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Have you upgraded to WiFi 6 - 802.11.ax? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/networking

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Am about to move houses and new place will have 1000/1000 speeds. Wondering if I should get a Wifi 6 router or not, is it worth the upgrade? Can Wifi 5 and 6 equipment be combined? Or will it then all be 'downgraded' to Wifi 5?

Usecase: At home - with 8 or so devices.

Anyway, let me know your experiences with WiFi 6 and wether I should aim to get it.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

WiFi 6 has been out for like 3 years now so unless you're on a budget it might make sense to just go for WiFi 7. Of course you'll need client devices to be 6 or 7 to take advantage but that's doable on the cheap for laptops with replaceable M.2 WiFi cards. I upgraded both my laptops to WiFi 7 when I replaced my 3 year old u6 pro with a u7 pro, so I can now get around a gig to my nas. The only thing is that 6ghz barely goes through a wall for me so I need to be in the same room unless I want to fall back to 5ghz but it's still nice to have when the situation calls for it. Plus if your phone isn't WiFi 6 already your next one will probably be 6 or 7, so when friends are over with their new phones and laptops they get a nice low-contention experience on my WiFi.

My main reason for staying on the bleeding edge is the airtime efficiency upgrades unique to WiFi 6 and 7 which makes a big difference in crowded apartment situations the more people move on from WiFi 5.