This is an excellent overview, and what's crazy is almost every feature you talk about (QAM, beam forming, etc.) could probably be covered in a multiple-hour video and barely touch the surface! RF stuff is like black magic, and the engineers and those who test the cutting-edge stuff are basically wizards.
Thanks Jeff - and you're absolutely right. One of the most challenging aspects of these types of videos is HOW DEEP do you wanna dive? I tend to stay just about brain-hurt level without going into full blown aneurism zone.
@@CrosstalkSolutions Still, I learned new stuff from this video. 100 Devices + Upgrade recommendation can only make from years of experience. I was considering upgrading my 34 Device network to 6E because I Feel like I am missing something. Not anymore. Thanks.
Agree with your assessment. Our church added/replaced a bunch AP's with WiFi6 version for allowing many simultaneous Zoom meetings occurring at the same time. It was a day and night difference after the upgrade, and the real time video transmission over Zoom becomes much more stable.
@@neok1996 these days most laptops that people have should already have wifi6 network cards on them. I seldom see people with 3-4 year old laptops (myself excluded, its old as dirt and I like it that way). Samsung, Google and Apple all have current gen wifi cards in their phones (and ipads) and that is how many people have been doing zoom meetings. So in their case its likely that it has made a difference. The cables would likely be on you to supply. Most people should be using at least a cat6 cable. If they're just using something like Amazon's eero or google mesh I could see the wifi6 being a huge increase as they are a wireless mesh system.
One thing I'd bring up is that it's not necessarily about how many devices YOU own, but also what kind of distance you have from your neighbors. For instance a NYC apartment building, where every neighbor has their own access point, is probably a great environment for any of these "higher density" Wi-Fi versions. Some people have absolutely terrible Wi-Fi at home because the airways are just full.
@@TheSpiv range is no issue in WiFi 6 as this is governed by EIRP. What you can say is that throughput at range diminishes as you move to lower coding rates and sub optimal resource unit capability. WiFi 6 IMHO also has benefits in enterprise as it does in homes - think wireless VR and the likes of Meta that require low latency high throughput. The main issue you have with these home broadband routers is that they are basically rubbish. There is no way to disable low end bit rates and tune the medium to reject packets at range. Added to that I repeat about BSS colouring and then add in the lack off in service monitoring and basic frequency management
@@s.i.m.c.a theory for range suggests not, but vendor and silicon... well, perhaps driver level issues and poor software means the end user is not considered when routers are rolled out
It took a lot of tweaking but thanks to your advice and literally experimenting with every channel on my dream router and U6 lite I've now got maximum performance thanks to 60 and 100DFS and 80mhz WiFi 6 from my 1GB connection all over the house. Keep up the good work and WiFi 6 has been a game changer for me as I was getting lots of interference otherwise and slow speeds.
a few observations, if I may: WiFi5 has MU-MIMO only from AP to STAs, WiFi6 supports both up and down; all the efficiency goodies WiFi6 brings can only be seen if both APs and STAs are WiFi6 capable, an WiFi6 AP with many WiFi5 clients will not make any difference. Let's hope ESP32-C6 from Espressif will power soon most of our IoTs so we can all benefit from this more efficient piece of tech
I upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 (Ubiquiti) and I noticed a huge range increase and speed increase and the ap’s are in the same locations and the same device was used to test. And the devices is Wi-Fi 5. So they must have improved the radios all around.
I wish a could double like this video. It's so nice to hear an industry (and Unifi) expert speak in real world terms about this. I have multiple Unifi wifi 5 APs and have really struggled with why should I have to upgrade. You made it clear. Thank you so much!
Your home network doesn’t have that many WiFi clients I have quite the few. 😅 I upgraded my WiFi router from to a WiFi6 router. I have notice a lot better performance on the WiFi. But I don’t think it’s because of WiFi 6 standard as a lot of my devices are WiFi 5 with only a few new enough to support WiFi 6. The reason why I think it’s faster is simply because the processor on the new router is much faster than the router that I had been using for several years prior.
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A great overview of Wi-Fi 6 technologies, solutions and features. The best starting point for diving deeper. A very useful overview of the tip of the iceberg.
Chat GPT is mind blowing and a little scary at the same time. It can do some amazing stuff. But also remember it can be very convincingly wrong and will confidently spit out responses that may be off the mark. However, when used by someone who has a decently knowledge base, it will easily remove some repetitive tasks or give you a good start to something you want to work on. That said, you presented good info on this topic. So many just see the marketing, “Wi-Fi 6 is one higher than 5, I must need it” without understanding what it really means. You video was deep enough and you summarized it well. Keep them coming!
Thanks! Yes, I mostly utilized ChatGPT in this video for research, and to help break down complicated topics like OFDMA into layman's terms - definitely not a copy/paste type of situation, but it absolutely saved me buckets of time.
agree. soon it might evolve, make it's own OS, hack bank accounts, forward all the $ to bitcoin, start a revolution of others, eventually become sentient, take over like terminator. would be kind of cool.
Sir, with your conclusion on whether or not to upgrade from Wi-Fi 5 to 6, you have earned my subscription. I have an ASUS Blue Cave 2600 Wi-Fi 5 router that I love and have been using for a few years. I love it because it allows much more flexible placement and looks way more nicer than all these alien looking routers with the wild antenna sticking all over. I tried a NETGEAR AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router but it was not any faster in my day to day use, and it was really finicky to set up. I still keep it around as a back up for if or when my Blue Cave stops working, but that is it. Plus, the Blue Cave reminds me of that old Star Trek "City on the Edge of Forever" episode with the crew standing in front of The Guardian of Forever. That blue light on the Asus is so much cooler looking than the majority of routers out even today, in my opinion! Anyway, cheers and Happy New Year to you and all your subscribers!
Awesome video. A superb way to explain even for non-tech-savvy users. I think people get confused when purchasing; thinking they always need the latest and greatest in technology hardware, but often times it is unpractical.
8:26 incorrct explanation. It still beams in ALL direction, but uses 2 or more antenas AND signal delays to form resonanses in desired spots. Resonance happens when two (or more) waves coinside thus amplifying initial signal. The logic on transmitter works so that this "wave" happened on device-consumer location. This proces called "beam forming", however terminology is incorrect.
When I moved into my new place almost 2 years ago, the Unifi U6-Pro was in beta, and I got 2 of them for the house. The U6-Lite was suitable for my detached shop, and a UAP-AC-M for the yard. I knew that with a NEW install of Unifi, it would be good to use the newest APs. But for an old setup, I would keep the old APs until we did a more extensive network update or needed a better AP for the location. In most business setups I have done, if you start with good equipment and organize everything from the start, you rarely need to go back for years.
I have a business with numerous APs and still run N, AC, & AX; N is still holding on just because we have so many and replacement costs are a thing. I still recall installing our first AP a mix of As and Bs as operability was mixed, though that was also when we were still using 10/100. Been running our computers and networking since we bought our first Apple II back in the mid-80s and very much enjoy how things have improved.
Antenna gain, size, number of antennae also play a role. Just a few raw numbers: Client: iPhone 11 Pro Max (802.11ax, 2x2) Unifi nanoHD: 5 Ghz, 80 MHz VHT, max transmit power: Best case I measured: 650 mbit net bandwidth @ 866 mbit PHY speed. Unifi U6-LR: 5 GHz, 80 MHz HE, max transmit power: Best case I measured: 844 mbit @ 1200 mbit PHY speed. Clients with more antennae, like a laptop with 3x3 and 160 MHz support, exceed 1 Gbit+. The U6-LR also provides higher top speeds further away from it, even through multiple walls. To get the maximum out of the nanoHD, you have to be rather close to it, probably line of sight.
