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Intel WIFI 7 BE200 Adapters $20 3-5gbps

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Broadcom https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/Broadcom#be_.28Wi-Fi_7.29
Broadcom • Wi-Fi 7 • AP SoC (CPU: BCM4916 / BCM49428), 320MHz, 4096-QAM
BCM6726 / BCM67263 • BCM43720 / BCM43740 • BCM4398 (WLAN/BT)

Qualcomm https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/Qualcomm#be_.28Wi-Fi_7.29_2
Qualcomm • FastConnect 7800 • Wi-Fi 7 • 5Gbps, 320MHz
Qualcomm • Networking Pro Series Gen 3 • ARM (Cortex-A73) 4x 2.2GHz CPU
802.11be (Wi-Fi 7), 4K-QAM, 320MHz • PR • AC|WiFi
• IPQ9574 (IPQ9570) • Networking Pro 1620 • BE33000 (x16)
• IPQ9574 (IPQ9554) • Networking Pro 1220 • BE21000 (x12)
• IPQ9574 (IPQ9534) • Networking Pro 820 • BE16000 (x8)
• IPQ9554 (IPQ9514) • Networking Pro 620 • BE10000 (x6)
Qualcomm • Immersive Home Platform • 3210/326/318/316
802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) • Multi-Link Mesh • PR (2022/12/14) • AC|WiFi
Immersive Home 3210 - x10 (20.7Gbps), Immersive Home 326 - x6 (10.6Gbps)
• IPQ5332 • 「Immersive Home 3210」 • ARM (Cortex-A53) 4x @1.5GHz CPU
• IPQ5322 • 「Immersive Home 326」 • ARM (Cortex-A53) 4x @1.5GHz CPU
•「Immersive Home 318/316」 (Wi-Fi 6E) • ARM (Cortex-A53) 2x @1.0GHz CPU

MediaTek https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/MediaTek#be_.28Wi-Fi_7.29
• Dimensity 9200 • Wi-Fi 7 • 6.5Gbps, SoC
• Filogic 380 • Wi-Fi 7 •
• Filogic 880 • Wi-Fi 7 •

MaxLinear https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/MaxLinear#802.11be_.28WiFi_7.29
MaxLinear Wi-Fi 7 SoC• PR • PR
• MxL31708 • Wi-Fi 7, 802.11be, 2.4/5/6GHz, 8x SS (17.0Gbps), EHT320, 4K-QAM, Dual Band
• MxL31712 • Wi-Fi 7, 802.11be, 2.4/5/6GHz, 12x SS (18.6Gbps), EHT320, 4K-QAM, Tri Band
 
Intel BE200 is available from various Aliexpress sellers now

Intel BE200 From Mouser
Driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...ess-wi-fi-drivers-intel-wi-fi-7-products.html

Even Qualcomm QCNCM865 is available
Driver: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AORUS-MASTER-X/support#support-dl-driver-wlanbt

Difference between Intel BE200 and Qualcomm QCNCM865:
1. Intel supports Bluetooth 5.4 vs 5.3 of Qualcomm (As per aliexpress sellers but it would hardly make any difference)
 
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Yes, those are beastly, but not in a good way.

Not WiFi 7-certified hardware. 'Specs can change at any time'. Price!?!
 
It's in the market already, around $900. It's cheaper than EU and UK price. It will be disappeared silently.

$900 for a WAP is insane. I made the post because I thought the specs on the Zyxel were clown-show ridiculous. Did you see the power consumption on that thing? 41W! I really like Zyxel hardware too but that is just ridiculous.
 
What is also extremely frustrating but also slightly off topic is the total s**t hardware for NBASE-T NICs. Just trying to find on that will work on pfsense or opnsense is a flippin nightmare, not to mention their cost. What a joke.
 
NBASE-T NIC
It's a 10ge port. No one said you had to use 5ge or 2.5ge it's just an option.

As for the power req some comparison front the usual suspects would be handy to say the least.

Eugenius - POE++ but no spec sheet with details
Asus - ~60W https://www.asus.com/product-compar...-MO9A00&LevelId=networking-iot-servers-wifi-7
TPL - not listed - https://static.tp-link.com/upload/p...02307/20230703/Archer BE550 1.0_Datasheet.pdf
-- https://www.tp-link.com/us/deco-mesh-wifi/product-family/deco-be95/#specifications
Netgear - ~60W https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RS700S/RS700S_TS.pdf
Linksys - ~30W https://www.linksys.com/support-article?articleNum=335806
Amazon / Eero - 45W https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HJJN7MS/?tag=snbforums-20

So, having done your homework... 40W doesn't seem so bad. Considering the others are mostly hitting around 60W other than Linksys / Eero.

