My Wifi 6 (802.11ax) Experience So Far

[Pib]

Felt it was time to do some home IT upgrades since I hadn't bought anything major in around 4 years.  I specifically wanted to get a new laptop and router which had Wifi6 (802.11ax) capability.   

 

Over the last month I bought myself a new laptop....a Lenovo P53 laptop with Wifi6 (i.e., 802.11ax)...it uses the Intel dual stream AX200 Wifi6 chip.   And I bought an ASUS RT-AX88U off U.S. Amazon...total router price including shipping/import/tax approx Bt9,100 (sure beats the Bt15,900 invadeIT price and approx Bt12,000 prices on Lazada).

 

Just this Monday I started using the ASUS AX88U and have done a few Wifi6 tests with the Lenovo P53 laptop....these are Wifi6 tests. 

 

First test was hooking an external USB SSD to the router's USB 3.0 port so I could feed it with a signal source far exceeding 1Gb which is probably the fastest home plan you can get from an ISP here in Thailand.   Before hooking the SSD to the router I hooked it to my laptop to do a file transfer speed test...transfer a BIG 50GB drive image file....I got a transfer speed of 2.8Gb.   So, I now know that USB SSD can put out up to 2.8Gb speed.  I now hook the SSD to the AX88U USB 3.0 port and do a couple of Wifi6 speed tests with my P53 laptop.   Remember, these are Wifi6 (802.11ax) tests.

 

So far I've only done a test in the same room when using a SSD file transfer as the signal source....the laptop and router only a few meters apart...no obstructions.   Using a 5Ghz channel set to 80Mhz bandwidth I got a Wifi speed of 927Mb and using a 160Mhz bandwidth setting I got 991Mb.

 

OK, I now disconnect the SSD and just do some regular speed tests using my AIS Fibre internet plan currently running at 700Mb down/50Mb up....and all of these tests are on a 5Ghz channel with a bandwidth setting of 80Mhz.

 

Speedtest.net with laptop and router "in same room"

 

Speedtest.net with laptop and router "in next room"...4 inch concrete wall and a wooden closet the Wifi signal must fight through.

Actually got a little higher speed than being in the same room.  I have found being too close to your router can actually decrease

max Wifi speed....have experienced this on multiple devices over the years.

 

 

Speedtest.net with laptop and router "on different stories"....router upstairs....laptop downstairs...Wifi signal must

fight thru a 4-6 inch thick concrete floor and partially through a 4 inch thick wall.  

 

Yeap, so far I'm impressed with Wifi6 speed capability. 

 

 

[muratremix]

Nice review. I wish Macbook pro 2019 models had wifi 6 but they don't, so it's useless for me.

I can get 600 mbps in same room with AC86U on 5ghz and 300 Mbps via router wireless client at upstairs which is enough I guess?

[Henryford]

Does this mean that before you got your wifi 6 equipment you were not getting the 700 mbps speeds? I thought the main advantage of wifi 6 was connection to multiple devices rather than increased speed. I have just bought a wifi 6 laptop so might try it with a new router if there are real benefits.

[Pib]

2 hours ago, Henryford said:

Does this mean that before you got your wifi 6 equipment you were not getting the 700 mbps speeds? I thought the main advantage of wifi 6 was connection to multiple devices rather than increased speed. I have just bought a wifi 6 laptop so might try it with a new router if there are real benefits.

To get Wifi6 speed/capability a person needs to have a Wifi6 router "and Wifi6 capable clients" like a laptop or smartphone with Wifi6 capability.  Such client devices are still few. Preaching to the choir I know.

 

Until I got my Lenovo P53 laptop with Wifi6 capability, my other two laptops only had Wifi5 (802.11ac) capability...and the particular Wifi5 circuits in those laptops could not achieve anything close to speeds in my opening post.   And none of my smartphones/tablets have Wifi6...only have Wifi5. 