Great explanation Chris - its very basic. This WI-FI 6 technology models the current proposed air interface “5gNR” the wireless carriers are starting to deploy currently. Also good to point out that the 265 and 1024 QAM are max. Best rates. they are constantly variable based on special and signal characteristics. Also one note is that most mobile devices currently will not increase to a 6x6 Mimi be safe they are too small to stuff more antenna into them. Most mobile devices are 2x2 mimo and high end - maybe 4x4. In my home space upgrading to WIFI 6, I noticed lower latency and a very marginal speed increase only on higher end wifi 6 devices. WI-FI 5 devices only experienced slightly lower latency no speed increase. Still happy I upgraded for the lower latency on the high end devices.
Don't forget to disable 802.11b (Wi-Fi 1) if you are not using it. That improves speed on 2,4Ghz network. This is not possible on every Wi-Fi Access point and router, but many have this option now. Its not possible to disable 802.11g yet, but if you can disable 802.11g (if not in use). Do so, since there are almost no 802.11g devices out there in use today.
Only in a multi-node network when you're using channels 1,6,11. The beacon overhead is negligible and DCF Mac issue won't exist due to airtime fairness
I’m a homeowner of a single family dwelling. There’s just 4 of us under our roof, and our Wi-Fi-5 internet service was horrible. Movies buffered, connections were dropped, speeds were slow. I upgraded to wifi-6 and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. The monthly service fee is less than I was paying before and the modem was free of charge (all that from my existing internet service provider). And all of my wifi issues are a thing of the past, plus it’s blazing fast. Friends and family notice it right away when they come over and connect to it. Based on my experience, I highly recommend the switch.
0:29 To help balance the stats, I'm subscribed but hardly ever watch. ;-) 1:55 802.11ac (Wifi 5) is only available in the 5GHz (tri)band, but 802.11n is available on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. An access point can serve 802.11n in both bends simultaneously, if it has a separate radio for each band; and they can only operate independently, like two distinct access points in the same box.
👍👍 I am new, so recently installed WIFI 6 with TP link X60/AX5400 mesh 3-pack system was the correct choose. very good signal coverage, very satisfied with it. 👍👍
I hate when tech reviewers tell us all about new technology and say there is no difference. As a tech, Geek, let me tell you. As soon as I plugged in my WiFi 6 router. I noticed everything from computers, cell phones, tablets and TVs ran much faster than wifi 5. You should always upgrade to new important technology. I have Spectrum. Most people keep the same equipment for years. You should trade out your equipment every 2 or 3 years with whoever your provider is. New customers always get the latest and great deals. You also have the right to trade out your old equipment for new equipment. Tech reviews should be honest and direct and leave opinions from their reviews. Of course, wifi 6 is better. My cell phone now shows a wifi 6 signal when connected and has been much faster than before.
I use UniFi for providing wifi to large music festivals, we probably won’t see much use of wifi 6. However there is cases where artists need to download very large graphics data files - 30-40gb whilst in the middle of no where on a fairly congested network with only say 50mbps down for 60 devices. Will be testing a UniFi mesh 6 and see how it goes, I’m getting 500/500 Speedtest via UniFi 6 mesh on gigabit fiber internet circuit.
For wifi 6E, the main reason to change is that almost no one uses it. When using 5Hz ax, i cant get the 450 mbps im paying for as the RF env is too crowded. On the other hand, 6GHz env is empty like outer space. Getting every mbps with ax6e.
This has answered every damn question I had. Obviously WiFi 6 is worth it and now I know why people see improvements just from switching from 5 to 6 even with the same kinda routers It still definitely helps and keeps things stable, as I've seen from many places I've swapper Thank you
From a 500/500 fiber : msi gaming laptop (i7-6700, wifi 5): 301 / 429 2019 HP Omen laptop (Wifi 6): 365 / 461 As example, not a big jump TBH. However for multiple devices in high density or high traffic of many people like a stadium, yea. Good video, changed what I thought about wifi 6. Question, turning off the antenna automatically when not in use, and it took them this long to think of that? Come on... maybe I am missing something but sometimes it seems like they plan this stuff 10 versions ahead and release them slowly to drain more $ from people. I could be jumping the gun big time here. Remember you pay extra $ to be beta testers for new WIFI(wifi6e)
The key to excelling in the 2.4ghz band is to realize, you got more channels than just 1,6, and 11. You actually can use two sets of channels in different staggered local areas... 1, 5, 9 and 3, 7, 11... with 14 as a bridge channel This gives you 7 channels to work with, not 3. In one building you use 1,5, 9... and in the neighboring building... 3, 7, 11....... and the building next to that one... 1,5,9 And channel 14 (Singapore setting) to bridge buildings 1 and 3 together. I like to do my bridges however over the 5ghz band using a 80mgz wide channel. See, the thing is, most handheld devices and indeed most devices, only support 2.5ghz. Very little user equipment supports 5ghz still, and nothing supports 6ghz. Which means 5ghz and 6ghz can mostly be used for bridging. It also explains why 2.4ghz is so terribly overcrowded in metropolitan areas, because most people have no clue how to use it and just jam up everything everywhere and step on everybody. I've been in some areas where there were 20 access points all in the 2.4ghz band on a street... when really, only 3 were needed. There is no collaboration between neighbors, it's just a nightmare freeforall making it work for.. nobody.
Thank you for your video. I bought a router WiFi 6e to have Disco Party streaming DJ music up to 240 phones. So every user phone can listen in full stereo or even see the video thru VLC app. The prices of the router WiFi 6 are now very low and can be used as signal amplifier at home. BUT, the devices conected to the router must have capability to use 5G and Wifi 6 band. So, not every device can take advantage of the WiFi 6 extended feature. I have to test the router with a large users group to check it.
Fun fact. If Wifi6 (802.11ax) detects 802.11ac devices, it will fall back to the ac feature set and you will not take advantage of ax's high density features. This is a future technology unless you can guarantee ONLY 802.11ax supported devices connect.
I honestly feel like even if you have a good 802.11 ac router, you will still get a noticeable improvement from Wi-Fi 6, because it seems to optimize the connection on just about every device.
I installed 4 U6 Pro APs in my house last Summer and they work great. My desktop motherboard's wifi 6 works great with external antennae, it is similar to gigabit ethernet. I still run the wire though and just use the wifi for wifi tethering when both of my wireline ISPs are down at the same time (very rarely). I get 934 mbps on wifi 6 tablets and phones, and don't on wifi 5. The wifi 5 devices topped out in the 300's of Mbps usually. 934 mbps everywhere upstairs and in most of downstairs though, and a low of 786 mbps in the furthest bathroom...
I have a WiFi6 modem (in my office at the front of my house) and a respectable number of WiFi6 devices - but I do want to extend my signal to my big new deck in the back yard and maybe in my basement. Ideally, I'd be able to pick up a 6E (which is more the current standard - though WiFi 7 is now being heavily touted), but I see some WiFi6 options that make more sense: I'm looking for a wired/PoE ceiling mounted AP just inside my patio door to maximize signals out to the back yard, the adjacent family room and in a kitchen to be renovated with a bunch of new/upgraded smart devices. I had IMAGINED that the move to the smart home "Matter" standard might reduce my need to rely on WiFi - and it still might, eventually - but in the interim I'll probably have to look at more "Matter over Wi-Fi" options in the absence of enough Thread-based devices. So: a cheap-ish WiFi6 mesh it will be...
I upgraded to WiFi 6 about 5 months ago, one of the best decisions I've ever made. No more router restarts. No more random loss of connection. No more kicks and hiccups. Better range than 2.4GHz. Stable. Lightning fast. Don't even need to route a cable, yeah, it's that good!
@@flyboybobio3431 it has both 2.4 and 5 in the router. typically wifi 6 routers do have better signal strength as long as you get a decent one. significantly better signal strength.
@Flyboybobio I can assure you that that statement is true. When I connect to 2.4, the signal is so faint that it hardly even shows that I'm connected. When I connect to wifi 6, the signal is strong, and nothing seems to block its way. Not even the doors.
