Is there a wifi setup that can reach gigabit speeds yet?

HI all,

So I have the 900/900 symmetric service from Cityfibre (No One internet) installed and the best speed I can get on my current Wifi set up, is around the 500mbps down/up.

When hard wired, i can almost reach the max of 900/900mbps.

I'd rather not go the route of having cables running all around my house to make use of the speed I'm paying for, but I'm drawing a blank as to what set up I could use that would get anywhere near the full speed over Wifi.

Right now the provider has provided a Fritz!Box 7590 and I'm using a TP-Link AC1900 High Gain Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter for my desktop.

I'm able to get a 1.0 to 1.3 Gbps link speed in Windows, but as mentioned before, the most I can download/upload at, is around 500Mbps (tested on torrents/steam/speedtest etc).

So I'm wondering if there's any hardware out there that would let me come close to the full speed of my fibre, or will I have to go the ethernet cable route?

The only things that will come remotely close are WiFI routers / access points running either WiFi 6 (802.11AX) or better but few and far between (for now at least on the laptop / PC / smartphone client side) is WiFI 6E - which extends WiFI into the 6GHz spectrum.

For reference I’ve just tried some tests this morning with an iPhone 12 and an M1 based MacBook Pro and the most of been able to extract on a ‘real world’ speed test (using Oolka client to Coreix in London) is around 880 Mbps down and about 640 Mbps up using a fresh WiFI 6 access point.

My existing 802.11ac access points are maxing out at around 650 Mbps in both directions.

Edit - just broke 910 Mbps download...though still not quite getting above about 650 Mbps upwards on the MacBook. iPhone can get around 830/840 down and a similar amount up.

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 01-Oct-21 12:43:15)

A 3x3 or 4x4 wireless adapter would get better speeds as I believe iPhones and M1 Macs are only 2x2.

Thanks
Dan

Yep just checked, only 2 MIMO spatial streams and a max channel bandwidth of 80 MHz on the MBP.

Link here to Apple MacBook WiFi specs for anyone interested.

WiFi specification for iPhone models is here.

Edit: Interestingly my 'old' 2017 era 15-inch MBP, which *only* has 802.11ac but vitally with 3x3 MIMO (still only with 80 MHz channel BW though) just did the identical speed test @ 931 Mbps down and 793 Mbps up....so there you go the old dog beats the new.

Keen to try this setup with 3x3 or 4x4 on 802.11AX with the full 160 MHz channel.

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 01-Oct-21 14:20:14)

Yeah that makes sense it's only 2x2 as it's a development of the mobile SoCs.
I have 4x4 adapter but I haven't bought an AX Access Point yet.

Thanks
Dan

I last refreshed my wired-in AP's in 2019/20 as part of the whole house refurb. They are all 802.11ac generation but at least with 4x4 Mu-MIMO radios (Ubiquiti nanoHD) - which are very neat and nice - mine are recessed and plastered in. This one is on the wall of my study.

These have offered excellent performance, but I am tempted to upgrade to 802.11AX (hopefully with 6E support) at some point. I just hope UI bring in a decent replacement when they overhaul the range, the new WiFi6 Lites nare the same small form, but the upgrade in performance really isn't up to par of the nanoHD's.

Very nice fitment, I've installed a lot of Ubiquiti kit for customers.
I've personally got one of these in access point mode.
I've had it for a while and been thinking about replacing it but can't decide what to get, I've only got 600Mbps VM connection and it easily handles that.

Thanks
Dan

Nice.

I have 3 x TPLink EAP245 v3's (wired backhaul) which are only 3x3, but were a fair bit cheaper than the Ubiquiti kit...plus I run the nice Omada controller on the NAS.

On the internal LAN (speedtest running on my NAS)...with the 5Ghz band and channel width at 80Mhz...
I hit around 440Mbps down / 400Mbps up using an iPhone 12.
On a MBP (early 2015), it's 750Mbps down / 640Mbps up

This is typically more than fast enough for me (especially with my paltry 37Mbps FTTC connection...but soon to be 500Mbps).

Thanks. That's a nice AP there too.

Although I do like UI wireless kit, I am getting a bit frustrated with their product roadmap - there doesn't really seem to be one! It's like they've lost the plot a little and the recent product releases and updates seem to be a bit sort of scatter-gun.

Hope I'm wrong and they bring out a smashing replacement with the HD and NanoHD range in WiFi 6E guise soon.

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 01-Oct-21 15:38:07)

It all really depends on the area you want to cover (and internal walls etc.)

My place is relatively big and the walls are thick - which really affects the signal strength in my case. So I went for segregation of WiFi and routing responsibilities (i.e. WAPs + router).
The (ageing) LinkSys WRT1900ACS with OpenWRT I have seems to still cope with the routing requirements I have.

Strategically placed WAPs (ceiling + walls) now mean great coverage and speeds throughout the house. I'm now considering an outdoor one...but this maybe overkill

I'm not sure I'd go back to a WiFi router, even in a smaller place.