 

The best the laptops/phones/tablets could do was around 300Mb when connected to my Wifi5 Asus AC2900 RT-AC86U router like muratremix also has....it's a durn good router. 

 

One laptop has Wifi5/1x1/AC600 stream capability and the other Wifi5/2x2/AC1200 stream USB Wifi thumbdrive capability.  All my phones/tables only have AC600/1x1 stream capability.  However, if my Wifi5 client devices had better spec'ed Wifi5 capability...like a top quality 2x2 or 3x3 stream/AC1200/AC1900 Wifi circuit--they could have probably reached around 650Mb in the same room with the Asus 86U Wifi5 router "if conditions are really good"....but that would be about it...

 

Now I got my Lenovo P53 latpop with Wifi6 2x2 stream capability before I got the AX88U Wifi6 router....I was still using the AC86U Wifi5 router.  And with that P53 laptop I could pull 650Mb speed in the same room with the Wifi5 86U router---but that was it.  Even when I was on a one day 1000/1000Mb AIS plan upgrade or on my current 700/50 plan then 650Mb was still the limit...that's all my Wifi5 router could reach whether connecting to a Wifi6 or Wifi5 capable client device. 

 

But when swapping out the Wifi5 86U router with the Wifi6 88U router and then doing speedtests with a a Wifi6 client (that is, my P53 Wifi6 laptop) I could now reach almost 1Gb in Wifi speed when feeding the router with a signal source far exceeding 1Gb speed.  And then when using my AIS 700/50 internet plan (which really give speeds 10-20% higher than 700/50) I could now pull the full speed of that plan as shown as shown in my opening post with Wifi speed around 750Mb....basically getting every ounce of my internet plan's speed "via Wifi"...don't have to use an ethernet connection.  And I use few ethernet connection setups in my two story home...simply unable to use an ethernet connection with many of my devices....simply don't want to either....Wifi-use is king in my home.

 

In the real world Wifi6 is suppose to offer around a "one-third real world speed increase" over Wifi5 plus being able to maintain that higher speed much easier with multiple client devices attached.   Wifi6 is definitely living up to being faster than Wifi5 "if your entire Wifi chain is quality Wifi6 capable."  Like it's been said many times, the fastest Wifi speed you will get will be determined by the "weak link" in the Wifi chain. 

 

 

[ravip]

As the 5 GHz frequency range is notoriously short, how does WiFi 6 perform with an enhanced distance between the device and the router?

[Orton Rd]

what do you need anything that fast for though?

[robblok]

7 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

what do you need anything that fast for though?

Downloads of movies and stuff. I have a 1000/700 connection (but don't use wifi all cables still) and get great speeds for downloads. 

 

It also works great to upload huge files 10GB plus to dropbox (business stuff). Some people have other needs then regular users.

[Pib]

3 hours ago, ravip said:

As the 5 GHz frequency range is notoriously short, how does WiFi 6 perform with an enhanced distance between the device and the router?

Better based on limited testing....see third snapshot in my post #1 for the speed I got with the AX88U Wifi6 router on the 2nd floor and laptop on 1st floor.  I could not get that speed with my Wifi5 AC86U router and my laptop with the AX Wifi circuit.....if i remember right I could only get right at 500Mb speed with the AC86U between the two floors.

[Pib]

Update: I've now had my ASUS AX88U (AX6000) Wifi6 router in operation for almost 3 months....it continues to work like a charm...and it's had one or two firmware updates during those 3 months to make it a little better.    

 

In my opening post I included some speedtest results between my AX88U and my Lenovo P53 laptop which has an Intel AX200 Wifi6 module (AX2400).   These tests showed the router and laptop in the same room, the laptop then in the adjoining room, and then the laptop downstairs.   I had the router Wifi bandwidth set to 80MHz for the earlier tests, but the results you will see below are with the bandwidth set to 160Mhz which helped to improved speed especially the further the laptop was away from the router.  5GHz band used.  Tests ran at approx 8:30pm/21 Mar/Saturday.   

