Solved Wireless to get

marne said:

OK THANK you's.
I have 2 Dell desktops to pick from to order. Thinking Black Friday, I better hop onto it if that is what I should do now.
The one I want is the Dell Vostro 5890 which has the Qualcomm DW1810, 1x1, 802.11ac with WiFi, wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.1.
The other is Inspiron Desktop which has the Intel Wi-Fi 6 2x2 (Gig+) and Bluetooth.

I know absolutely NOTHING about what to look for which is better than, to buy, but did read where Wi-Fi 6 2x2 is supposed to be fast, so that made me wonder? I also am having a hard time choosing between the two in that the specs seem to be a lot alike but read replies that Vostro is better?
Also, can a person get a coupon or code to apply when ordering, or not accepted on Dell that is marked down?

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nothing to worry about usually it is a 20$ upgrade if you to install your own latest and greatest wifi card.
What matter are your wifi router and ISP speed. and wether you stream movies from local NAS or not.

hdmi said:

@Almighty1
Yeah, they appear to be visually identical. The NGWG and NGWG.NV with a Lenovo sticker have a different FRU and TA number than the NGW and NGW.NV with a Lenovo sticker, though. But there doesn't seem to be an easy way to tell the difference between non vPro (.NV) and vPro. I suppose you'd have to check if vPro can be set to enabled on the card by using the Intel PROSet Wireless software and driver package, i.e., after the card has already been installed in a system that supports vPro. I don't need vPro on my laptop anyway. It's up to the OEMs to provide detailed specs to their customers. Maybe it's because mother Intel ran out of ink so they couldn't print the little vPro logo on the stickers.

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Yeah, that's why it's hard to figure out what you are buying as OEMs still will not provide that info as most of the time, people are buying better cards to replace what was already on the system like in the case with people with Killer Networking cards which does not even have the name Killer or Rivet printed anywhere on the card. Intel PROSet Wirelesss software no longer exists in Windows 11 as everything including the .zip package is just a installer that installs to device manager, there is no longer the Intel PROSet app like they had with both the wired and wireless LAN cards.
A few weeks ago,this was about the only thing I found but haven't tried it yet but it seems it still won't be able to tell if it's the CPU that has vPro
or if it's the WiFi card or both:

So it would be interesting to find out what I have since it is hard to really tell what one is really buying from looking at the photos alone as I am sure even the sellers do not know and for all we know, all the cards you see as NGWG are really NGWG.nv. When I bought my AX210NWG's, they were normally $30+ each but I got 12 of them for total of $60, 6 from CDW and 6 from Mouser.

I am still not sure what vPro is exactly but better to have something just in case it's needed for whatever reason than not. It seems vPro is more for remote management but I always thought remote management could be done even before there was vPro. It seems Intel likes to make things confusing like with CNVi, they should really have changed the key or something to make it easier for people to know if it's CNVi or not.

Hi folks
The system I've found best is to have a 5 port cheap unswitched network switch , and a USB3->Lan adapter from laptop to network switch. Then one piece of LAN cable from network switch to a Netgear Blackhawk Wifi extender.

Reasons for doing this
1) most Wifi cards are still fairly speed limited
2) Netgear Nighthawk gives maximum Wifi speeds of over 1Gbps -- approx 1.3 Gpbs is theoretical maximum
3) uses concurrent 2.4 and 5 Ghz for maximum signal througput and range
4) older computers with LAN connections can still use those with short piece of LAN cable (from device to network switch)
5) you can set the LAN NIC (the USB3->LAN) to use FULL DUPLEX -- Wifi tends to use half duplex.

(If your computer wifi card has wifi capability of around 1Gbps then the above advice isn't applicable unless you still have some devices that don't have LAN - although Wifi still probably will be operating at HALF DUPLEX).

I'm still from a "Shed" 100 metres away from the main house and getting with this system roughly 350 Mbps Up and Down -- that's plenty decent enough for most things and I don't need loads of LAN cables all over the place.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
The system I've found best is to have a 5 port cheap unswitched network switch , and a USB3->Lan adapter from laptop to network switch. Then one piece of LAN cable from network switch to a Netgear Blackhawk Wifi extender.

