Ought to a Mac or iPhone person replace to a Wi-Fi 6 or 6E router at residence?
The Wi-Fi Alliance, which defines the certification course of for industry-standard Wi-Fi tools, created a brand new branding system a couple of years in the past for all generations of Wi-Fi ever launched. Beforehand, Wi-Fi was sometimes recognized by obscure IEEE Engineering Requirements Working Group numbers, similar to 802.11n or 802.11ac. To make it simpler to combine and match gadgets and see which era you are utilizing, the alliance has named the merchandise Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6. (The older 802.11 requirements have been so outdated that they weren’t numbered however are actually, by inference, 1, 2, and three.)
Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6 signify generations of requirements, every quicker and extra able to protecting residence and workplace areas on the quickest speeds. The newest updates have centered on offering most bandwidth on the similar time to a number of cell gadgets, similar to iPhones.
All three of those variations of Wi-Fi can handle alerts throughout two frequency bands, or bands of spectrum, devoted to finishing up makes use of that don’t require licenses, not like mobile networks. Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6 function within the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. (Many nations around the globe are providing the identical or almost the identical allocations, though the USA has typically been within the lead with the most important parts of it open.) As these requirements improved, many of the features have been in an more and more bigger house reserved by governments in 2016. The 5 GHz band is for normal client and enterprise use. This now permits multi-gigabit per second throughput, which represents a powerful achieve over the unique 11 Mbps pace within the first iteration of Wi-Fi.
What’s WiFi 6E?
Gear makers wish to enhance Wi-Fi efficiency and resiliency, and regulatory authorities in a number of nations (together with the USA) have opened up extra frequencies to be used so as to add the potential for larger bandwidth and decrease interference, this time at 6 GHz. (Wi-Fi 6 and 6GHz don’t have anything in widespread.)
This led to the Wi-Fi Alliance breaking their easy numbering system and including Wi-Fi 6E to distinguish between “common” Wi-Fi 6, which operates over the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and the “new” 6GHz gadgets: E Awkwardly symbolized as “plus 6GHz”. I perceive the logic, however it’s undoubtedly complicated.
The straightforward Wi-Fi numbering 4, 5, 6 has develop into extra baroque, with 6E.
Wi-Fi Alliance
What does all this imply, by way of efficiency?
Apple has led or stored tempo with most Wi-Fi generations as they’ve come, and that features Wi-Fi 6E. The newest iPhone 15 and 15 Max have Wi-Fi 6, whereas the 15 Professional and 15 Professional Max have a slight benefit with Wi-Fi 6E. Apple’s M sequence Macs principally have Wi-Fi 6 built-in; Some newer fashions have 6E.
In the event you’re nonetheless utilizing Wi-Fi 5 in your house, you in all probability will not must improve until:
- You have got lifeless zones the place you do not appear to get any protection, or it is spotty or irritating.
- You see a giant distinction in pace in several elements of your house, particularly whereas streaming or transferring information.
- You have got gigabit web service and do not see anyplace close to that information fee when testing out of your gadgets.
For these within the gory particulars, the 6GHz band presents a lot of spectrum and channels within the US; Much less within the European Union.
Wi-Fi Alliance
You possibly can simply run some informal checks in your web pace and community efficiency with Speedtest, which has native apps for iOS/iPadOS, macOS, and different working methods. Though you might be all the time topic to variation within the pace of your Web connection, continuously working throughput exams in several places will make it easier to detect actual issues.
You may as well discuss with this earlier column, “Find out how to Take a look at Your Mac’s Web Velocity and High quality,” to study instruments included in macOS or which you can set up.
In macOS, there is a easy approach to detect the standard and pace of your present Wi-Fi router’s connection: maintain down the Possibility key whereas deciding on the Wi-Fi menu to see some preliminary interface particulars, particularly the “Tx Fee.” The Tx fee is the information fee negotiated between your Mac and the router it is linked to. With a contemporary Mac and a high-speed Wi-Fi 5 community, it’s best to all the time see transmission charges within the excessive 100Mbps. Testing on my Mac mini proper now, about 8 ft from my Wi-Fi 6 router, I am seeing a transmission fee of 1,200Mbps (1.2Gbps); On a Wi-Fi 5 router, you may see 866Mbps whenever you’re near the router.
In the event you meet any of the above standards and presently have a mid-priced Wi-Fi 5 setup, upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E {hardware} will present a lift, although you may virtually solely discover it in streaming media between gadgets in your community. Or stream and obtain information to or from the Web. You might even see 20 to 200 p.c quicker productiveness within the worst-performing areas of your house.
Generally, your Web connection and the pace of on-line servers will restrict your efficiency greater than trendy Wi-Fi 5.
The alliance is touting a whole lot of enhancements with 6E — you may expertise them finest you probably have an older, congested community on which you’ll already really feel the consequences of heavy bandwidth utilization.
Wi-Fi Alliance
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query despatched by Macworld reader Jeff.
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