3:36 "channels" here are not differrent wireless "channels" but rather it is having multiple tx/rx spatial streams. your highway analogy for mu-mimo is still kinda correct, but with your saying having a 4x4 mimo device wtih 80mhz bandwidth should have resulted in 320mhz of bandwidth being used by a single ap, which is of course incorrect. what you understood as mimo is not something thats never done however, in 4g, carrier aggregation transmits/receives over multiple freqs, in addition to using 2x2/4x4 mimo.
Thank you for the video..... I have been using and installing the TP-Link DECO M9 Plus for years now. It is techically a WiFi 6 Mesh wifi device. Seeing as it offers 2.4Ghz, and two 5Ghz bands, I find them the best bang for the buck. With that said I do find that devices coming from over seas have a problem with the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz under one SSID. I have to go into the mesh app and force 5Ghz off to add these devices, what a pain. My other issue I see is the WiFi 6 network identifies the wireless devices correctly. For example, One of my friends has the Netgear Wifi 6 mesh network, 3 discs. He has two wifi printer, both from Brothers. They show up as Hon Hai Industries Co.... You also end up with a lot of devices that show up as Unknown, None, or Gateway... The only solution I have found for this is re-naming the devices with in the app. To do this I ended up matching up the MAC addresses.
We have a router and two satellites Orbi rbk50. We have a couple of smart TVs, couple of Apple TVs , 4 iPhones, iPads, maybe 25 Sonos, smart Plugs, switches combined, smart oven and fridge, thermostats etc. I haven’t had any issues with our network. While I pay for gig speed I get only about 300-400MB speed throughout my house. I don’t have any issues. But I do keep eyeing up a new Orbi mesh system using Wi-Fi 6. But unsure if It’s worth it. If my speed increase a lot That would be nice but really it doesn’t seem to cause an issue now. Do folks think it’s worth it?
Also BSS colouring that removes the listen before talk issue. You may also want to make people aware that the majority of WiFi 6 APs don't actually support MU-OFDMA as it's not a mandatory option to pass certification, it is however mandatory in WiFi 7.
Hard to find IOT devices that use any of the features of Wi-Fi 6 if at all. Most of them appear to be stuck on Wi-Fi 4 or 5 if your lucky. Ohh and I'm running Wi-Fi 6E which is much much faster. 160Mhz clean / clear interference free.
If you have a lot of interference from neighbors, then that would be another reason to go to WiFi 6. It should help you there. It will help even more if your neighbors upgrade too.
WiFi 7 IS 802.11be, 802.11be is NOT WiFi 8. It was expected to launch in 2024 but as of the last few months the final version is being marketed for this year. A Chinese company already has a router out based on a draft, because you can do that. It’s basically a soft launch though, they just wanted to be first despite the product being practically unavailable. In the past Apple released their AirPort routers based on draft specs, but at the time it was probably less likely the drafts would change by the final version. The bigger issue with upgrading from WiFi 5 is that virtually no access points can handle more than 1 gig for the uplink. So for a lot of people, they’re either already obsolete or will be in a year because they can’t use their full internet bandwidth, which means the access point would continue to be the bottleneck for all their devices no matter how fast their WiFi connection is. The 4K-QAM will be great. More channel width will be great…. if device manufacturers actually build it into their devices, that is. They’ve sure let us down in the past.
I wanted to make a belated comment about DFS channels. If you live in an area as I do, surrounded by mountains and with no local active radars, you can safely use DFS. I’ve been running one of my 802.11ac(“wifi 5”) APs on channel 100 @80MHz width for years now with no issues. 650+ mbps real world speeds.
Thank you for the excellent overview of EVERYTHING...but the reality is as you stated..the common home user does not need it. It saddens me that the tech industry keeps selling the next and greatest technology to customers who dont need it and wont be able to use it with their current set up by telling them its faster and better when the claim is false! People can save so much money by buying older technology that they will use or at least will work and is cheaper than the current. You can now buy wifi 5 routers and mesh devices for 75% of the cost of wifi 6 ones! If your current router breaks or you are in need of a new one, you can buy the older tech which is better than what you had and that will work just fine for pennies on the dollar!
I was wondering about this cuz I have a Wi-Fi 6 router. I did notice vast improvements over my old Wi-Fi 5 router. Especially with range. What's cool is that my Samsung S22 Ultra phone supports Wi-Fi 6! I did not know it had that. Because when it's connected to the network it will show the usual Wi-Fi symbol like it normally does when connected at home, But it will have a little "6" in the corner of the Wi-Fi symbol signifying that It's a Wi-Fi 6 or WiFi 6E network. I have a 1 gigabit per second connection so my internet was already very fast. Even with my Wi-Fi 5 router it was extremely fast. So I'm noticing any speed differences between Wi-Fi 5 and 6. But what I am noticing is the range has increased significantly. It also seems to penetrate floors and walls much much better
Great video, thanks for such an informative overview. My application is creating wifi networks for less than 25 devices at large public events. The audience is sometimes in the thousands but they do no have access to my network. I'm having trouble figuring out if upgrading my APs to wifi 6 would have any advantage in that use case.
"WFi 6 in a church...." we have a broken access point, I have mentioned it a few times, however nobody else has noticed, so it stays broken. The main call in our church is "turn it off" so we don't get a rude shock mid service.
For residential the problem is still what best goes thru drywall? Or the video doorbell is mounted outside on a brick wall. What is the most robust signal?
Based on installing over 8000 WiFi radios mostly in high interference environments such as condominiums, timeshares, resorts, hotels, etc, we found WiFi 6 delivers much greater speed to WiFi 6 clients such as phones or new laptops. An AX1800 router delivers much higher speed than an AC1750 on my WiFi 6 compatible laptop. Vendors don’t cite this as a major strength of WiFi 6 because they think most people live in a stand-alone home.
Upgraded to 6e... HOLY CRAP!!! WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!! My laptops and phones all have 6e cards, so I get the best out of it. UI only gave it a 2.5 NIC on the AP's, but that's what I run to my network drops/AP's across my home, so I had it already with the UI 8 port 2.5Gbps switch and a 20gbps aggregated fiber backbone of my network to my rack. 6e is a massive update... I upgraded from UI AC-Pro's to UI LR-6 then to UI 6e. I have the UI 6-LITE and the new LITE+ in my garage providing access to devices in there any vehicles. The 6LITE+ is half the size of the 6LITE and heat output, so much nicer... the UI AP LR-6 was a MASSIVE size AP and wondering if the UI LR6+ is smaller like the LITE AP was.
Just wanted to let you know someone with your exact name used to work at Red Hat Linux under the X windows project decades ago. You might know that if you've ever googled yourself?
WiFi 7 or (802.11be) is about to release! The new routers will be available on the market but the WiFi 7 network isn't suppose to launch until 2024, geez. Max Data Rate 46 Gbps, Bands 1-7.25 GHz, Security WPA3, Channel Size is up to 320 MHz, Modulation 4096-QAM and MIMO is 16x16 MU-MIMO.
nitpick: 802.11n supported 5GHz, it just wasn't required, so if you bought a 802.11n adapter it may or may not support 5GHz. Oh, and of course, 802.11a was a 5GHz standard.
@@CrosstalkSolutions I thought b was. It's the only version of Wifi that uses DSSS, instead of OFDM. It would have been better if 802.11a was used on 2.4 and 5 GHz. As it is, 802.11g uses exactly the same modulation as a, but with the addition of b protection. That protection, which can kill g performance, is only needed because b cannot understand the g frames and so can't determine that it's in use on the channel.
You say it isn't worth it for home users, but is wifi 6 useful in a congested space? Does it help your AP/client navigate around a ton of external wifi 5/6 noise? For example, a large and dense apartment complex? It seems like the benefits are mainly for a single AP to manage airspace.
