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[Weaver]

I’m talking to A&A about Aruba models. They found the Instanton AP22 for me which is at a truly amazing price, so they did a great job, but I hate the UI, from the little I’ve seen of it and there’s no 6GHz support, which rules it out, nor (crazily) is there an ethernet port faster than 1 Gbps. I’m looking for something with more sophisticated core, management, coordination and administrative software than my ZyXELs, and I’m not sure about the AP22 in that respect, without doing more research. I also hate the switch-WAP integration, which makes things nice and easy for SMBs, but is a rule-out for me.

The Aruba 600 series has 6 GHz, yay! I have no idea what the prices are, I’m sure they will be terrifying. The 500 series looks nice, but no 6 GHz so that’s out. I’ve asked A&A if they would be kind enough to find a 600 series price for me. I also need 5.8 GHz, 5727 MHz upwards, for those 5 GHz channels that Ofcom freed up in 2020. Was Alex, or some others of our number talking about that in another thread very recently? No more licensing or DFS nightmare on those high 5GHz channels. I want an AP that can download updates to its database of allowed channels and regs.

My 11 year old ZyXELs have simply never heard of 5 GHz channels above 140, so I’m really stuffed, having only two 40 MHz 5 Ghz channels free without DFS (which makes channels unusable, anyway). On WAP-02 (upstairs) I have 36+40, 44+48 and 52 is DFS, I know now thanks to Alex, so that’s it. And as I have no neighbours, I have a single 40 MHz channel on 2.4 GHz on WAP-01 the downstairs AP, and that’s all, and no 5 GHz downstairs because I have no frequency space left, not without changing to 20 MHz channels.

The DFS thing should have a geo database feature; if your coordinates are such that we know you’re miles away from radar etc then you should be let off. It would be nice to have that database auto-downloaded in a standard format from eg OfCom or whatever the per-country source is. TV white space?

The problem at the moment is that prices of some 6 GHz kit are still high because it’s so new, and I’d rather wait until prices go down, but I can’t wait forever to buy as my ZyXELs will die at some point surely.

Does anyone know about the current awareness or updatability of APs in respect of the >5725 MHz Ofcom de-restricted channels ? Can recent APs support these channels properly without DFS or freakage ? Or can current APs take relevant rule database updates?

What channels are those for band C 5725 MHz ? Is it >=153 (or >=149 ) ?

And a different matter. My wife can only print downstairs with her Canon wirelessly-connected printer. The diagnosis is that if she goes upstairs and then can’t even see/find the printer, then it’s because she is on a different WAP from the Canon. I’m not entirely sure how it can even know, but I do have a vague candidate half-theory. It’s probably Apple’s fault anywa though. Has anyone ever seen anything like this, where things stop working the moment you move to multiple APs ?

The fix is probably just to change the printer to be wirefully connected, which I hope can be done. Someone must have a fix for this; what are users supposed to do in a large office or hospital where there are multiple APs? I can’t face calling Apple as they’re just going to blame Canon (or even ZyXEL) and an orgy of buck-passing will ensue.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I don't think there is any point in paying a premium for 6Ghz support when IMO its only going to start becoming common in client devices when WiFi 7 launches, which means you'd be stuck using WiFi 6e.

[XGS_Is_On]

And a different matter. My wife can only print downstairs with her Canon wirelessly-connected printer. The diagnosis is that if she goes upstairs and then can’t even see/find the printer, then it’s because she is on a different WAP from the Canon. I’m not entirely sure how it can even know, but I do have a vague candidate half-theory. It’s probably Apple’s fault anywa though. Has anyone ever seen anything like this, where things stop working the moment you move to multiple APs ?

The fix is probably just to change the printer to be wirefully connected, which I hope can be done. Someone must have a fix for this; what are users supposed to do in a large office or hospital where there are multiple APs?

Print servers. Jobs are sent to a server which spools them, queues them and handles the actual printing. Client machines never talk directly to the printers.

I have a professional interest in the rest so be inappropriate of me to attempt to advise.

[Weaver]

I thought about what Alex said. But I’m not sure I’d ever have a need for 802.11be, would probably skip that, as I have with 802.11ac. As Alex said, 802.11ax + 6 GHz  will probably (almost) see me out. I’m not tooo concerned with cost, more with not having to swap out kit too soon.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I still stand by it not being worth paying for 6Ghz support and that's coming from someone who was HUGELY looking forward to it, but client support is so lacking right now and I already get 600-900Mbit on 5Ghz on WiFi 6 (up to 1.44Gbit on the one device that supports WiFi 6e when using 5Ghz, so I can't see 6Ghz making that any better).

I'd be more interested in hardware that supports WiFi 6 on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, so you still get the much improved protocol over the distances 2.4Ghz can handle.

[gt94sss2]

Like Alex, I would suggest you get some Wifi6 kit and ignore 6E and 6Ghz.

