WiFi 7™ - are you using it?

By forster
in Smart Home, Network & Security

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Grand Master

forster

Posted
Posted (edited)

I currently run a Unifi setup, I upgraded to full gigabit from Virgin Media here in good ol' Blighty and this was the only thing for my Unifi AP that would give me a decent speed over their other offerings. I picked up the U7 Pro AP and it's working out great.

My question is are you using wifi 7 gear, what are you using, what would you recommend etc. I love new toys so would love to hear about anyone else on the bleeding edge.

(and yes, all of my gear is wired, but who can resist a new networking toy!)

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Grand Master

Martog

Posted
Posted

I have a couple of the Unifi 7 Pro Wall's and only my phone supports Wifi 7, my Legion Go's support 6E so there's that.  Doubt I'll be getting any new laptops or what else soon that has it.  I'll be getting 5Gbps internet sometime this year hopefully, I've gotten mailers just haven't seen the fiber being trenched yet.

Grand Master

forster

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 19/06/2024 at 16:58, Martog said:

I have a couple of the Unifi 7 Pro Wall's and only my phone supports Wifi 7, my Legion Go's support 6E so there's that.  Doubt I'll be getting any new laptops or what else soon that has it.  I'll be getting 5Gbps internet sometime this year hopefully, I've gotten mailers just haven't seen the fiber being trenched yet.

How's the Pro Walls working out? Just watched a video on them and they look pretty slick.

Veteran

+mram Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

I feel like WiFi 7 is at a point where it's not that much better than 6E.  So no, not immediately using this.

For me it's all about the strongest signal strength.  I am not sure I'm fully on-board with the hub-spoke methods for wifi nowadays as that seems to add delays.  I would be happy to be wrong through -- I have a house with crazy reinforced walls so it's sometimes difficult to get signal to some spots. 

The idea of a hub-spoke system kind of relies on the "spokes" having good communication to the "hub" and thats where it all breaks down for me.  I don't like the idea of having multiple network hops, especially when considering latency concerns.  Even if endpoint connections have great signal to the "spoke" the same backhaul problems can exist.   Not really sure the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak.

Very interested to see if 7 improves on this or experiences even with 6E, but my understanding is that Wifi7 still uses the same 2,4gz backhaul, so no real benefit.

If you were using Wifi7 in an open-room scenario - or at least no signal concerns - the 6ghz + 5ghz channels sound amazing on paper and I'd love that.

Grand Master

Martog

Posted
Posted
On 19/06/2024 at 12:09, forster said:

How's the Pro Walls working out? Just watched a video on them and they look pretty slick.

Very well, they are still teething on the firmware on the U7's in general, I had some initial IoT weirdness but that's gone now.  They don't have the ethernet switch, I'm guessing due to the heat.  UI did say a version, probably Enterprise, is in the works that has them.  I had an old printer connected to one and ended up getting a small TP Link router that can be switched to client mode so act as a bridge to solve that.

On 19/06/2024 at 12:18, mram said:

I feel like WiFi 7 is at a point where it's not that much better than 6E.  So no, not immediately using this.

For me it's all about the strongest signal strength.  I am not sure I'm fully on-board with the hub-spoke methods for wifi nowadays as that seems to add delays.  I would be happy to be wrong through -- I have a house with crazy reinforced walls so it's sometimes difficult to get signal to some spots. 

The idea of a hub-spoke system kind of relies on the "spokes" having good communication to the "hub" and thats where it all breaks down for me.  I don't like the idea of having multiple network hops, especially when considering latency concerns.  Even if endpoint connections have great signal to the "spoke" the same backhaul problems can exist.   Not really sure the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak.

Very interested to see if 7 improves on this or experiences even with 6E, but my understanding is that Wifi7 still uses the same 2,4gz backhaul, so no real benefit.

If you were using Wifi7 in an open-room scenario - or at least no signal concerns - the 6ghz + 5ghz channels sound amazing on paper and I'd love that.

The MLO is one of the largest advantages with Wifi 7.  Having both 6Ghz + 5Ghz would saturate a 2.5Gbs ethernet connection and probably go further than that.  I had Wifi 6 and my handhelds with 6E so figured might as well go with Wifi 7 instead of just going from 6 to 6E.

Grand Master

forster

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 19/06/2024 at 18:05, Martog said:

The MLO is one of the largest advantages with Wifi 7.  Having both 6Ghz + 5Ghz would saturate a 2.5Gbs ethernet connection and probably go further than that.  I had Wifi 6 and my handhelds with 6E so figured might as well go with Wifi 7 instead of just going from 6 to 6E.

I have a 10gb backbone, but this ap is connected with a  Unifi 1gig POE switch, fine since the internet connect is 1gb but but Im drooling at what the future might hold!