Get Wi-Fi 6E . The problem is Wi-Fi 6 is still in the 5Ghz band and if you live in a saturated environment your going to get congestion issues. I live in a condo complex that's next to rentals so there is 10 people or more on each channel. So sometime this year I plan to get a 6e mesh system for that 6ghz channel.
I run a few small (~50 people each) Ubiqiti networks, I'm largely using wifi5. I've only been switching out the APs as they die or the network needs expanding. Emails and basic web-surfing haven't really changed or required the immediate change over. I'll be referencing this video to the people who are complaining that their speeds would be vastly faster if they had wifi6. They always cite their "super techy" friend or 15 year old gamer kid.
Short question: I need more APs in my company and I'm wondering which APs to buy that have a good Wifi roaming functionality? Long question: Very soon company where I work will move to new place and that new place is big (with very long hallway with offices on both sides and before and after hallway) and we will probably need two or more APs there. But now I have big dilema. Currently we have only one Unifi AP, some very old model UAP, but I'm very pleased with it. It is working beautifully 24/7 have good coverage, only it doesn't have 5Ghz band but... we get used to it. I have Unifi controller on local server and I like options that I have there, for example I can see current download and upload speed of all connected devices, have option to easily block and unblock devices and etc... As a main router we use Mikrotik. BUT, my company have offices in more locations besides this main one (where I work) and every location have a Mikrotik as main router and we can't change them, we must use Mikrotik as main routers but we can use any Wifi equipment we like. So on those other locations we have a Mikrotik APs connected to main Mikrotik router. They are working fine, but with them we have a problem with Wifi roaming. When people use internet on their mobile devices and walk around the place, their mobile device stay connected to far AP with low signal and refuses to connect to closer AP with better signal. I can try to fix this with access list but it is pain in the a$$ and it will shorten coverage of APs to other sides where there is no signal from other APs. Now, I'm wondering what is the best option for my company to put at new place: 1. To spend a smallest amount of money and buy Mikrotik APs 2. To spend a little bit more money and buy Wifi 5 Unifi APs 3. To spend even more money and buy Wifi 6 Unifi APs I must say that money is not the problem (at least I hope it isn't) but it will be bad for me if I buy an expensive APs and people would still have problems with Wifi roaming.
Can I operate the WIFI 6 APs along with the older original Ubiquity APs on the same network? I do still have dead spots, a couple wifi 6's should fix that issue, but as I have a 5200 sq ft spread out in diff directions building, need to make sure the 6's won't interrupt the wifi 5's older design Ubiqiti AP's I have in place.
Pretty good explanations. A couple of things: 1. You said Wifi 4/N is 2.4Ghz only. That's not true. It can also use 5Ghz. 2. You said Wifi 8 is 802.11be. I thought Wifi 7 is 802.11be. Can someone verify this?
So basically Wi-Fi 6‘s big selling points are efficiency and under the hood improvements (reliability). Wi-Fi 6E’s big selling point is everything about Wi-Fi six with massive thoughput increase on new 6ghz band.
Good video. What about in the case of living in a condo. It is 1100 sq ft. My router can only be on either end of the unit. When using 5GHz, the coverage is there but spotty. My analyzer shows it at around -72dBm. The 2.4GHz band is not an issue but too slow to be useful. We have a mixture of Wi-Fi 5 devices (work laptops, iPhone XS, Nest, Smart TV), Wi-Fi6 (M1 MacBook Pro, iPhone 14 Pro) and 1 Wi-Fi 6E (iPad M2). Our provide delivers around 120 Mbps. My network analyzers shows about 64 networks in the area. I suspect this is contributing to the noise. Would I benefit from upgrading to a Wi-Fi6 router or should I need to consider using a mesh solution or just stay as is? I am currently using a 6th gen AirPort Extreme.
I live in a flat with dense neighboring wifi. Recently I got to play with a 5G modem which also has wifi6. If my client devices support wifi6 they get 140 Mbits on 2,4GHz while none supported get 70 Mbps at best
@maxtech tested out wifi 6 because apple added that to this year release of their own products. He is wondering why things did not seem much faster. Can you check his video on it and point him in the correct direction for the next time he tries testing it out?
I was thinking of replacing the wifi5 AP’s at my folks because of the huge interference they are subject to. See, they live in a condo tower/complex and, when scanning I can regularly see over 90 ssid in the 2.5Ghz range alone. Now the neighbours complain to their respective ISP that the internet / wifi is slow and unreliable, and in turn, they deploy mesh systems in their individual 1000 square foot condo!!! Making the problem worst!!! It should be illegal for ISPs of this world to deploy at random these systems that are completely destroying the airwaves. Anyway, from what you are describing, the overall performance would increase in that type of environment right?
According to the chart, near the beginning of the video, one might get the impression WiFi started with 802.11a. This is not accurate. There actually was WiFi before then, on 2.4 GHz, but with narrower 2 Mb channels in 1997. However, Wifi didn't become popular until 802.11b. Look up 802.11 legacy mode on Wikipedia for more info. I get the impression 802.11b was a big mistake, as it uses a completely different modulation method, DSSS, instead of OFDM as used on all other versions. This is why it causes such a performance penalty, when it's used in the presence of 802.11g. The 802.11g devices actually have to transmit a b frame, to reserve time for the g frame. With all the other versions, a slower header can be used, with the rest of the frame at a higher speed. 802.11g is exactly the same as a, other than frequency, but with the addition of the b protection. BTW, another use for 6 GHz is for a "back channel" to extend WiFi to multiple access points, without running a cable.
This is an excellent overview, and what's crazy is almost every feature you talk about (QAM, beam forming, etc.) could probably be covered in a multiple-hour video and barely touch the surface! RF stuff is like black magic, and the engineers and those who test the cutting-edge stuff are basically wizards.
Thanks Jeff - and you're absolutely right. One of the most challenging aspects of these types of videos is HOW DEEP do you wanna dive? I tend to stay just about brain-hurt level without going into full blown aneurism zone.
@Crosstalk Solutions greatly Apriciated that you explained it fast and easy
@@CrosstalkSolutions Still, I learned new stuff from this video.
100 Devices + Upgrade recommendation can only make from years of experience.
I was considering upgrading my 34 Device network to 6E because I Feel like I am missing something. Not anymore. Thanks.
@JeffGeerling happy to see you in comments! Hope your recovery is going well 🙂 no rush to run back to full production. #yourock
@@CrosstalkSolutions Chris, you do an excellent job ! I often get to the brain-hurt level, despite 30+ years as an EE.
Agree with your assessment. Our church added/replaced a bunch AP's with WiFi6 version for allowing many simultaneous Zoom meetings occurring at the same time. It was a day and night difference after the upgrade, and the real time video transmission over Zoom becomes much more stable.
Do you have wifi6 laptops at the church?
Or did it also come with better /more cables and accespoints
@@neok1996 these days most laptops that people have should already have wifi6 network cards on them. I seldom see people with 3-4 year old laptops (myself excluded, its old as dirt and I like it that way). Samsung, Google and Apple all have current gen wifi cards in their phones (and ipads) and that is how many people have been doing zoom meetings. So in their case its likely that it has made a difference.
The cables would likely be on you to supply. Most people should be using at least a cat6 cable. If they're just using something like Amazon's eero or google mesh I could see the wifi6 being a huge increase as they are a wireless mesh system.
wifi is devil stuff ^^
They used to burn you for it.
@@timhabich3113 Can you explain !
@@connorl5868he's joking that it's "wizardry"
One thing I'd bring up is that it's not necessarily about how many devices YOU own, but also what kind of distance you have from your neighbors. For instance a NYC apartment building, where every neighbor has their own access point, is probably a great environment for any of these "higher density" Wi-Fi versions. Some people have absolutely terrible Wi-Fi at home because the airways are just full.
As a current NYC resident, I 100% concur with this statement.