Instead, I suggest you look at a mesh solution - so the problem with the printer won't occur - as all the APs share the same name.

Plus an intelligent mesh system will automatically choose the best WiFi channels for each unit - no need to do so manually

[tubaman]

Like Alex, I would suggest you get some Wifi6 kit and ignore 6E and 6Ghz.

Instead, I suggest you look at a mesh solution - so the problem with the printer won't occur - as all the APs share the same name.

Plus an intelligent mesh system will automatically choose the best WiFi channels for each unit - no need to do so manually

Couldn't agree more, a mesh system makes everything so much easier.
@Weaver, having 5Ghz WiFi on channels above 140 is fine if your kit will connect to it, which plenty will not.
Unless you really need to transfer data at lightening speed then personally I'd be looking at a basic mesh system - WiFi 6 perhaps but 802.11ac is plenty fast enough and you'll likely not have any compatibility issues.

Please feel free to shoot me down on this, but for me a simple, proven solution that gets the job done is preferable to being a Beta tester for the latest and greatest.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Please feel free to shoot me down on this, but for me a simple, proven solution that gets the job done is preferable to being a Beta tester for the latest and greatest.

The drawback of that approach is WiFi 6 has a lot of new additions to make more efficient use of sharing the spectrum, but it only works if all networks are on WiFi 6.   Probably not an issue for @Weaver being so remote, but it should make WiFi in general much more reliable once everyone has moved over.

Plus if you ever do have clients that are only in range of 2.4Ghz but support WiFi 6, it should perform a lot better as 2.4Ghz never got the improvements of the ac protocol but DOES get ax if you pick the right AP.

[tubaman]

The drawback of that approach is WiFi 6 has a lot of new additions to make more efficient use of sharing the spectrum, but it only works if all networks are on WiFi 6.   Probably not an issue for @Weaver being so remote, but it should make WiFi in general much more reliable once everyone has moved over.

Plus if you ever do have clients that are only in range of 2.4Ghz but support WiFi 6, it should perform a lot better as 2.4Ghz never got the improvements of the ac protocol but DOES get ax if you pick the right AP.

But isn't it still having to transmit in compatibility mode for n,ac etc to support all those clients that don't support WiFi6?
I get that once everything is compatible it'll be better for everyone but I think we're still a very long way from that.

[Alex Atkin UK]

But isn't it still having to transmit in compatibility mode for n,ac etc to support all those clients that don't support WiFi6?
I get that once everything is compatible it'll be better for everyone but I think we're still a very long way from that.

It does, but I still get much better 2.4Ghz performance when I tested from a WiFi 6 client despite the 7 WiFi 4 clients also connected.  It mostly depends if those older clients are using a lot of bandwidth which in my case they're almost all IoT devices.

I was struggling to get 24Mbit on 2.4Ghz for some years now, since moving to WiFi 6 my Macbook Pro just clocked 136/76.9.

[Weaver]

I don’t need to worry about legacy clients, and as was said earlier, I have no neighbours. As I said, I’m looking for something that will still be top end in 3-6 years time, disregarding 802.11be which I anticipate will be out around 2024 unless there’s a lot of debate about what even goes into that spec.

[Alex Atkin UK]

But that's just it, as you have no neighbours, you shouldn't need 6Ghz, as that is primarily to solve the too many neighbours / having to use DFS channels problem.

[gt94sss2]

I don’t need to worry about legacy clients, and as was said earlier, I have no neighbours. As I said, I’m looking for something that will still be top end in 3-6 years time, disregarding 802.11be which I anticipate will be out around 2024 unless there’s a lot of debate about what even goes into that spec.

Its your money, but I suspect you will find that 6E will not be popular standard - and most will go directly from WiFi 6 to 7.

As such investing in 6E equipment will bring you very limited/no benefits and you would be better off with a WiFi 6 Intelligent mesh solution as previously advised.

It will still be considered the top end especially if you are thinking of disregarding 802.11be.

[Weaver]

With my current hardware I have indeed run out of free channels unless I go to 20 MHz wide instead of 40 MHz wide as I’m steering clear of the DFS channels which are a joke and I can’t use 5.8 GHz channels at the moment. With 40 MHz wide channels and my current 4 radios, I have 2.4 GHz 1+6; 5 GHz 36+40; 5 GHz 44+48 and I can’t use 52 upwards. And that it. And that means I have one radio disabled because there’s nowhere for it to live without going to 20 MHz channels. To address a point someone made earlier. The SSIDs’s names are the same on all WAPs.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Do you ACTUALLY have DFS issues though?

Early hardware I had problems with false detections, once I moved to 802.11ac WAVE 2 hardware I've had zero issues.  I only upgraded to WiFi 6 to try to squeeze a little more speed.

As mentioned, 6Ghz wont fix the problem as there is practically zero hardware supporting it right now and I'd expect any clients that do, will also support 5Ghz Band C too.