WHICH Wi-fi 6 ROUTER SHOULD YOU BUY?
1 How many Ethernet ports do you need?
Fewer than you might imagine. Some devices, like powerline networking kits and internet-connected telephones, will still require a physical connection to your router. But if you’ve been using a wired connection in preference to wireless simply because it’s faster, it might be time to cut the cable.
While Wi-fi 6 still can’t match the speed of the fastest Gigabit Ethernet connections, its maximum theoretical data-transfer rates exceed anything that you’ll need, and we found that what we experienced in practice was better than anything Ethernet could deliver in our home.
Transferring a single 500MB file via Ethernet from our laptop to the drive attached to our router took 45.7 seconds, which equates to a data rate of 87.5Mbps. The 500GB folder of 1,829 files transferred in one minute 59 seconds, for an average data rate of 33.5Mbps. Each is slower than the speeds we achieved when using Wi-fi 6 (as our table on page 53 shows), even when the router and laptop were on different floors.
If you do require wired connections, you should consider the Asus RT-AX86U (£250 from www.snipca.com/40535) which has four or the Asus RT-AX6000 (£240 from www.snipca.com/40536), which offers eight (both pictured above right). Either of these should satisfy the majority of home users.
In our test home we’re managing with four connections, although one is being used by a powerline networking plug to provide an additional Ethernet socket in an upstairs office for a wired VOIP phone.
2 Does the number of antennas matter?
Even the lowliest router has two antennas. One transmits while the other receives – and this ratio remains constant as the number of antennas increases. So, in routers with four, six or eight antennas you’ll find two, three, or r four of them transmitting and the same e number receiving.
Wi-fi 6 routers use these antennas to support what’s known as MultiUser, Multiple-input, Multiple-output operation, or MU-MIMO for short, which lets the router talk to multiple devices simultaneously.
Their signals can be combined to provide the beamforming function (see page 51), whereby the data intended for each device on your network will be sent in a more targeted way, rather than broadcast in all directions. This should guarantee a stronger signal with less interference.
More importantly, because each of the networking technologies supported by the antennas runs at a set speed, you may get a better performance from a router or base station with more antennas (although this also depends on how many antennas there are in the device connected to the router or base station). This is why Wi-fi 6 routers and base stations have different speeds quoted on the box.
As a general rule, an antenna broadcasting on the 5GHZ band will operate at up to 4.8Gbps, while an antenna on the 2.4GHZ band will manage a top-end speed of around 300Mbps. Therefore, to calculate the maximum supported speed of a device, you need to add together the operating speed of each antenna on your router.
To reach the magical number of 9.6Gbps – the maximum theoretical speed of a Wi-fi 6 network – you need eight antennas, each running at 1.2Gbps, or an equivalent average (8 x 1.2 = 9.6).
This may be overkill in many situations, and a multi-antenna device offering a lower combined speed should suffice for most people. We recommend the Tp-link Archer GX90 (£331 from www.snipca. com/40537, pictured below left), which has eight antennas to provide MU-MIMO and beamforming, with support for a combined speed across the network of 6.6Gbps.
3 Do you need mesh Wi-fi?
Mesh systems consist of a main router that transmits Wi-fi throughout your home via a network of connected units. Whether you need this type of setup depends on the size of your home, and the thickness of your walls. Several factors will determine whether a single router will be able to reach every corner of your home, including the frequency at which they operate. Wi-fi 5 only officially supports the 5GHZ waveband, which allows for high signal quality over a short distance. Wi-fi 6 supports both 5GHZ and the older 2.4GHZ waveband, which is more robust and able to reach further. So, if you’ve prevpreviously been a 5Ghz-only household, and suffered patchy coverage, Wi-fi 6 may well solve your problems, without ththe need for additional base stations. Moreover, Wi-fi 6’s beamforming tetechnology, which lets routers direct signsignals directly towards the devices with whiwhich they are interacting, should mean less energy is wasted on sending the signal in every direction, allowing for better coverage where it’s most useful.
That said, there are already several WI-WFI 6-based mesh networking systemssy to choose from, including the Netgear Orbi RBK852 (£580 from www.snipca.com/40519) and Tp-link
Deco X20 (£180 from www.snipca. com/40520, pictured right), available in two- and three-base station packs. Other routers, which aren’t sold with bundled satellite stations, can be used as the basis of a mesh system if you later discover they don’t achieve the coverage you require.
Netgear’s Nighthawk RAX70 router, which we used in our speed tests on pages 52-53, is a tri-band device – so it broadcasts three signals: one at 2.4GHZ and two at 5GHZ. Connecting your devices to 2.4GHZ and one of the 5GHZ signals leaves the second 5GHZ signal free to be used for connecting to satellite base stations elsewhere in your home to improve your internet coverage without interference.
4 What is Wi-fi 6E and do you need it?
In summer 2020, UK telecoms regulator Ofcom licensed part of the 6GHZ waveband for use by home Wi-fi devices (see www.snipca.com/40539). This is significant because it means that the even newer Wi-fi 6E standard now supports 6GHZ (as well as 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ).
The higher frequency number (6 in this case) indicates a shorter and potentially faster wavelength, which should result in even higher data-transfer speeds and lower latency. This means that it’s likely to be of greatest interest – in the early days, at least – to gamers.
Even if you’re not a gamer, you might still be tempted if you live in an area where there’s a load of interference from neighbouring networks, because so few of your neighbours are likely to be using the 6GHZ waveband that you might have it all to yourself. Be aware, however, that having a Wi-fi 6E router is not sufficient on its own – you’ll also need to upgrade any devices you want to use with it, which will increase the overall cost of the upgrade. A more likely scenario would be to use the 6GHZ waveband to connect satellite nodes on a mesh Wi-fi networking system.
Because it’s an emerging technology, Wi-fi 6E routers are currently few and far between. However, Linksys has released the Atlas Max 6E ( www.snipca. com/40538, pictured below left), a two-unit mesh system – though at £781 it’s only for early adopters with deep pockets.
Wi-fi 6E is a big deal. Making additional radio spectrum available for public use doesn’t happen very often, because it’s a finite resource that, once in use by some other technology, is effectively unavailable for anything else.
5 How should you set up your Wi-fi 6 router?
Wi-fi 6 routers are as easy to set up as their predecessors. The simplest option is to connect one to your broadband modem and, if you want to connect your computer using Ethernet, simply plug it in and start browsing the web. If you want to connect wirelessly, the network name ( SSID) and password will usually be on a sticker fixed to the case of the router.
Many router manufacturers also use phone and tablet apps to help guide you through installation and set up advanced features, like the firewall, connected drives, Quality of Service ( QOS) settings, network name, password and more.
The Tp-link Deco app for Android ( www.snipca.com/40517, pictured above) and IOS ( www.snipca.com/40518), for example, takes you through the setup process and gives you access to common administrative controls, including sharing guest networks, setting time restrictions and running performance tests. In most cases, you can also access the router’s features by logging in through a browser.