Reasons for doing this
1) most Wifi cards are still fairly speed limited
2) Netgear Nighthawk gives maximum Wifi speeds of over 1Gbps -- approx 1.3 Gpbs is theoretical maximum
3) uses concurrent 2.4 and 5 Ghz for maximum signal througput and range
4) older computers with LAN connections can still use those with short piece of LAN cable (from device to network switch)
5) you can set the LAN NIC (the USB3->LAN) to use FULL DUPLEX -- Wifi tends to use half duplex.

(If your computer wifi card has wifi capability of around 1Gbps then the above advice isn't applicable unless you still have some devices that don't have LAN - although Wifi still probably will be operating at HALF DUPLEX).

I'm still from a "Shed" 100 metres away from the main house and getting with this system roughly 350 Mbps Up and Down -- that's plenty decent enough for most things and I don't need loads of LAN cables all over the place.

Cheers
jimbo

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1Gbps on wifi is only possible with AX router and AX card on short 4-10feet distance.

Wired is always faster than wireless anyday of the week and also lower latency. Wireless is more for convenience.

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
The system I've found best is to have a 5 port cheap unswitched network switch , and a USB3->Lan adapter from laptop to network switch. Then one piece of LAN cable from network switch to a Netgear Blackhawk Wifi extender.

Reasons for doing this
1) most Wifi cards are still fairly speed limited
2) Netgear Nighthawk gives maximum Wifi speeds of over 1Gbps -- approx 1.3 Gpbs is theoretical maximum
3) uses concurrent 2.4 and 5 Ghz for maximum signal througput and range
4) older computers with LAN connections can still use those with short piece of LAN cable (from device to network switch)
5) you can set the LAN NIC (the USB3->LAN) to use FULL DUPLEX -- Wifi tends to use half duplex.

(If your computer wifi card has wifi capability of around 1Gbps then the above advice isn't applicable unless you still have some devices that don't have LAN - although Wifi still probably will be operating at HALF DUPLEX).

I'm still from a "Shed" 100 metres away from the main house and getting with this system roughly 350 Mbps Up and Down -- that's plenty decent enough for most things and I don't need loads of LAN cables all over the place.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

What I have is similar to a certain degree. Instead of the 5-port cheap unmanaged network switch, there's an Asus RT-AX92U wireless router in AP mode that is the primary node of the AI Mesh 2.0 Wireless System, and a Uni 3-port USB 3.0 hub that uses a built-in Realtek GbE Family Controller for the LAN adapter from laptop to this same wireless router. Then one piece of LAN cable from wireless router to an 8-port D-Link DGS-108 unmanaged network switch in the next room, and another piece of LAN cable from this same network switch to the secondary node of the Asus RT-AX92U (2-Pack). The "2-Pack" here means that when you buy this you get not one, but two wireless routers packaged together in a single cardboard box. So, because these wireless routers support AI Mesh 2.0 and are hooked up to each other ("uplinked") via the aforementioned network switch by using LAN cables, the AI Mesh 2.0 system uses what they call "wired backhaul". The main benefit is that I get consistent, fast speed and stability everywhere, inside and outside the house, and am getting it regardless of whether I am plugged in, so, cables or no cables, doesn't really make that much difference to me anymore. The only reason why I still prefer to be plugged in is because I can be. But the smartphones and the IoT devices prefer not to be.

hdmi said:

What I have is similar to a certain degree. Instead of the 5-port cheap unmanaged network switch, there's an Asus RT-AX92U wireless router in AP mode that is the primary node of the AI Mesh 2.0 Wireless System, and a Uni 3-port USB 3.0 hub that uses a built-in Realtek GbE Family Controller for the LAN adapter from laptop to this same wireless router. Then one piece of LAN cable from wireless router to an 8-port D-Link DGS-108 unmanaged network switch in the next room, and another piece of LAN cable from this same network switch to the secondary node of the Asus RT-AX92U (2-Pack). The "2-Pack" here means that when you buy this you get not one, but two wireless routers packaged together in a single cardboard box. So, because these wireless routers support AI Mesh 2.0 and are hooked up to each other ("uplinked") via the aforementioned network switch by using LAN cables, the AI Mesh 2.0 system uses what they call "wired backhaul". The main benefit is that I get consistent, fast speed and stability everywhere, inside and outside the house, and am getting it regardless of whether I am plugged in, so, cables or no cables, doesn't really make that much difference to me anymore. The only reason why I still prefer to be plugged in is because I can be. But the smartphones and the IoT devices prefer not to be.

