as with previous advice i split the 2.4 and 5 much better had to reset every alexa thing and smart bulbs
but with open vpn nord speed drops really low
but on laptop using the nord app almost no drop
question is do i send this back and get the newer version wifi 7 etc for future proofing
EJ ROG Rapture GT-BE98
as im 65 years old now this should outlast me
on a bt 900 line btw
end result i want is maximum download speed and range
Unfortunately, wifi speed and range seem to have an inverse relationship. Higher speeds by using the 6Ghz band will also mean shorter range. Both Wifi 6E and Wifi 7 use the 6Ghz band. Wifi 7 has yet to be certified though and as of now, there are no devices that can utilize it at the moment.
Good article on Tom's Hardware
here explaining the relationship:
'With all of this space, network traffic now comes with a massive amount of headroom. So when your Wi-Fi 6E network is cluttered up with lots of devices, it should still be speedy (limited Internet bandwidth notwithstanding). And in part, this will be true because there won’t be any old devices on the 6 GHz band. You can’t get Wi-Fi 6E compatibility via firmware upgrade; products must be designed specifically to take advantage of the new tech.
Of course, there are other drawbacks to the new technology: Solid objects become a bigger issue, for example. As radio waves increase their frequency, they have a tendency to become more sensitive to interference, particularly by physical barriers, reducing their already-shorter range. This is why you may still get a signal at greater distances with a 2.4 GHz transmission than a 5 GHz one.
Some routers compensate for this by simply boosting the signal, which is why you see gaming routers with arachnophobia-inducing antenna arrays. Unfortunately, that approach may not be as effective with Wi-Fi 6E, as transmitted data on the 6 GHz band falls under FCC regulations identical to the 5 GHz band. In other words, an access point may transmit with up to 30 dBm conducted power, or 36 dBm of equivalent isotropically-radiated power (EIRP), where a client device has more stringent requirements, at 24 dBm and 30 dBm, respectively. With the slightly higher frequency of 6 GHz, this effectively means the capped-out usable range is lower than that of devices transmitting on the 5 GHz band.
This was also borne out in testing. While our previous test data showed quite fast speed over great distances, testing with Wi-Fi 6E showed a massive dropoff even 25 feet from the router. At that distance, the signal dropped below -60 dBm and barely extended out to about 50 feet. Beyond that, the 6E-capable device we tested with completely lost its signal and the 6GHz band of this network was no longer visible.'
That said, the RT-AX89X is getting on its years and it would probably be wise to get newer hardware.
Most people on the forum would look at the
ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 for a more affordable modern Wifi 6 option with good range thanks to the RangeBoost feature, or the
ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 for a more 'future proof' albeit costly Wifi 6E option that also has great range on the non-6Ghz bands thanks to the RangeBoost Plus feature.