 

1st snapshot shows the speed I getting on my AIS Fibre 700/50 plan using an Ethernet connection...this is the baseline, hardwired speed.  The 2nd snapshot is the laptop in the adjoining room using a Wifi6 connection.  3rd snapshot  is laptop downstairs using a Wifi6 connection.  

 

1st Snapshot..."Ethernet Connection"....my 700/50 plan is pumping out 793/57

 

 

2nd Snapshot...Wifi6 Connection in Adjoining Room after signal fights thru a 4 inch concrete wall and a wooden closet.   Basically, same speed as an Ethernet connection.

 

3rd Snapshot...Wifi6 connection with laptop downstairs...Wifi signal must fight thru a 4-6 inch thick concrete floor and partially through a 4 inch thick wall.   

Edited March 21, 2020 by Pib

[muratremix]

It's too expensive. You can't even get over 300 mbps international speed at 1Gbit packages, having more than 300 mbps effective wifi speed (600 mbps connection speed on Wifi) is useless.

 

a 4k hdr netflix video consumes 15 Mbit bandwidth. I download files to my nas which is connected via ethernet. I'd go for Wifi 6 if I couldn't install modem/router where I want to have it due to walls etc and if I have to carry whole internet from one floor to another via wifi. 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, muratremix said:

It's too expensive. You can't even get over 300 mbps international speed at 1Gbit packages, having more than 300 mbps effective wifi speed (600 mbps connection speed on Wifi) is useless.

Speedtest.net results to Los Angeles with an AX connection between my AX88U router and my P53 laptop in the adjoining room.  I'm on a 700/50 AIS Fibre plan.   But yea, generally to the great majority of international locations you will not get over 300Mb speed.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

Was doing some more playing around this morning with my Wifi6 home setup...this time playing with my ASUS AX92 Wifi6 router which is really a tri-band router....it has the 2.4GHz band, a 5Ghz Wifi5/AC1200 band, and a 5Ghz Wifi6 band.  With it having both an Wifi5/AC band and a Wifi6/AX band it makes it easy to do speed comparisons between using a Wifi5/AC connection and a Wifi6/AX connection.  I'm using my P53 laptop which has a Wifi6/AX module which is fully backwards compatible with Wifi5/AC also.

 

For this test I placed the AX92 upstairs and my laptop downstairs where the Wifi signal needs to fight thru a 4-6 inch thick concrete floor and partially through a 4 inch thick wall.  First snapshot is a Wifi5/AC connection....Second snapshot is a Wifi6/AX connection.

 

 

Results for a Wifi5/AC Connection

 

Results for a Wifi6/AX Connection

[muratremix]

If they start to offer 2Gbit plans in the future (they need to improve their switches and GPON devices, which support only 2.5G Down/1.25G up but comes with only a 1G ethernet), I'll consider improving Wifi at home.

 

I dare 3BB to provide 2Gbit plans, because why not? LOL

[Pib]

If 3BB (or any Thai ISP) starts providing 2Gb plans then maybe we'll be able to get 1Gb speed the ISPs keep advertising.  ????    

 

I does seem that 3BB has went full bore in offering 1Gb plans with variations in upload speed being the only difference between their 1 Gb plans like shown in the snapshot at the bottom.

 

But I expect within a year or so some Thai ISPs will start offering 2Gb plans as there is always those who will pay for the fastest plan available whether they need to extra speed or not.  For some folks it's not a question of true need; it's instead just a gotta have the latest & greatest.    Kinda like those folks who just have to upgrade to the latest flagship smartphone each year and then they are still only using the phone for LINE, Youtube, Facebook, a few games, mbanking, taking selfies, and maybe even making an occasional call.....using the flagship phone for apps which work just as good & fast on much lower horsepower and costly phones.  Buy hey, it's their money....spend it as desired.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Pib