Prices are all over the place as well with some as low as $400 and others hitting $1000+, Like every other prior gen they will come down as the newness wears off and I suspect Zyxel will come out with a more SMB level offering as well besides this one in particular. Just like there's a higher end version of the NWA series.
 
It's a 10ge port. No one said you had to use 5ge or 2.5ge it's just an option.

As for the power req some comparison front the usual suspects would be handy to say the least.

Eugenius - POE++ but no spec sheet with details
Asus - ~60W https://www.asus.com/product-compar...-MO9A00&LevelId=networking-iot-servers-wifi-7
TPL - not listed - https://static.tp-link.com/upload/product-overview/2023/202307/20230703/Archer BE550 1.0_Datasheet.pdf
-- https://www.tp-link.com/us/deco-mesh-wifi/product-family/deco-be95/#specifications
Netgear - ~60W https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RS700S/RS700S_TS.pdf
Linksys - ~30W https://www.linksys.com/support-article?articleNum=335806
Amazon / Eero - 45W https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HJJN7MS/?tag=snbforums-20

So, having done your homework... 40W doesn't seem so bad. Considering the others are mostly hitting around 60W other than Linksys / Eero.

Prices are all over the place as well with some as low as $400 and others hitting $1000+, Like every other prior gen they will come down as the newness wears off and I suspect Zyxel will come out with a more SMB level offering as well besides this one in particular. Just like there's a higher end version of the NWA series.

Shame on me for not being more specific I meant the PCIE NICs. It's good they put a 10gbit port on the new WAP. To have not done so would have been a significant oversight.
I'm a bit more purist when it comes to comparing hardware. The list is all router/Wi-Fi combos. Those all have routing and built in switches. I would expect those combo devices to consume a bit more power than a pure WAP; however your point is well taken.

Zyxel seems to be more on top of matching uplink port capacity to the radio capacity than others, it's a big reason I went with the NWA210AXs. But they're WLAN controllers all still have 1gbit ports.

I do really wish they'd just embed the damn WLAN controller in the WAP. I've gone a bit sour on the Nebula Cloud.

Like others have mentioned, I too believe that Wi-Fi 7 adoption will be painfully slow. The average user isn't going to be able to make significant use of that kind of bandwidth over the air. Not to mention, the average broadband speed in the US is something like 200-300 mbits, who needs Wi-Fi that can run 2gbit+?

Lastly, device support for 6E an afterthought at best. iPhones didn't get 6E until iPhone 15. Samsung supported it in 2021 I think. Nobody cares. I fear it will be the same for Wi-Fi 7. Hell 5G penetration is the US is only at around 35 to 40% and it's been almost 5 years. It doesn't help that 5G hasn't even come close to delivering the latency and speed promises that were made, neither has Wi-Fi 6. Neither will 6E and neither will 7. They will miss like they did before and not just by a little, but by a longshot.

Sadly, the manufacturers of radio networking hardware have a history of dramatically over-promising and woefully under-delivering.
 
@RacerX330

Adoption is always slow. Apple is the tortoise though when it comes to new tech. Even when they attempt to they still fail. Look at the USBC conversion going with the bare minimum to not get banned from selling in the UK.

There are more than just ISP uses for faster WIFI. I use my bandwidth internally on the LAN to move file around. For those with Laptops and no TB port or don't want to spend $200 on a 10GE Dongle it's a cheap investment of $20 for an Intel card and upgrade the WIFI AP/router side and get ~5gbps out of their laptop connection. I recently found another method for breaking beyond 10GE speeds by using TB P2P between my laptop / server setup and hit 1.5GB/s for the price of a $22 cable.

It's not my fault that most of the list is combo units it's just reality of what's out there right now. Showing the power consumption potential though for comparison makes a point mentioned up thread though. Linksys coming in @ 30W though for a full router/AP unit makes you question things or it should. Now, the one AP using USBC makes me question whether it needs 15V to trigger the power up and then downshift to 5-10W after it's powered on like my 5G FWA box....

Also, keep in mind these are the max power draws and not typical draws. While the NWA210AX wants POE++ I doubt it's using that much power most of the time.

6E to me is/was like Intel 10/11th Gen and mostly a placeholder as it didn't really do much besides add 6Ghz to the mix. BE doubling the bandwidth to 320mhz though is where we get the boost in speed on 6Ghz. Of course the 2.4/5 bands got a modest bump as well for their baseline when using BE capable adapters.

The other issue is updating client devices to make sue of things. If you can't put in $20/device for the WIFI adapter to make use of it then it's not worth your time or money. On the other hand I'm going in a different direction and just going to use the QC adapter and internalize the AP function again. Sure, it's only got 2 antennas but, I really only have 1 client that will be on 6Ghz anyway besides my phone. I'm also considering putting the same adapter into the laptop since they both need a BE anyway. The QC adapters though are $35 so, it's still cheaper than buying a plastic box as listed above.
 
