56 19 Januar y–1February 2022 •Issue623
Apps like TP-Link’s Deco letyou setupand
controlyourrouterTP-Link’s Deco X20mesh
Wi-Fiisa vailab le in two-
andthree-bas estati on
packsDecoX 20 (£1 80 fromwww.snipca.
com/4 0520 ,picturedright),availablein
two-andthree-basestationpacks.
Otherrouters,whicharen’tsoldwith
bundledsatellitestations,canbeusedas
thebasisofameshsystemifyoulater
discovertheydon’tachievethecoverage
yourequire.
Netgear’s NighthawkRAX 70 router,
whichweusedinourspeedtestson
pages52- 53 ,isatri-banddevice–soit
broadcaststhreesignals:oneat 2 .4GHz
andtwoat5GHz.Connectingyour
devicesto2.4GHzandoneofthe 5 GHz
signalsleavesthesecond5GHzsignalfree
tobeusedforconnectingtosatellitebase
stationselsewhereinyourhometo
improveyourinternetcoveragewithout
interference.4
What is Wi-Fi6E
anddoyou need it?
In summer 2020,UKtelecoms regulator
Ofcomlicensedpartoft he 6GHz
wavebandfor usebyhomeWi-Fi devices
(seewww.snipca.com/40539). Thisis
significantbecause it means that theeven
newerWi-Fi 6E standardnow supports
6GHz (aswellas2.4GHz and5GHz).
The higherfrequency number (6 in this
case) indi catesashorter andpotentially
faste rwavelength, whichshould result in
even higherdata-transferspeedsand
lowerlatency.This means that it’s likely
to be of greatest interest –inthe early
days,atl east –togamers.
Evenifyou’renot agamer,you might
still be temptedifyou live in an areawherethere’s aloadofinterfere nce
fromneighbour ingnetworks, becauseso
fewofyourneighbour sare likely to be
usingthe 6GHz wavebandthatyou might
have it alltoyourself. Be aware, however,
that having aWi-Fi 6E router is not
sufficient on itsown –you’llalsoneed
to upgradeany devicesyou want to use
with it,whichwill increase theoverall
cost of theupgrade.Amorelikely
scenario wouldbetouse the6GHz
wavebandto connectsatellite nodes on a
mesh Wi-Finetworkingsystem.
Beca useit’sanemergingtechnology,
Wi-Fi6Eroutersare curr entl yfew and
farbetween.However,Linksys has
releas ed theAtlas Max 6E(www.snipca.
com/40538,picturedbelowleft),a
two-unit mesh system –thoughat £781
it’s onlyfor earlyadopterswithdeep
pockets.
Wi-Fi6Eisabig deal.Making
additionalradio spectrum availa blefor
publ ic usedoesn’t happen very often,
because it’s afinite resource that,once in
usebysomeother technology,is
effectively unavailable foranythingelse.5
Howshould youset up
your Wi-Fi6router?
Wi-Fi6routersare as easy to setupas
thei rpredecessors. The simplestoption is
to connectone to your broadband
modemand,ify ou want to connect
your computer usingEther net,simply
plug itin andstart browsing theweb.
If youwanttoconnect wirelessly,the
network name (SSID)and password will
usuallybeonastickerfixedtothe case
of therouter.
Many router manufacturersalsouse
phoneandtabletappstohelpguide youthrough installation andset up advanced
features,likethefirewall,connected
drives,Quality of Service(QoS)settings,
network name,passwordand more.
TheTP-LinkDecoappfor Android
(www.snipca.com/40517,picture dabove)
andiOS (www.snipca.com/40518), for
example, takesyou throughthe setup
processand givesyou accesstocommon
admini strative controls,including
shar ingguestnetworks, settingtime
restrictions andrunning performance
test s. In most cases,you can also access
therouter’s features by loggingin
through abrowser.TheLinksysAtlas Maxoffer sWi-Fi6E, but it
costsawhopping£781