So my guess is there is a place under the DHCP interface but he cannot find it. Linksys offshore was pretty useless and solved nothing. So I am here, anyone using a Velop? Is the DNS Entries for DHCP leases hidden? Or what am I missing. It seems like its managed from the cloud so I had him logon local to the router. We do see the router dns has been changed to the four eights.. just not getting in the leases... -Bill

[Assistant]
Here:

Configuring the DNS Settings of your Linksys Mesh system
Configuring the DNS Settings of your Linksys Mesh system
www.linksys.com

DHCP providing router's IP as DNS is normal. Use OpenDNS, Cloudflare or Quad9 filtering DNS services. At least some malware protection.

It might be normal, but it doesnt work well and its not wanted. Are you trying to say it cannot be changed on a Velop?
Tech9 said:
Here:

Configuring the DNS Settings of your Linksys Mesh system
Configuring the DNS Settings of your Linksys Mesh system
www.linksys.com

DHCP providing router's IP as DNS is normal. Use OpenDNS, Cloudflare or Quad9 filtering DNS services. At least some malware protection.
Click to expand...

BigBillsd said:
It might be normal, but it doesnt work well and its not wanted.

It works perfectly. The issue your Cuz has is somewhere else. All home routers advertise default gateway as DNS, including Asus and Netgear - the routers most discussions are about on this forum. Linksys community support forum is here (they will tell you the same):

LinksysInfo.org
Discussion board of 3rd Party firmwares for ASUS, Linksys, Netgear, and other WiFi Routers.
www.linksysinfo.org

Test what DNS servers are in use here:

DNS Leak Test
The DNS Leak Test is a tool used to determine which DNS servers your browser is using to resolve domain names. This test attempts to resolve 50 randomly generated domain names, of which 25 are IPv4-only and 25 are IPv6-only.
browserleaks.com


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Asus's Trend Micro or Synology's Threat Protection

which one more safety to the home family?

[Assistant]
Both are signature based. Both decrease WAN-LAN performance depending on hardware capabilities. AiProtection needs data sharing agreement with Trend Micro before activating. Threat Protection is an App available in SRM, has to be downloaded, writes stats on USB media, more flexible (own rules, per device, etc.) and with more often updated signatures, but less user friendly. I have one Synology router in use, but not running Threat Prevention on it. Many users around with Asus routers run AiProtection and are happy with it. It's more user friendly, basically on/off for the entire network. Some users express privacy concerns with Trend Micro.

Which one is more safe? - No answer to this question, perhaps neither. Both won't see encrypted traffic and if the users are careless - won't do much to protect them.

If you ask about which AIO router vendor to go with - my personal opinion and experience is Synology. Perhaps more expensive, but with better software. YMMV as usual.

Tech9 said:
If you ask about which AIO router vendor to go with - my personal opinion and experience is Synology. Perhaps more expensive, but with better software. YMMV as usual.

quick note on Synology - if one uses threat protection, better to use a USB drive to store the logs - I've heard TP burning out the internal eMMC's on the RT2600's in short order and bricking the router...

I'm running an RT6600ax, but not running TP


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Surprising results in new setup

I was playing with our network setup last weekend and tried a new configuration that yielded some mildly surprising improvements. While minor, the changes are a reduction in latency 6ms to 3ms on most tests and a Waveform bufferbloat score of A+ instead of an A ( latency under load essentially now remains 0 when it used to be 14ms under load)…

- prior set up was Fios ONT to ASUS AX86u running Merlin in a mesh with an AX 92u and a AC 1900p. A good setup overall, worked well…
- new setup has TPlink ax 4400 with Wi-Fi turned off serving as the router and connected directly into the Fios ONT and the ASUS routers forming a mesh in the same locations as before.

i know it’s not an apples to apples comparison, but I’m wondering might might account for the improvement. I’m guessing the TP link has a simpler firmware and with the Wi-Fi being off may allow the hardware to more easily handle the routing function? in both instances I was using the qos feature available in the firmware and set Cloudflare as the dns server.

[Assistant]
I think TPLink QOS is better than Asus one.. maybe it is near to Simple Queue Management (SQM) like in enterprise router

There is no much information about Archer AX4400 hardware. Perhaps it has better QoS implementation indeed.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Tutorial Installing a AX210 Windows 10 Driver that works

NOTE: As of 24 February, Intel has updated its installer to include the 22.30.0.11 driver. So the instructions are greatly simplified.

I just went through installing a working Windows 10 driver for the Intel AX210. With credit and thanks to @avtella for his initial posts, I found a few details lacking. So here are the steps I followed. I've copied some of this from the posts starting here.

First thing you need to do is make sure your Windows 10 is running version 2004 (aka May 2020 update) or higher. I installed the latest as of this writing, Version 20H2 (aka October 2020 update).

You need this for Windows to support Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE). That is one of the two methods supported (WPA3 is the other) for wireless authentication on 6 GHz for the ASUS GT-AXE11000.

If you have installed the correct version of Windows 10, you can verify that OWE is supported by opening a command window and entering netsh wlan show drivers. You should see a result like this one:
1) Download and install the latest Intel Windows 10 Wi-Fi Driver package https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/30208/Windows-10-Wi-Fi-Drivers-for-Intel-Wireless-Adapters

2) When the driver installation is done, you will be prompted to reboot. After reboot, go back to the Network Properties Driver screen and verify that the driver version is 22.30.0.11.