@RacerX330

Adoption is always slow. Apple is the tortoise though when it comes to new tech. Even when they attempt to they still fail. Look at the USBC conversion going with the bare minimum to not get banned from selling in the UK.

There are more than just ISP uses for faster WIFI. I use my bandwidth internally on the LAN to move file around. For those with Laptops and no TB port or don't want to spend $200 on a 10GE Dongle it's a cheap investment of $20 for an Intel card and upgrade the WIFI AP/router side and get ~5gbps out of their laptop connection. I recently found another method for breaking beyond 10GE speeds by using TB P2P between my laptop / server setup and hit 1.5GB/s for the price of a $22 cable.

It's not my fault that most of the list is combo units it's just reality of what's out there right now. Showing the power consumption potential though for comparison makes a point mentioned up thread though. Linksys coming in @ 30W though for a full router/AP unit makes you question things or it should. Now, the one AP using USBC makes me question whether it needs 15V to trigger the power up and then downshift to 5-10W after it's powered on like my 5G FWA box....

Also, keep in mind these are the max power draws and not typical draws. While the NWA210AX wants POE++ I doubt it's using that much power most of the time.

6E to me is/was like Intel 10/11th Gen and mostly a placeholder as it didn't really do much besides add 6Ghz to the mix. BE doubling the bandwidth to 320mhz though is where we get the boost in speed on 6Ghz. Of course the 2.4/5 bands got a modest bump as well for their baseline when using BE capable adapters.

The other issue is updating client devices to make sue of things. If you can't put in $20/device for the WIFI adapter to make use of it then it's not worth your time or money. On the other hand I'm going in a different direction and just going to use the QC adapter and internalize the AP function again. Sure, it's only got 2 antennas but, I really only have 1 client that will be on 6Ghz anyway besides my phone. I'm also considering putting the same adapter into the laptop since they both need a BE anyway. The QC adapters though are $35 so, it's still cheaper than buying a plastic box as listed above.

Meh, it's not Apple's fault. We have to be intellectually honest here, the USB-C thing is a joke. We all know that EU standard is a joke. Feigning concern about charger compatibility is totally laughable. The EU regulatory state cannot stand Apple, Google, and Facebook, and they go out of their way to swipe at them, extract economic rents from them through regulatory fiat as often as they can get away with. That is not to say they do not sin, they do.

Samsung sells way more phones, and they adopted earlier, 2 years earlier, and it didn't matter one bit.

You are proving my point to a T. We are the vast minority of networking power users. The vast vast majority of Wi-Fi consumers aren't doing any of this.

While I agree 100% that 6Ghz spectrum is important and useful; I have extreme skepticism about the practical implementation of 240MHz and 320Mhz channel widths.

If I recall, I think my NWA210AXs pull around 11W under normal conditions, but it's been a while since I checked.
 
consumers
The general public just buys disposable gear. They also just pay their ISP rental fees instead of buying a cpe which in the case of cable modems is easily recouped under a year.

SS has always used USB as well as other Android devices. Now, before fast charging they tended to use micro USB. However most phones still provide crappy charging rates and qi is a joke to get into a tantrum about as well.

Power consumption is what it is. Some shop around trying to hit 5w of use for devices and others go for performance. Nbase-t has a place in older cabling as an option for higher than gig speeds depending on the integrity and distance of the cable. Consumers only know about 2.5 and don't realize there's a 5 option in most cases. Sure, there are lower power options as copper isn't the most effective option in some situations but it's what they already have installed. The other case is how to be as cheap as possible. Economics are always in play. Hence my decision to use hostapd vs spending $300+ on a piece of plastic.
 
1699465859054.png


Finally just hit the order button and hopefully they show up. AE doesn't instill a ton of confidence but, no one else is selling them outside of buying a MOBO or preconfigured system.

MTK - tried their AX adapters in the past and they didn't really work well
Intel - have to jump through hoops and 5G is soft blocked from working in hostapd / by disabling some things I can get them to work though but under 500mbps
QCA - had an AC adapter using these in the past that worked fine / No AX/E adapters came out that work w/ hostapd

Now, onto my other connectivity adventure... 5G modem for FWA instead of using the provider option. Got a lead from another forum that confirms my initial thoughts on how the system enables connectivity binding the SIM / IMEI. Just have to decide on whether to internalize it like the above adapter or put it in a sled / USB.
 
