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Wifi 7 - Apple dropping the ball
- Thread starter Kbaegis
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I use bridge set up as well. WiFi 6e backhaul. Only "WiFi" items that remain are my iPhone, watch, and iPad. Everythign else is connected to the main router and the bridge router via ethernet. Some are 1 gig connections and others 2.5 gig based on what my routers offered. TV and NVidia Shield get 1 gig, NAS gets the 2.5 gig. Other router has Mac, printer, and scanner. It is a small setup but works great.
I think a bridge mode WiFi 7 would be amazing if the two routers would get a solid handshake continuously.
Btw, long ago with old Apple routers, I used bridge mode with the single thought that the routers should do all the heavy lifting and not my Macs which were connected via cable to the routers of course. This prove to be great as I was able to playback 1080p files on the "bridge side" with no issues unlike everyone else who said it couldn't be done over WiFi. Today, we have great options with WiFi and various permutations to play with.
Dropped the ball on something that isn't ratified yet, and only has a handful of routers available for, and goes max speeds that no one even has yet? Ok cool.
1 Gb ethernet tops out at around 930 Mbs. 6E can give you faster speeds. ~1400 Mbps in my case. Probably faster but it is limited by my modem.
For me, WiFi 7 would be of great value if - I used it in bridge mode or similar and, all my devices for the most part were connected to the routers via Ethernet 2.5 gig or 10 gig. I have devices that talk to each other including a NAS that can handle above 1 gig Ethernet. Otherwise, as I am now, the 6e works very well for me and no real complaints. My Internet is okay but not high speed (sits usually under 500 Mbps). Having WiFi 7 for backhaul would be a good bump up for me (along with getting faster internet service).
Yeah but what I am saying is no one really needs wifi 7 at least for home use because you won't really have any scenarios where it is necessary, getting anything wifi7 right now is just future proofing.
For me if I had WiFi 6 or less, I might opt for WiFi 7 if I had to redo my network. As I have Wifi 6e, I get excellent results with two routers in bridge mode. I would be remiss to say there isn't certain advantages of using Wifi 7 routers with devices having Wifi 6. Better Wifi 7 routers will better saturate 2.4 and 5.0 which translates to slightly faster speeds on the average.
Best I can say is most people would be very happy with WiFi 6e given the cost of the routers now and the performance. If one must push on to WiFi 7 at a lower cost, I recall TPLink having a simpler WiFi 7 that under certain scenarios is a real steal for the speed it can offer.
Care to share here or in private the AP you found with 20Gb wired backhaul?
Also I thought copper work only to 10G! If that’s so is that AP back hauling via fiber?
I know that post might not have been that clear but I do believe the reference was to WiFi 7 backhaul which theoretically could be up to 40gig and WiFi 7 router to some devices could possibly see these high numbers of above 10gigs. I use at this time one WiFi 7 device with devices that are nearly all WiFI 6 and 6e. Soon, I'll set up a second router and see if I can get a speed test between the two and report back. That might be in a few days.
The person who mentioned a disappointment about WiFi 7 in some respects is spot on as Apple should be at the front of tech not lagging behind or with the crowd. Others (myself in that group) believe Apple is doing 6e as most people are still playing catch up to 6e and likely, a 6e inclusion is cheaper than 7.
Takeaway - at least with my particular router, my speeds on wifi 6 and 6e devices seems to be a bit faster than the previous 6e router. I believe if anyone is setting up a mesh system or bridge setup, WiFi 7 would be a great option even if we are with 6 and 6e devices.
Sorry, didn’t see the question until now. The upgraded Ethernet port was an option when you configured the Mac mini pro on apple’s store web site.
I think you can add a 10g Ethernet port via thunderbolt as well should you ever need it in the future.