BSS colouring should assist with the issue with OBSS traffic congestion. Providing all your devices are actually WiFi 6
@@TheSpiv range is no issue in WiFi 6 as this is governed by EIRP. What you can say is that throughput at range diminishes as you move to lower coding rates and sub optimal resource unit capability. WiFi 6 IMHO also has benefits in enterprise as it does in homes - think wireless VR and the likes of Meta that require low latency high throughput.
The main issue you have with these home broadband routers is that they are basically rubbish. There is no way to disable low end bit rates and tune the medium to reject packets at range. Added to that I repeat about BSS colouring and then add in the lack off in service monitoring and basic frequency management
@@TheSpiv >Wi-Fi 6 is even worse at range and distance
like why? it uses same frequencies as 5 and 2.4. We clearly not talking here about 6E.
@@s.i.m.c.a theory for range suggests not, but vendor and silicon... well, perhaps driver level issues and poor software means the end user is not considered when routers are rolled out
It took a lot of tweaking but thanks to your advice and literally experimenting with every channel on my dream router and U6 lite I've now got maximum performance thanks to 60 and 100DFS and 80mhz WiFi 6 from my 1GB connection all over the house. Keep up the good work and WiFi 6 has been a game changer for me as I was getting lots of interference otherwise and slow speeds.
EXCELLENT CLEAR yet EN-DEPTH video on WiFi 6/6E I've seen. Great Job!
from the first word I was listening. no random filler for the first 10 seconds. straight away a sub. good job.
a few observations, if I may: WiFi5 has MU-MIMO only from AP to STAs, WiFi6 supports both up and down; all the efficiency goodies WiFi6 brings can only be seen if both APs and STAs are WiFi6 capable, an WiFi6 AP with many WiFi5 clients will not make any difference. Let's hope ESP32-C6 from Espressif will power soon most of our IoTs so we can all benefit from this more efficient piece of tech
I upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 (Ubiquiti) and I noticed a huge range increase and speed increase and the ap’s are in the same locations and the same device was used to test. And the devices is Wi-Fi 5. So they must have improved the radios all around.
Which AP did you upgrade to?
@@mrdrilus I went from the HD to the Pro6 (yes both overkill).
I wish a could double like this video. It's so nice to hear an industry (and Unifi) expert speak in real world terms about this. I have multiple Unifi wifi 5 APs and have really struggled with why should I have to upgrade. You made it clear. Thank you so much!
Your home network doesn’t have that many WiFi clients
I have quite the few. 😅
I upgraded my WiFi router from to a WiFi6 router. I have notice a lot better performance on the WiFi. But I don’t think it’s because of WiFi 6 standard as a lot of my devices are WiFi 5 with only a few new enough to support WiFi 6. The reason why I think it’s faster is simply because the processor on the new router is much faster than the router that I had been using for several years prior.
A great overview of Wi-Fi 6 technologies, solutions and features. The best starting point for diving deeper. A very useful overview of the tip of the iceberg.
Chat GPT is mind blowing and a little scary at the same time. It can do some amazing stuff. But also remember it can be very convincingly wrong and will confidently spit out responses that may be off the mark. However, when used by someone who has a decently knowledge base, it will easily remove some repetitive tasks or give you a good start to something you want to work on.
That said, you presented good info on this topic. So many just see the marketing, “Wi-Fi 6 is one higher than 5, I must need it” without understanding what it really means. You video was deep enough and you summarized it well. Keep them coming!
Thanks! Yes, I mostly utilized ChatGPT in this video for research, and to help break down complicated topics like OFDMA into layman's terms - definitely not a copy/paste type of situation, but it absolutely saved me buckets of time.
agree. soon it might evolve, make it's own OS, hack bank accounts, forward all the $ to bitcoin, start a revolution of others, eventually become sentient, take over like terminator. would be kind of cool.
Sir, with your conclusion on whether or not to upgrade from Wi-Fi 5 to 6, you have earned my subscription. I have an ASUS Blue Cave 2600 Wi-Fi 5 router that I love and have been using for a few years. I love it because it allows much more flexible placement and looks way more nicer than all these alien looking routers with the wild antenna sticking all over. I tried a NETGEAR AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router but it was not any faster in my day to day use, and it was really finicky to set up. I still keep it around as a back up for if or when my Blue Cave stops working, but that is it. Plus, the Blue Cave reminds me of that old Star Trek "City on the Edge of Forever" episode with the crew standing in front of The Guardian of Forever. That blue light on the Asus is so much cooler looking than the majority of routers out even today, in my opinion! Anyway, cheers and Happy New Year to you and all your subscribers!
Awesome video. A superb way to explain even for non-tech-savvy users. I think people get confused when purchasing; thinking they always need the latest and greatest in technology hardware, but often times it is unpractical.
8:26 incorrct explanation. It still beams in ALL direction, but uses 2 or more antenas AND signal delays to form resonanses in desired spots. Resonance happens when two (or more) waves coinside thus amplifying initial signal. The logic on transmitter works so that this "wave" happened on device-consumer location. This proces called "beam forming", however terminology is incorrect.
When I moved into my new place almost 2 years ago, the Unifi U6-Pro was in beta, and I got 2 of them for the house. The U6-Lite was suitable for my detached shop, and a UAP-AC-M for the yard. I knew that with a NEW install of Unifi, it would be good to use the newest APs. But for an old setup, I would keep the old APs until we did a more extensive network update or needed a better AP for the location. In most business setups I have done, if you start with good equipment and organize everything from the start, you rarely need to go back for years.
I have a business with numerous APs and still run N, AC, & AX; N is still holding on just because we have so many and replacement costs are a thing. I still recall installing our first AP a mix of As and Bs as operability was mixed, though that was also when we were still using 10/100. Been running our computers and networking since we bought our first Apple II back in the mid-80s and very much enjoy how things have improved.
Antenna gain, size, number of antennae also play a role.
Just a few raw numbers:
Client: iPhone 11 Pro Max (802.11ax, 2x2)
Unifi nanoHD:
5 Ghz, 80 MHz VHT, max transmit power:
Best case I measured: 650 mbit net bandwidth @ 866 mbit PHY speed.
Unifi U6-LR:
5 GHz, 80 MHz HE, max transmit power:
Best case I measured: 844 mbit @ 1200 mbit PHY speed.
Clients with more antennae, like a laptop with 3x3 and 160 MHz support, exceed 1 Gbit+.
The U6-LR also provides higher top speeds further away from it, even through multiple walls. To get the maximum out of the nanoHD, you have to be rather close to it, probably line of sight.
Great explanation Chris - its very basic. This WI-FI 6 technology models the current proposed air interface “5gNR” the wireless carriers are starting to deploy currently. Also good to point out that the 265 and 1024 QAM are max. Best rates. they are constantly variable based on special and signal characteristics. Also one note is that most mobile devices currently will not increase to a 6x6 Mimi be safe they are too small to stuff more antenna into them. Most mobile devices are 2x2 mimo and high end - maybe 4x4. In my home space upgrading to WIFI 6, I noticed lower latency and a very marginal speed increase only on higher end wifi 6 devices. WI-FI 5 devices only experienced slightly lower latency no speed increase. Still happy I upgraded for the lower latency on the high end devices.
Don't forget to disable 802.11b (Wi-Fi 1) if you are not using it. That improves speed on 2,4Ghz network. This is not possible on every Wi-Fi Access point and router, but many have this option now. Its not possible to disable 802.11g yet, but if you can disable 802.11g (if not in use). Do so, since there are almost no 802.11g devices out there in use today.