Guys Intel BE200 and Qualcomm QCNCM865 are here. My router is TP-Link BE900

Some observations:
  1. TP-Link BE900 is their highest top-tier router. But it doesn't have MLO (Multi Link Operation) support. Without MLO, it's a fraud to call BE900 as Wifi7 router. I and many others got deceived into purchasing products from such s*** tier companies. That's on me.
  2. BE900's cheaper cousin BE800 has MLO mentioned on their website. Users on reddit also confirmed that the Web UI has an option to merge 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz bands. BE900 cannot merge 6Ghz with other 2 bands.
  3. TP-Link BE routers have Easy Mesh standard support but none of them support ethernet backhaul. Mesh is unusable without ethernet backhaul for me.
  4. Intel BE200 and Qualcomm QCNCM865 work very well on my Asus ProArt Z690 motherboard. I had to disassemble my pc, remove the port's cover, replace the existing AX210 module.
  5. No MLO support on Intel BE200 driver yet. Intel points to Microsoft not enabling support in Windows 11 and Microsoft says it's an Intel wifi driver issue.
  6. Unsure about MLO on Qualcomm QCNCM865. Maybe I need to troll internet harder to find any mentions about this.
  7. When connected to 6Ghz band, Windows shows wrong signal strength. When Windows shows very weak signal strength, I was doing 800-900 Mbps speedtests. (for both BE200 and QCNCM865)

Advantages of BE900 over any Asus top tier routers:
  1. Asus forgets ARP after 10 minutes so WOL stops working. You have to use WOL from it's GUI or Asus Router app. TP-Link does not forget ARP binding.
  2. TP-Link can dial PPPoE over IPv6 exclusively. Asus cannot do that
  3. I like TP-Link Web UI while Asus gamer-y UI (red in GT series and grey in RT series) is almost a decade old.

So there you have it. Some bleeding edge observations of current sorry state of Wifi 7. Companies selling incomplete busted products with (fake?) assurance that they will update it in future.

On a side note: I have zero clue why TP-Link BE900 costs $400 in India after tax while it costs $750 after tax in the US. :p
 
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Guys Intel BE200 and Qualcomm QCNCM865 are here. My router is TP-Link BE900

Some observations:
  1. TP-Link BE900 is their highest top-tier router. But it doesn't have MLO (Multi Link Operation) support. Without MLO, it's a fraud to call BE900 as Wifi7 router. I and many others got deceived into purchasing products from such s*** tier companies. That's on me.
  2. BE900's cheaper cousin BE800 has MLO mentioned on their website. Users on reddit also confirmed that the Web UI has an option to merge 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz bands. BE900 cannot merge 6Ghz with other 2 bands.
  3. TP-Link BE routers have Easy Mesh standard support but none of them support ethernet backhaul. Mesh is unusable without ethernet backhaul for me.
  4. Intel BE200 and Qualcomm QCNCM865 work very well on my Asus ProArt Z690 motherboard. I had to disassemble my pc, remove the port's cover, replace the existing AX210 module.
  5. No MLO support on Intel BE200 driver yet. Intel points to Microsoft not enabling support in Windows 11 and Microsoft says it's an Intel wifi driver issue.
  6. Unsure about MLO on Qualcomm QCNCM865. Maybe I need to troll internet harder to find any mentions about this.
  7. When connected to 6Ghz band, Windows shows wrong signal strength. When Windows shows very weak signal strength, I was doing 800-900 Mbps speedtests. (for both BE200 and QCNCM865)

Advantages of BE900 over any Asus top tier routers:
  1. Asus forgets ARP after 10 minutes so WOL stops working. You have to use WOL from it's GUI or Asus Router app. TP-Link does not forget ARP binding.
  2. TP-Link can dial PPPoE over IPv6 exclusively. Asus cannot do that
  3. I like TP-Link Web UI while Asus gamer-y UI (red in GT series and grey in RT series) is almost a decade old.

So there you have it. Some bleeding edge observations of current sorry state of Wifi 7. Companies selling incomplete busted products with (fake?) assurance that they will update it in future.

On a side note: I have zero clue why TP-Link BE900 costs $400 in India after tax while it costs $750 after tax in the US. :p

India is poor compared to the US, almost everything sells for a lower price there than here. Their GDP per capita is around 2k and our is 70k. That's why. :p
 
India is poor compared to the US, almost everything sells for a lower price there than here. Their GDP per capita is around 2k and our is 70k. That's why. :p
Wrong on multiple levels. iPhone 15 Pro Max costs $1250 after tax in US but costs $1920 in India.
Each and every electronic product costs more in India.

I actually think the amount of rich people in India may be more than the amount of rich people in US. Hidden wealth.
 
Wrong on multiple levels. iPhone 15 Pro Max costs $1250 after tax in US but costs $1920 in India.
Each and every electronic product costs more in India.

I actually think the amount of rich people in India may be more than the amount of rich people in US. Hidden wealth.

After tax is the wrong comparison. There are significantly more taxes for imported goods in india. Apple prices the hardware the same, it's the import taxes that make it more expensive. Try again.
 

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