Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

Issue 623 •19January–1February 2022 55

1

HowmanyEthernetports
do youneed?
Fewerthanyou mightimagine.Some
devices,likepowerlinenetworkingkits
andinternet-connectedtelephones,will
still requireaphysica lconnectiontoyour
router.But if you’ve been usingawired
connection in preference to wireless
simply because it’s faster, it mightbe
time to cutthe cable.
WhileWi-Fi 6still can’t matchthe
speed of thefastestGigabit Ethernet
connections, itsmaximumtheoretical
data-transferratesexceed anything that
you’ll need,and we foundthatwhatwe
experiencedinpractic ewas better th an
anything Ethernet could de liverinour
home.
Transferring asingle500MB filevia
Ethernet fromourlaptoptothe drive
atta chedtoour router took 45.7 second s,
whichequates to adata rate of 87.5Mbps.
The 500GBfolderof1 ,829 files
transferredinone minute 59 second s, for
an averagedata rate of 33.5Mbps.Eachis
slowerthanthe speedswe achieved
when usingWi-Fi 6(as ourtable onpage
53 shows),evenwhenthe router and
laptopwere on differen tfloors.
If youdorequirewired connection s,
youshould considertheAsus RT-AX86U
(£250 fromwww.snipca.com/40535)
whichhas four or theAsus RT-AX6000
(£240 fromwww.snipca.com/40536),
whichoffers eight(both picturedabove
right). Either of these should satisfythe
majority of home users.
In ourtesthomewe’re managing with
four connection s, althoughoneisbeing
usedby apowerlinenetworkingplug to
provide anadditional Et hernet socket in
an upstairs office forawiredVoIPphone.

2

Does thenumber of
antennas matter?
Eventhe lowliestrouter hastwo
antennas .One tran smitswhile the
othe rreceives–andthisratio remains
constant as thenumberofantennas
incr eases. So,inrouterswithfour, sixor
eightantennasyou’llfind two, three, or
four of them transmittingand thesame
number receiving.
Wi-Fi6routersuse theseantennas
to su pportwhat’sknown asMulti-
User,Multiple- Input, Multiple-Output
operation,orMU-MIMOforshort,
whichlets therouter talk to multip le
devicessimultaneously.
Their signal scan be combined to

providethebeamformingfunction(see

page 5 1),wherebythedataintendedfor

eachdeviceonyournetworkwillbesent

inamoretargetedway,ratherthan

broadcastinalldirections.Thisshould

guaranteeastrongersignalwithless

interference.

Moreimportantly,becauseeachofthe

networkingtechnologiessupportedby

theantennasrunsatasetspeed,you

maygetabetterperformancefroma

routerorbasestationwithmore

antennas(althoughthisalsodependson

howmanyantennasthereareinthe

deviceconnectedtotherouterorbase

station).ThisiswhyWi-Fi6routersand

basestationshavedifferentspeedsquoted

onthebox.

Asageneralrule,anantennabroadcasting

onthe 5 GHzbandwilloperateatupto

4.8Gbps,whileanantennaonthe2.4GHz

bandwillmanageatop-endspeedof

around 300 Mbps. Therefore,tocalculate

themaximumsupportedspeedofa

device,youneedtoaddtogetherthe

operatingspeedofeachantennaonyour

router.

Toreachthemagicalnumberof

9.6Gbps–themaximumtheoretical

speedofaWi-Fi 6 network–youneed

eightantennas,eachrunningat1.2Gbps,

oranequivalentaverage(8x1.2=9.6).

Thismaybeoverkillinmanysituations,

andamulti-antennadeviceofferinga

lowercombinedspeedshouldsufficefor

mostpeople.WerecommendtheTP-Link

ArcherGX9 0 (£3 31 fromwww.snipca.

com/4 0537 ,picturedbelowleft),which

haseightantennastoprovideMU-MIMO

andbeamforming,withsupportfora

combinedspeedacrossthenetworkof

6.6Gbps.

3

Do youneed meshWi-Fi?

Mesh systemsconsist of amain

router th at tran smitsWi-Fi throughout

your homeviaanetwork of connected

units. Whetheryou need this type of

setupdepends on thesizeofyourhome,

andthe thicknessofyourwalls.

Severalfactors wi ll determine whether

asinglerouter will be able to reach every

corner of your home,includingthe

frequencyatwhichtheyoperate.

Wi-Fi5only officiallysupports the

5GHz waveband, whichallowsfor hi gh

signal qualityoverashortdistance.Wi-Fi

6supports both 5GHz andthe older

2.4G Hz waveband, whichismorerobust

andabletoreach further. So,ify ou’ve

previously been a5GHz-only household,

andsuffered patchy coverage ,Wi-Fi 6

maywellsolve your problems ,without

theneed foradditional base stations.

Moreover,Wi-Fi 6’sbeamforming

technology,whichlets routersdirect

signal sdirec tlytowards thedevices with

whichtheyare interacting,should mean

less energy is wastedonsendingthe

signal in everydirec tion,allowing

forbettercoveragewhere it’s most

useful.

Thatsaid,there arealready several

Wi-Fi6-bas ed mesh networki ng

systems to choosefrom, includingthe

NetgearOrbiRBK852(£580 from

http://www.snipca.com/40519)andTP-Link

TheAsusRT-AX 86 Urouter(left) hasfourwiredports,while

theAsusRT-AX 6000 (below)haseight

TP-Link’s ArcherGX 90 has eightantennasto provide

MU-MIMOand beamforming

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and

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WHICHWi-Fi 6 ROUTERSHOULDYOUBUY?

WI-FI 6

WHYYOUMUST

UPGRADETO