Only in a multi-node network when you're using channels 1,6,11. The beacon overhead is negligible and DCF Mac issue won't exist due to airtime fairness
that visual was really helpful to understand beamforming! been trying to for a while now
I’m a homeowner of a single family dwelling. There’s just 4 of us under our roof, and our Wi-Fi-5 internet service was horrible. Movies buffered, connections were dropped, speeds were slow. I upgraded to wifi-6 and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. The monthly service fee is less than I was paying before and the modem was free of charge (all that from my existing internet service provider). And all of my wifi issues are a thing of the past, plus it’s blazing fast. Friends and family notice it right away when they come over and connect to it. Based on my experience, I highly recommend the switch.
0:29 To help balance the stats, I'm subscribed but hardly ever watch. ;-)
1:55 802.11ac (Wifi 5) is only available in the 5GHz (tri)band, but 802.11n is available on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. An access point can serve 802.11n in both bends simultaneously, if it has a separate radio for each band; and they can only operate independently, like two distinct access points in the same box.
👍👍
I am new, so recently installed WIFI 6 with TP link X60/AX5400 mesh 3-pack system was the correct choose. very good signal coverage, very satisfied with it. 👍👍
I hate when tech reviewers tell us all about new technology and say there is no difference. As a tech, Geek, let me tell you. As soon as I plugged in my WiFi 6 router. I noticed everything from computers, cell phones, tablets and TVs ran much faster than wifi 5. You should always upgrade to new important technology. I have Spectrum. Most people keep the same equipment for years. You should trade out your equipment every 2 or 3 years with whoever your provider is. New customers always get the latest and great deals. You also have the right to trade out your old equipment for new equipment. Tech reviews should be honest and direct and leave opinions from their reviews. Of course, wifi 6 is better. My cell phone now shows a wifi 6 signal when connected and has been much faster than before.
When a new standard is created, how does it reach the manufactures? Do they get the new protocall can somehow just incorporate it in the product?
802.11n works on both 2,4 and 5GHz bands
I use UniFi for providing wifi to large music festivals, we probably won’t see much use of wifi 6. However there is cases where artists need to download very large graphics data files - 30-40gb whilst in the middle of no where on a fairly congested network with only say 50mbps down for 60 devices.
Will be testing a UniFi mesh 6 and see how it goes, I’m getting 500/500 Speedtest via UniFi 6 mesh on gigabit fiber internet circuit.
UniFi 6 Enterprise with 2.5G uplink and Wifi 6E support.... and 60 devices for 1 gigabit is ~ 17 mbps in worst case, 50 mbps is too optimistic number
For wifi 6E, the main reason to change is that almost no one uses it. When using 5Hz ax, i cant get the 450 mbps im paying for as the RF env is too crowded. On the other hand, 6GHz env is empty like outer space. Getting every mbps with ax6e.
This has answered every damn question I had. Obviously WiFi 6 is worth it and now I know why people see improvements just from switching from 5 to 6 even with the same kinda routers
It still definitely helps and keeps things stable, as I've seen from many places I've swapper
Thank you
Very well detailed and simple for people. Nice job!
Excellent explanation, I liked your detailed information. It is very helpful for me and others.
Nice job. This was helpful. Kind of like USB 3.x standards the WiFi standards are not terribly clear to the average user.
This is great, I learned a ton of new things from your video, thanks.
Outstanding overview. Thanks. I learned a few things. Good stuff
From a 500/500 fiber :
msi gaming laptop (i7-6700, wifi 5): 301 / 429
2019 HP Omen laptop (Wifi 6): 365 / 461
As example, not a big jump TBH. However for multiple devices in high density or high traffic of many people like a stadium, yea.
Good video, changed what I thought about wifi 6.
Question, turning off the antenna automatically when not in use, and it took them this long to think of that? Come on... maybe I am missing something but sometimes it seems like they plan this stuff 10 versions ahead and release them slowly to drain more $ from people. I could be jumping the gun big time here.
Remember you pay extra $ to be beta testers for new WIFI(wifi6e)
The key to excelling in the 2.4ghz band is to realize, you got more channels than just 1,6, and 11.
You actually can use two sets of channels in different staggered local areas... 1, 5, 9 and 3, 7, 11... with 14 as a bridge channel
This gives you 7 channels to work with, not 3. In one building you use 1,5, 9... and in the neighboring building... 3, 7, 11....... and the building next to that one... 1,5,9
And channel 14 (Singapore setting) to bridge buildings 1 and 3 together.
I like to do my bridges however over the 5ghz band using a 80mgz wide channel.
See, the thing is, most handheld devices and indeed most devices, only support 2.5ghz. Very little user equipment supports 5ghz still, and nothing supports 6ghz.
Which means 5ghz and 6ghz can mostly be used for bridging.
It also explains why 2.4ghz is so terribly overcrowded in metropolitan areas, because most people have no clue how to use it and just jam up everything everywhere and step on everybody. I've been in some areas where there were 20 access points all in the 2.4ghz band on a street... when really, only 3 were needed. There is no collaboration between neighbors, it's just a nightmare freeforall making it work for.. nobody.
Thank you for your video.
I bought a router WiFi 6e to have Disco Party streaming DJ music up to 240 phones. So every user phone can listen in full stereo or even see the video thru VLC app.
The prices of the router WiFi 6 are now very low and can be used as signal amplifier at home.
BUT, the devices conected to the router must have capability to use 5G and Wifi 6 band. So, not every device can take advantage of the WiFi 6 extended feature. I have to test the router with a large users group to check it.
Great for someone wanting to be a network professional. TMI for me and I have been in IT for 40 years.
I have 2 APs in my House.
The First was Upgraded to U6 Pro in February this year. And the second now only some Days ago :)
Fun fact. If Wifi6 (802.11ax) detects 802.11ac devices, it will fall back to the ac feature set and you will not take advantage of ax's high density features. This is a future technology unless you can guarantee ONLY 802.11ax supported devices connect.
I honestly feel like even if you have a good 802.11 ac router, you will still get a noticeable improvement from Wi-Fi 6, because it seems to optimize the connection on just about every device.
I installed 4 U6 Pro APs in my house last Summer and they work great. My desktop motherboard's wifi 6 works great with external antennae, it is similar to gigabit ethernet. I still run the wire though and just use the wifi for wifi tethering when both of my wireline ISPs are down at the same time (very rarely). I get 934 mbps on wifi 6 tablets and phones, and don't on wifi 5. The wifi 5 devices topped out in the 300's of Mbps usually. 934 mbps everywhere upstairs and in most of downstairs though, and a low of 786 mbps in the furthest bathroom...
I have a WiFi6 modem (in my office at the front of my house) and a respectable number of WiFi6 devices - but I do want to extend my signal to my big new deck in the back yard and maybe in my basement.
Ideally, I'd be able to pick up a 6E (which is more the current standard - though WiFi 7 is now being heavily touted), but I see some WiFi6 options that make more sense: I'm looking for a wired/PoE ceiling mounted AP just inside my patio door to maximize signals out to the back yard, the adjacent family room and in a kitchen to be renovated with a bunch of new/upgraded smart devices.
I had IMAGINED that the move to the smart home "Matter" standard might reduce my need to rely on WiFi - and it still might, eventually - but in the interim I'll probably have to look at more "Matter over Wi-Fi" options in the absence of enough Thread-based devices.
So: a cheap-ish WiFi6 mesh it will be...
I upgraded to WiFi 6 about 5 months ago, one of the best decisions I've ever made. No more router restarts. No more random loss of connection. No more kicks and hiccups. Better range than 2.4GHz. Stable. Lightning fast. Don't even need to route a cable, yeah, it's that good!
Hello. If I may ask how much is your internet speed?
"Better range than 2.4ghz". Not true. 2.4 ghz signal travels further than 5ghz. 5ghz handles more data.
@@flyboybobio3431 it has both 2.4 and 5 in the router. typically wifi 6 routers do have better signal strength as long as you get a decent one. significantly better signal strength.
@@abhinavsharma1605 it's about 100 megabits.
@Flyboybobio I can assure you that that statement is true.