3) Now do the registry edit:
a) Open RegEdit
b) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
c) Under it open SYSTEM
d) Under that open ControlSet001 or ControlSet
e) Under it open Control
f) Under that open Class
g) Then find the key that contains Class Net. The key ID varies by system.
Note: I found it helpful to click on the Class folder and enter Control+F to open the Find window. Then enter "Net" in the Find field, check only the Data box under "Look at" and check "Match whole string only"
h) In the Net Class folder, you should see many folders, numbered 0000, 0001, etc. To find the one you want, right-click on the Net Class folder you found in step g), select Find Value and search for "Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz"
i) Add the DWORD Is6GhzBandSupported with value 1

4) Close the registry editor and reboot the system.

Please let me know if you find any errors in this procedure. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Thanks for making corrections, much better, I see no errors above. I didn't realize people had the AX210 model key in something other than 001, so my apologies for that.

Thanks. The Net class looks like it holds all the network connections. So it takes a little looking to find the right one!
Now I just have to see if it works when I get the router tomorrow!

Once I updated to Windows 20H2 (aka 2020 October update), OWE was enabled and I could connect to the GT-AXE11000.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Apple 6ghz limited compatibility message

I am planning to upgrade to wifi 6e/7 in the near future and my current setup is a main router connected to two access points (not a mesh setup), all bands with different SSID and with Iphones/Ipads/homepods and many other homekit devices connected to them. I use dfferent ssids because i wanted to know exactly what device is connected to which access point and to what band. The setup works flawnessly so far. If I were to switch to a wifi 6E router (the main router only with ipads and iphones on the 6ghz band), do i have to use the same ssid for all the 6/5/2.4 bands or I will be fine by just naming the 6ghz and 2.4ghz with the same ssid? Does all bands of the other 2 access points needed to be named the same ssid too? How does this work? Do not want that “limited compatibility“ message to appear.. Thx

[Assistant]
If you are tri-band with Apple gear - common SSID/auth should be fine...

6GHz requires WPA3 - 2.4/5GHz can do WPA2 and WPA2/3...

It's when the 2.4/5GHz radios use WPA2 is when you get this alert/scare page when also having 6GHz present.

If the 'near future' to you is less than when WiFi 7 Gen 2 routers get released, tested, and recommended (widely), my recommendation is don't.

Don't take down a working setup. Don't jump on WiFi 7 Gen 1 hardware. Don't expect things to work flawlessly with Apple (at least, not initially and for a long time afterward).

Use what you have working and keep saving your money right now. If things are working flawlessly so far, what is your rush to spend money needlessly 'soon'?

Ture! That why I am planing to upgrade to 6E and that’s is it. Do not need the speed of WiFi 7 anyways


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Security wifi print question-Really trying to up my safety

I have been wondering if I should be printing bank documents to my wireless printer. I have the printer's admin secured with a password I created. This printer is on my main home 5G network.
I am wondering whether I Should plug it directly via usb, but that would require some long usb cabling.

For that matter, i question if connecting to my bank online via wifi is safe? Someone told me never use wireless computer even on home network to check banking. I should only use wired or cellular.
I can convert my mac to a MOCA connection to make it wired. I don't have ethernet run into that are of the house. Would MOCA be secure? I do have POE filter on my incoming coax.

[Assistant]
Banking sites today are highly secure and I would say the old cautionary rules no longer apply.

curlyimac said:
I have been wondering if I should be printing bank documents to my wireless printer.
That should be fine for most "home" printers. It might be a concern if you were using a printer that has it's own print server that could retain and reprint documents. These sorts of printer are normally only found in commercial environments.

curlyimac said:
For that matter, i question if connecting to my bank online via wifi is safe?
That's also fine if you're connecting to your home router. Your Wi-Fi connection to the router is encrypted as is the connection between your client and the bank. It might be a concern if you were connecting to someone else's Wi-Fi.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: WiFi wireless vs cellular data 4g lte or 5g

Will WiFi wireless always be superior in this aspect? As long as you’re not really far away from the main routers or ap?

Mostly talking about a stable connection and being able to do personal video streaming (Plex or Emby not YouTube or Netflix) without any buffering at all.

It seems like to me Plex or Emby always buffers, even if only a little, over 4g lte or 5g

[Assistant]
With WiFI, you have the considerations of course with range to the AP perhaps, but also the upstream broadband connection.

That being said, on travel, I have had better luck with 4G/5G having better service than the Hotel's WiFi...

The answer to the question is either "it depends" or "42".


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: sniffing wireless traffic

I'm on a wired Windows PC sniffing net traffic with tcpdump or Wireshark. I can't capture any Internet traffic for the wireless clients - all I get are internal broadcasts like SSDPs and ARPs. Is it not possible to capture Wi-Fi Internet traffic sniffing from and Ethernet client?

[Assistant]
How would it capture wireless traffic from the LAN?

You need a WiFi card to do so.

You wouldn't normally expect to see unicast traffic for other devices (wireless or otherwise) on your PC. You would need to capture the traffic on the router.

I'm thinking the wireless traffic would be visible just like the wired traffic - all the devices are on the same subnet.

Colin, can you explain a bit more? So all the sniffing companies and such do are using an in-line device?

I think my VM was giving me false hope, then. I just tested again: I could see the WAN traffic from the host, but not from other wired devices.