Veteran

bikeman25

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just started using Wifi 6E here with Gaming Desktop,  eventually will on my Handheld Phone,  though signal isn't bad with my Comcast Xfinity XB8 Gateway at all,  running just like my usual wired 1Gig connection that i typically have Desktop hooked up to,   but figured cable outta the way til Townhome Annual inspection done was smart move to make this time lol--(Inspection scheduled for yesterday was cancelled, so now just sticking on Wifi 6E til new date, and once its fully done, then probably swapping back to Wired Ethernet) 

 

 

Though once Comcast has a Wifi 7 Gateway probably will upgrade to that haha, and be ready for the future Devices with Wifi 7 lol,  ((have Wireless TV box so have to rent there Gateway for the Wireless TV box to work)  

 

 

Wifi SpeedTest.png

Edited by bikeman25
Grand Master

forster

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 19/06/2024 at 18:17, bikeman25 said:

Just started using Wifi 6E here with Gaming Desktop,  eventually will on my Handheld Phone,  though signal isn't bad with my Comcast Xfinity XB8 Gateway at all,  running just like my usual wired 1Gig connection that i typically have Desktop hooked up to,   but figured cable outta the way til Townhome Annual inspection done was smart move to make this time lol--(Inspection scheduled for yesterday was cancelled, so now just sticking on Wifi 6E til new date, and once its fully done, then probably swapping back to Wired Ethernet) 

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/e05b232b-97b8-4ebd-9455-0f43a85d8863

Nice! I wish I could get 1GB symmetrical, but that's the down side of living in the UK, I can still only get hobo uploads. I mean, I really dont NEED 1GB upload but hey, Im a nerd.

Grand Master

Martog

Posted
Posted
On 19/06/2024 at 13:10, forster said:

I have a 10gb backbone, but this ap is connected with a  Unifi 1gig POE switch, fine since the internet connect is 1gb but but Im drooling at what the future might hold!

I wouldn't be surprised if the enterprise versions of the U7 have 5gig or 10gig connectivity.

Neowinian

Abercrombe

Posted
Posted

I currently use an ASUS BE98 Pro. PC uses an MSI Herald Qualcomm Fast Connect 7800 Wifi-7 PCIe. My other WiFi 7 device is my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Both have really good connectivity over WiFi 7. The BE98 is also rock solid with all my WiFi 6E devices. Unfortunately, I don't realize any benefits over WiFi 6E until Micorsoft officially supports WiFi 7 in Windows 11 which is scheduled for 2H24 update. Then we should be able to utilize MLO and multi-band connectivity to truly benefit from WiFi 7. Highly recommend the BE98 Pro but it's big and expensive.

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
Posted

Upgraded to WiFi 6E in 2022, after using WiFi 5 (802.11ac) since 2014. I just got my first WiFi-6e client recently, and it does the job.

Not planning any WiFi upgrades unless this router dies/doesn't fit the household requirements. 

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

Hello,

I am using a TP-Link router right now with a couple of laptops upgraded with Intel BE200 cards.  Performance is very good throughout my house, and even devices equipped with older Wi-Fi 6E (AX210) and Wi-Fi 6 (AX200) cards show improvements.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 19/06/2024 at 12:05, Martog said:

The MLO is one of the largest advantages with Wifi 7.  Having both 6Ghz + 5Ghz would saturate a 2.5Gbs ethernet connection and probably go further than that.

With some routers the real bandwidth measured was around 1.3gbps, and with cables bandwidth isn't competing for antenna time.  Still YMMV.

Community Regular

Ixion

Posted
Posted
On 20/06/2024 at 12:07, spaceelf said:

With some routers the real bandwidth measured was around 1.3gbps, and with cables bandwidth isn't competing for antenna time.  Still YMMV.

My Work laptop which is WiFi 6 based regularly connects at over 2Gbps (160MHz channels on 5GHz) with real-world bandwidth approaching 2Gbps, my personal 6E laptop surpasses that but real world isn't actually all that much better. I don't yet have a WiFi 7 card to test as my main computer is AMD based and the current Intel cards just don't work on AMD machines!

With my previous router the 160Mhz channel was reserved solely for backhaul so devices were limited to 80Mhz, that used to achieve 1.3Gbps.

An extra 320Mhz bandwidth and MLO should make future WiFi 7 clients a lot faster, we're just not quite there yet!

Veteran

Phemo

Posted
Posted (edited)

Still on Wifi 6 myself.  Just using cheap Deco X60 APs.  Haven't felt the need to upgrade as I only have 1Gb Internet - this is a quick speed test now via Wifi:

16402807081.png

 

And one via Ethernet:

16402821711.png

 

Kids are off school today so that may explain the few megabit difference here and there :)  Other than the ping being 5ms over Wifi vs 3ms on Ethernet, my Internet speeds are exactly the same via cable or Wifi so no need for me to go 6E or 7 until I get faster Internet.  Anything I do that involves large file transfers I do on systems connected with Ethernet anyway, so I wouldn't benefit there either.

Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

At home I must be honest I'm still on WiFi 5, which is essentially an Asus RT-AC68U flashed with custom firmware and used as an access point.

I don't really use WiFi, so that's more than good enough for any phones / tablets or guest devices to update and browse the web in the living room. All devices in other rooms are wired.

At work I have a few UniFi U6's around the building, which serve the intended purpose well. The feedback on our WiFi is its essentially  "witchcraft" 😅 with how fast / good it is, so no immediate need to upgrade to WiFi 7.  I would likely go with the U7 Pro's when the time comes however.

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 21/06/2024 at 10:00, Jose_49 said:

Jesus, I'm amazed to see everyone talk about having 1 Gbps connection as if it's nothing!

Such great times 🥹.

I still appreciate 10 Mbits as a holy grail! (Currently having 250mbs at my house!)

I pay $40 for 500 / 20. This is promotional pricing, so it will be $70 unless I call them and complain. If they give me any grief, there's a fiber provider offering 500 / 500 for $50

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