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Author Topic: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice  (Read 1932 times)

Alex Atkin UK

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Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« on: November 22, 2021, 05:00:26 PM »

Quote
Currently, we are not going to support Band C channel in our APs, it is because presently Band C channel is not popularly supported by client devices (like smartphones). In a situation like, when AP provides Band C channels but client device cannot use it, the client will have problems to access the Internet. That’s why currently we are not going to support UNII-3 channels.

However, we will move this topic to Forum Ideas then keep track of the marketing conditions, and we will keep you updated once we have a certain schedule to support the feature.

My response:

Quote
That makes zero sense as clients that support WiFi 6 are also more likely to support UNII-3.  I have a separate AP for WiFi 5 clients.

You are repeating the mistake a lot of manufacturers made with DFS, it was ages before client devices supported it because APs did not.  You've got this backwards, we need AP support now to encourage client device manufacturer to add it, not the other way around.

I was planning to replace this with a WiFi 6e unit once they come out, you're forcing my hand so I will have to use a different brand.

While I can see their point, surely a little warning in the UI that the channel might not work is all they'd need?  This is no different to warning that DFS channels might not work well.  Heck, I still have some devices that don't support DFS channels, with their logic they should never have supported it.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2021, 05:04:45 PM by Alex Atkin UK »
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

meritez

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2021, 06:30:54 PM »

Zyxel seems to have an issue throwing off their residential user mindset.

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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2021, 06:35:50 PM »

It is baffling.  Surely its not beyond the realm of possibility that a business might have an AP specifically for known clients that DO support Band C?

The whole point of using Band C is BECAUSE hardly anyone uses it due to lack of legacy client support, and no DFS requirement.

To be fair whilever I'm getting close to Gigabit on 160Mhz channel width I probably wouldn't resort to band C (which is only 125Mhz wide), but that could change if performance dips again.

Annoyingly the new MacBooks are only WiFi 6 not WiFi 6e so I will continue to have to deal with the 5Ghz song and dance.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2021, 06:44:42 PM by Alex Atkin UK »
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Weaver

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2021, 04:52:54 AM »

Clarification: Alex, do you have an NWA 210AX ?
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2021, 09:17:40 PM »

Clarification: Alex, do you have an NWA 210AX ?

Yes.

On the positive side, its reduced my phones power consumption on WiFi quite dramatically.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2022, 08:26:27 PM »

I had the weirdest thing happen earlier.

Was testing my old Lenovo craptop, its extremely weak, barely above Atom and wanted to fact-check that Lenovo do not whitelist all their laptops and so confirm an AX200 WiFi card works in it.  Weird thing, it got down 840Mbit down and 1.2Gbit up on iperf3 with a 2400Mbit link rate.

My faster machines including Macbook Pro M1 and an AX210 WiFi in my gaming laptop never gets those speeds, their link rate is usually 1200Mbit or 1600Mbit at best.  So this really took me by surprise and now I'm left wondering why the better machines can't at least hit Gigabit.  The Macbook tested straight after in the same place was getting 650Mbit.

Of course I can't dismiss its an iperf3 glitch as I've seen it give dubious results before, but then the link rate makes it plausible.

Makes me think I should test my other AX200 card, if I can remember where it is.  Would be really weird if the AX200 performs better on WiFi 6 than the AX210, given the AX210 performs better on WiFi 5 than the AX200.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2022, 08:30:22 PM by Alex Atkin UK »
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

adrenalize

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2022, 10:06:39 PM »

Have you tried using the Openspeedtest server for speertests in comparison to iperf? I find it less fussy than iperf.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2022, 12:34:30 PM »

Have you tried using the Openspeedtest server for speertests in comparison to iperf? I find it less fussy than iperf.

I haven't but I probably should, its always good the have multiple options.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Zyxel NWA210AX - they do not believe in consumer choice
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2022, 09:44:12 AM »

I just wanted to follow up that while the above still stands, something in my environment must have changed as this AP is now performing even better

I can hit 900Mbit down on my Galaxy S10 at 80Mhz channel width and 1.44Gbit down, 1.2Gbit up on my laptop using an Intel AX210 at 160Mhz which Zyxel have confirmed the absolute best they ever tested internally was 1.6Gbit.  So I'm feeling a lot less salty about them omitting Band C.

Now I'm just annoyed they do not expose the WiFi clients link rates over SNMP.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2022, 09:46:59 AM by Alex Atkin UK »
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors