Many (but not all) Wi-Fi 6 routers today also support Wi-Fi 6E. That said, 6 GHz offers the best performance of the three Wi-Fi bands, but the same laws of physics apply so it has the least range, too. This additional 6 GHz band is even wider than 5 GHz, opening up even more capacity and speed for Wi-Fi devices. Wi-Fi that operates on this new 6 GHz band is called Wi-Fi 6E (E for Extended). Thankfully, the Wi-Fi standard is backward-compatible with its predecessors, so you won’t have to worry about your existing devices not working with a new Wi-Fi router.įor decades, Wi-Fi networks could only operate on 2.4 or 5 GHz bands, but now there’s a third band available, at 6 GHz. It also does so with far less latency, or lag, especially important for online gaming or streaming 4K video versus browsing the Web or sending e-mail. Like Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 6 operates at both 2.4 and 5 GHz, but due to more efficient encoding and other technical enhancements, it can squeeze a lot more data into a Wi-Fi signal than its predecessors. If you’re buying a Wi-Fi router today, you'll want one that supports the most recent standard, Wi-Fi 6 (also known as 802.11ax). Wi-Fi 4 operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, while Wi-Fi 5 operates only in the 5 GHz band. Had your current Wi-Fi router for more than a few years? It probably supports Wi-Fi 4 (also called 802.11n), which was introduced in 2008, and/or Wi-Fi 5 (also known as 802.11ac), which was introduced in 2014. What to Look for in a Wi-Fi Router Standards and Bands As of this writing I have more than three dozen devices connected across multiple home Wi-Fi networks, ranging from PCs and Macs to smartphones and tablets, to cameras, smart home assistants, video games, and even a bathroom scale.
As a former tech journalist, I first started working with some of the earliest standardized Wi-Fi products back before the dawn of the millennium. My most recent is Hacks for Alexa (Racehorse Press, 2019). I’ve also authored or co-authored several books.
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I spend most of most of my time hip-deep in various kinds of tech, and over the years I’ve written for PC Mag, Small Business Computing, and Smart Computing, among others. Show more The Expert: For 30 years I’ve been an IT professional, personal tech consultant, and technology writer.
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