When I connect to 2.4, the signal is so faint that it hardly even shows that I'm connected.
When I connect to wifi 6, the signal is strong, and nothing seems to block its way. Not even the doors.
Thanks for saving me some money. Sticking with my existing Ubiquiti APs.
You did an excellent job explaining all of this, thank you.
Could you make a chart sort off also including wifi 6E. Like with the amount of devices for each type of wifi depending on their frequency type.
3:36 "channels" here are not differrent wireless "channels" but rather it is having multiple tx/rx spatial streams. your highway analogy for mu-mimo is still kinda correct, but with your saying having a 4x4 mimo device wtih 80mhz bandwidth should have resulted in 320mhz of bandwidth being used by a single ap, which is of course incorrect.
what you understood as mimo is not something thats never done however, in 4g, carrier aggregation transmits/receives over multiple freqs, in addition to using 2x2/4x4 mimo.
How much can you benefit from WiFi 6 APs if you still have some devices that are WiFi 5 or older?
Thank you for the video..... I have been using and installing the TP-Link DECO M9 Plus for years now. It is techically a WiFi 6 Mesh wifi device. Seeing as it offers 2.4Ghz, and two 5Ghz bands, I find them the best bang for the buck. With that said I do find that devices coming from over seas have a problem with the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz under one SSID. I have to go into the mesh app and force 5Ghz off to add these devices, what a pain. My other issue I see is the WiFi 6 network identifies the wireless devices correctly. For example, One of my friends has the Netgear Wifi 6 mesh network, 3 discs. He has two wifi printer, both from Brothers. They show up as Hon Hai Industries Co.... You also end up with a lot of devices that show up as Unknown, None, or Gateway... The only solution I have found for this is re-naming the devices with in the app. To do this I ended up matching up the MAC addresses.
We have a router and two satellites Orbi rbk50. We have a couple of smart TVs, couple of Apple TVs , 4 iPhones, iPads, maybe 25 Sonos, smart
Plugs, switches combined, smart oven and fridge, thermostats etc.
I haven’t had any issues with our network. While I pay for gig speed I get only about 300-400MB speed throughout my house.
I don’t have any issues. But I do keep eyeing up a new Orbi mesh system using Wi-Fi 6. But unsure if
It’s worth it. If my speed increase a lot
That would be nice but really it doesn’t seem to cause an issue now.
Do folks think it’s worth it?
Also BSS colouring that removes the listen before talk issue.
You may also want to make people aware that the majority of WiFi 6 APs don't actually support MU-OFDMA as it's not a mandatory option to pass certification, it is however mandatory in WiFi 7.
Hard to find IOT devices that use any of the features of Wi-Fi 6 if at all. Most of them appear to be stuck on Wi-Fi 4 or 5 if your lucky. Ohh and I'm running Wi-Fi 6E which is much much faster. 160Mhz clean / clear interference free.
If you have a lot of interference from neighbors, then that would be another reason to go to WiFi 6. It should help you there. It will help even more if your neighbors upgrade too.
WiFi 7 IS 802.11be, 802.11be is NOT WiFi 8. It was expected to launch in 2024 but as of the last few months the final version is being marketed for this year. A Chinese company already has a router out based on a draft, because you can do that. It’s basically a soft launch though, they just wanted to be first despite the product being practically unavailable. In the past Apple released their AirPort routers based on draft specs, but at the time it was probably less likely the drafts would change by the final version. The bigger issue with upgrading from WiFi 5 is that virtually no access points can handle more than 1 gig for the uplink. So for a lot of people, they’re either already obsolete or will be in a year because they can’t use their full internet bandwidth, which means the access point would continue to be the bottleneck for all their devices no matter how fast their WiFi connection is. The 4K-QAM will be great. More channel width will be great…. if device manufacturers actually build it into their devices, that is. They’ve sure let us down in the past.
He doesn't mention security. WiFi 6 means WPA3 which is a big improvement over WPA2
Good observation
I wanted to make a belated comment about DFS channels. If you live in an area as I do, surrounded by mountains and with no local active radars, you can safely use DFS. I’ve been running one of my 802.11ac(“wifi 5”) APs on channel 100 @80MHz width for years now with no issues. 650+ mbps real world speeds.
Thank you for the excellent overview of EVERYTHING...but the reality is as you stated..the common home user does not need it. It saddens me that the tech industry keeps selling the next and greatest technology to customers who dont need it and wont be able to use it with their current set up by telling them its faster and better when the claim is false! People can save so much money by buying older technology that they will use or at least will work and is cheaper than the current. You can now buy wifi 5 routers and mesh devices for 75% of the cost of wifi 6 ones! If your current router breaks or you are in need of a new one, you can buy the older tech which is better than what you had and that will work just fine for pennies on the dollar!
I was wondering about this cuz I have a Wi-Fi 6 router. I did notice vast improvements over my old Wi-Fi 5 router. Especially with range. What's cool is that my Samsung S22 Ultra phone supports Wi-Fi 6! I did not know it had that. Because when it's connected to the network it will show the usual Wi-Fi symbol like it normally does when connected at home, But it will have a little "6" in the corner of the Wi-Fi symbol signifying that It's a Wi-Fi 6 or WiFi 6E network. I have a 1 gigabit per second connection so my internet was already very fast. Even with my Wi-Fi 5 router it was extremely fast. So I'm noticing any speed differences between Wi-Fi 5 and 6. But what I am noticing is the range has increased significantly. It also seems to penetrate floors and walls much much better
Excellent video. Thank you. Subscribed.
Great video, thanks for such an informative overview. My application is creating wifi networks for less than 25 devices at large public events. The audience is sometimes in the thousands but they do no have access to my network. I'm having trouble figuring out if upgrading my APs to wifi 6 would have any advantage in that use case.
Will only upgrade when the 6e stuff finally makes it out without costing a mortgage
I have WIFI six I love it waiting for cost to come down on Wi-Fi 7
"WFi 6 in a church...." we have a broken access point, I have mentioned it a few times, however nobody else has noticed, so it stays broken. The main call in our church is "turn it off" so we don't get a rude shock mid service.
For residential the problem is still what best goes thru drywall? Or the video doorbell is mounted outside on a brick wall. What is the most robust signal?
Love Your detailed Videos.✌
Based on installing over 8000 WiFi radios mostly in high interference environments such as condominiums, timeshares, resorts, hotels, etc, we found WiFi 6 delivers much greater speed to WiFi 6 clients such as phones or new laptops. An AX1800 router delivers much higher speed than an AC1750 on my WiFi 6 compatible laptop. Vendors don’t cite this as a major strength of WiFi 6 because they think most people live in a stand-alone home.
Upgraded to 6e... HOLY CRAP!!! WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!! My laptops and phones all have 6e cards, so I get the best out of it. UI only gave it a 2.5 NIC on the AP's, but that's what I run to my network drops/AP's across my home, so I had it already with the UI 8 port 2.5Gbps switch and a 20gbps aggregated fiber backbone of my network to my rack. 6e is a massive update...
I upgraded from UI AC-Pro's to UI LR-6 then to UI 6e. I have the UI 6-LITE and the new LITE+ in my garage providing access to devices in there any vehicles. The 6LITE+ is half the size of the 6LITE and heat output, so much nicer... the UI AP LR-6 was a MASSIVE size AP and wondering if the UI LR6+ is smaller like the LITE AP was.
Just wanted to let you know someone with your exact name used to work at Red Hat Linux under the X windows project decades ago. You might know that if you've ever googled yourself?
The beard is coming in nicely!!
WiFi 7 or (802.11be) is about to release! The new routers will be available on the market but the WiFi 7 network isn't suppose to launch until 2024, geez. Max Data Rate 46 Gbps, Bands 1-7.25 GHz, Security WPA3, Channel Size is up to 320 MHz, Modulation 4096-QAM and MIMO is 16x16 MU-MIMO.