Click to expand...

Hi folks

@Almighty1

Modern Wifi systems can be faster than older wired systems -- especially if your LAN NIC can't support faster than 1Gbps - some Lan NICs still are as slow as 100mbps which agreed is still faster than a lot of older wifi cards around at 54mbps, These days check the hardware specs - older hardware can be as slow as molasses and modern protocols mean one can't assume the older rules are still valid any more.

My nighthawk wifi extender can support up to 1.7gbps for example (that's what it says on the box - haven't got that out of it but have reached 1.3gbps from it though) and newer wifi bits of kit are looking at as much as 10gbps. I know you can get some wired nics up to 1 Tbps but most domestic computers won't have those or will they have anything like that speed from their ISP's.


@hdmi
These "Mesh" systems are actually ideal and a better way of doing things.

I think some decent ISP's now even offer some of these types of things as "Smart Wifi" which guarantees people consistent high quality fast Wifi all over their property. You would need proper 100% fibre optic cable system though -- wouldn't really be of much use on Hybrid type systems - i.e some copper wire from old phone jacks ("what were those" !!!!!!) to another ISP box before getting the ISP WAN link -- typically older B.T type systems in the UK and similar.

This type of system has improved a lot over the years -- SKY were one of the first to do it "internally" between their "SKY Q" boxes and remote sky boxes. I'd do it this way myself if I were starting from scratch now but while my equipment is functioning perfectly I'll leave it for now.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45
Typically, mesh offers less control over your settings when compared to the traditional-old (and still very popular choice) "wireless router-and-AP" type of comination. But AI Mesh 2.0 from Asus is one of few exceptions to this, as it really does give you a respectable list of advanced features and settings to play with, albeit not everyone needs/wants to use those extras. It doesn't cater equally as much to those who prefer an easy setup that requires fewer mouseclicks, though. But not too long ago all the affordable mesh systems were substantially slow/slower than a decent, similarly priced, router-and-AP kind of of wireless network setup. Ubiquity mesh AFAIK was still stuck on WiFi 5 so not particularly future proof even though it is expensive, and, Synology did have the advanced featureset, but their line of mesh prodcuts hadn't been updated in what seemed to be like ages almost.

So, I kept looking at Asus. But I also kept looking at how awfully expensive those things were, while at the same time also I kept thinking, that I certainly wasn't going to spend that much cash on a pair of routers if their firmware was still kind of lacking on their RT-AX92U model.

But then all of a sudden I had noticed, by looking on the internet, that various people had been reporting that these initial firmware issues that I thought to be dealbreakers had finally been taken care of well enough to be worth doing some extra thinking. That's just one of those things that sets Asus apart from the vast majority of other brands... it may take them some time before they manage to iron stuff out, but eventually they will, and, they always do. To a certain degree, the brand still uses the old mousetrap theory for their marketing strategy. I.e., if you are an engineer, if you put strong enough cheese in, eventually someone's gonna bite.

Good things come to those who wait. At least if they don't wait too long, it does. I found the 2-Pack "version" at a truly excellent price of just 279 Euros inc free shipping. It's been going strong for 4 months and a week. Big pile of hardware!

Yep, 1GBps LAN still has a maximum 940Mbps limit due to overhead. As for WiFi5, I believe 600Mbps was the real transfer limit. With WiFi 6/6E, there are 2.5G, 5G, 10G but you will still need to find a switch that supports those and still not sure what the maximum speed of WiFi6/6E is. My internet connection is actually 1.44Gbps but until I upgrade both the modem and the router, I will never see more than 940Mbps from it even on wired or 300Mbps because my router even though it's AC-1900 because of single stream will only do 300Mbps or so. As for routers, ASUS usually has the best software but that's only if one can get a RMerlin version of the software which is still not possible with the AXE11000 for example as RMerlin does not support what ASUS markets as gaming routers. I am still on a Netgear R7000 router which uses XWRT, a ported version of RMerlin so I can also do the AI Mesh 2.0 with other routers that run ASUS or RMerlin software.

RMerlin adds nothing for me. Even my old RT-N66U ran perfectly fine without it... don't believe everything that they tell you on the SNB forum.

There are somethings it adds which is not in the regular ASUS firmware so it's a YMMV scenario as there are some CLI stuff that is not in the regular ASUS firmware.