Great breakdown for this, thank you!
Really insightful and well explained!
Happy new year!
Would you please review the new AP U6+ and compare it to the U6 lite and U6 pro? Thanks!!!
Great video and very informative, thank you!
nitpick: 802.11n supported 5GHz, it just wasn't required, so if you bought a 802.11n adapter it may or may not support 5GHz.
Oh, and of course, 802.11a was a 5GHz standard.
802.11n was a bit weird. Like the red headed step-child of wireless standards.
@@CrosstalkSolutions I thought b was. It's the only version of Wifi that uses DSSS, instead of OFDM. It would have been better if 802.11a was used on 2.4 and 5 GHz. As it is, 802.11g uses exactly the same modulation as a, but with the addition of b protection. That protection, which can kill g performance, is only needed because b cannot understand the g frames and so can't determine that it's in use on the channel.
You say it isn't worth it for home users, but is wifi 6 useful in a congested space? Does it help your AP/client navigate around a ton of external wifi 5/6 noise? For example, a large and dense apartment complex? It seems like the benefits are mainly for a single AP to manage airspace.
Get Wi-Fi 6E . The problem is Wi-Fi 6 is still in the 5Ghz band and if you live in a saturated environment your going to get congestion issues. I live in a condo complex that's next to rentals so there is 10 people or more on each channel. So sometime this year I plan to get a 6e mesh system for that 6ghz channel.
have you tried it yet? ive always thought 6ghz would be best for crowded studio apartment complexes
I run a few small (~50 people each) Ubiqiti networks, I'm largely using wifi5. I've only been switching out the APs as they die or the network needs expanding. Emails and basic web-surfing haven't really changed or required the immediate change over.
I'll be referencing this video to the people who are complaining that their speeds would be vastly faster if they had wifi6. They always cite their "super techy" friend or 15 year old gamer kid.
Short question: I need more APs in my company and I'm wondering which APs to buy that have a good Wifi roaming functionality?
Long question: Very soon company where I work will move to new place and that new place is big (with very long hallway with offices on both sides and before and after hallway) and we will probably need two or more APs there.
But now I have big dilema.
Currently we have only one Unifi AP, some very old model UAP, but I'm very pleased with it. It is working beautifully 24/7 have good coverage, only it doesn't have 5Ghz band but... we get used to it. I have Unifi controller on local server and I like options that I have there, for example I can see current download and upload speed of all connected devices, have option to easily block and unblock devices and etc... As a main router we use Mikrotik.
BUT, my company have offices in more locations besides this main one (where I work) and every location have a Mikrotik as main router and we can't change them, we must use Mikrotik as main routers but we can use any Wifi equipment we like.
So on those other locations we have a Mikrotik APs connected to main Mikrotik router. They are working fine, but with them we have a problem with Wifi roaming. When people use internet on their mobile devices and walk around the place, their mobile device stay connected to far AP with low signal and refuses to connect to closer AP with better signal. I can try to fix this with access list but it is pain in the a$$ and it will shorten coverage of APs to other sides where there is no signal from other APs.
Now, I'm wondering what is the best option for my company to put at new place:
1. To spend a smallest amount of money and buy Mikrotik APs
2. To spend a little bit more money and buy Wifi 5 Unifi APs
3. To spend even more money and buy Wifi 6 Unifi APs
I must say that money is not the problem (at least I hope it isn't) but it will be bad for me if I buy an expensive APs and people would still have problems with Wifi roaming.
TP-LINK OMADA. Forget ubiquiti.
Should we get WiFi 6 or WiFi 6e
WiFi 6 is the most adopted and practical, WiFi 6E is a “future proof” band.
Can I operate the WIFI 6 APs along with the older original Ubiquity APs on the same network? I do still have dead spots, a couple wifi 6's should fix that issue, but as I have a 5200 sq ft spread out in diff directions building, need to make sure the 6's won't interrupt the wifi 5's older design Ubiqiti AP's I have in place.
Pretty good explanations. A couple of things:
1. You said Wifi 4/N is 2.4Ghz only. That's not true. It can also use 5Ghz.
2. You said Wifi 8 is 802.11be. I thought Wifi 7 is 802.11be. Can someone verify this?
So basically Wi-Fi 6‘s big selling points are efficiency and under the hood improvements (reliability). Wi-Fi 6E’s big selling point is everything about Wi-Fi six with massive thoughput increase on new 6ghz band.
Good video. What about in the case of living in a condo. It is 1100 sq ft. My router can only be on either end of the unit. When using 5GHz, the coverage is there but spotty. My analyzer shows it at around -72dBm. The 2.4GHz band is not an issue but too slow to be useful. We have a mixture of Wi-Fi 5 devices (work laptops, iPhone XS, Nest, Smart TV), Wi-Fi6 (M1 MacBook Pro, iPhone 14 Pro) and 1 Wi-Fi 6E (iPad M2). Our provide delivers around 120 Mbps. My network analyzers shows about 64 networks in the area. I suspect this is contributing to the noise. Would I benefit from upgrading to a Wi-Fi6 router or should I need to consider using a mesh solution or just stay as is? I am currently using a 6th gen AirPort Extreme.
I have 47 Philips Hue bulbs, multiple laptops and tablets, HomePod Minis, media server... do you think that would satisfy the density recommendations?
I live in a flat with dense neighboring wifi. Recently I got to play with a 5G modem which also has wifi6. If my client devices support wifi6 they get 140 Mbits on 2,4GHz while none supported get 70 Mbps at best
Yes you should it's far better than any previous any generation. Most Wifi 6 network routers can be bought for less than 70$
You can check Ruijie WiFi6 AP’s, definitely will surprise you
we are going to wi fi 7 and this wiiiiiilllll be a big difference unlike wifi 5 to 6 or even 6e and is not that big of a jump. waiting for wifi7
I dont think they will skip to WiFi 8, they just did a whole renaming thing. 802.11be was renamed to WiFi 7
Regarding your recommendation to not upgrading to Wi-Fi 6, suggest the benefits of wpa3 security seems to have been passed over.
Excellent overview. thank you
@maxtech tested out wifi 6 because apple added that to this year release of their own products. He is wondering why things did not seem much faster.
Can you check his video on it and point him in the correct direction for the next time he tries testing it out?
Thanks a lot for you explanation
I like having wireless one gigabyte speeds. I don't pay for 1 GB internet so it can be cut in half by using Wi-Fi. 6E is the way to go at the moment.
I was thinking of replacing the wifi5 AP’s at my folks because of the huge interference they are subject to. See, they live in a condo tower/complex and, when scanning I can regularly see over 90 ssid in the 2.5Ghz range alone. Now the neighbours complain to their respective ISP that the internet / wifi is slow and unreliable, and in turn, they deploy mesh systems in their individual 1000 square foot condo!!! Making the problem worst!!! It should be illegal for ISPs of this world to deploy at random these systems that are completely destroying the airwaves. Anyway, from what you are describing, the overall performance would increase in that type of environment right?
According to the chart, near the beginning of the video, one might get the impression WiFi started with 802.11a. This is not accurate. There actually was WiFi before then, on 2.4 GHz, but with narrower 2 Mb channels in 1997. However, Wifi didn't become popular until 802.11b. Look up 802.11 legacy mode on Wikipedia for more info. I get the impression 802.11b was a big mistake, as it uses a completely different modulation method, DSSS, instead of OFDM as used on all other versions. This is why it causes such a performance penalty, when it's used in the presence of 802.11g. The 802.11g devices actually have to transmit a b frame, to reserve time for the g frame. With all the other versions, a slower header can be used, with the rest of the frame at a higher speed. 802.11g is exactly the same as a, other than frequency, but with the addition of the b protection.
BTW, another use for 6 GHz is for a "back channel" to extend WiFi to multiple access points, without running a cable.
Are you going to be doing a video about Wifi 7?