The home Wi-Fi upgrade we never asked for is coming. The one we need is not
- Reference: 1695630494
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/09/25/wifi_7_ee_qualcomm/
- Source link:
Take last week's story that UK ISP and mobile operator EE is working with comms chip supremo Qualcomm to add [1]Wi-Fi 7 to consumer broadband hubs . News worth knowing, although it would have been a much bigger story had it been that EE was just not going to bother. Faster, more reliable connectivity is always worth having, right? Let's answer that question in a moment, but only after shining the spotlight on a classic bit of misdirection snuggled coyly in plain sight in the messaging from the marketeers. Over to you, Qualcomm's finest.
"Qualcomm said that in current broadband systems, it is nearly impossible to manage for quality of service, given the diversity of devices, applications and connectivity technologies in use, and that these change regularly." The company goes on to say the cure for these woes is a selection of operator-run end-to-end and QoS options. Clever Qualcomm. It's lesson 101 in marketing college to define a problem then offer a fix. Trouble is, the woes listed in the messaging are those that previous versions of services and wireless standards claimed to fix. If they didn't fix them, why should we believe this lot will? If they did, what is Qualcomm actually saying? It's a paradox.
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It's also easily fixed. If you've had to configure or troubleshoot Wi-Fi problems in business or for friends, family or yourself, you'll know how many pigs live in that problem sty. Black spots, drop-outs, devices that won't connect, or won't work when they are connected. And so on. It's particularly bad in consumer land, where households and public spaces are filled with an infinite variety of strangely configured devices and their infinitely confused owners. Will Wi-Fi 7 make life better for the access-addicted masses as EE and Qualcomm claim?
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[4]
No. Wi-Fi 7 is indeed a marvel, with each individual channel four times wider than the entire original 802.11 band in its entirety. With around [5]500MHz to play with in most of the world and double that in the US, it uses the new 6GHz band and a handful of new techniques to get a headline raw top speed of 46Gbps. Which is genuinely awesome, and as much use to the public as the toilets on the International Space Station. Wi-Fi 6's comparable maximum rate is 9.6Gbps. There is no consumer problem of today, no domestic use case imaginable, where 50Gbps works where 10 will not. The 6GHz band, which in the US actually goes some way beyond 7GHz, is more easily blocked by walls and other physical stuff necessary for gracious living than 5GHz, so coverage problems won't be fixed.
It would be amazing if one in a hundred households notice an iota of difference if their current router magically sprouted Wi-Fi 7, and this won't change much for the years it takes to get phones, laptops, and everything else with older versions of the standard upgraded. Good luck getting those managed end-to-end services up and running too.
[6]Starlink, shot by both sides in Ukrainian fracas, lives to fight on
[7]IPv6 is built to be better, but that's not the route to success
[8]Tomorrow's wireless world will be fatter, faster, and creepier
[9]Astroboffins may have raged at Elon's emissions staining the sky, but all those satellites will be more boon than bother
What does make life better for Wi-Fi users and those unfortunates who have to support them isn't to expect more from the ISP's router but to ask much less of it. Put it into modem mode and pass all the packets straight through to a third-party router. Then with full control over everything and running the services you need rather than those the ISP chooses to provide, the complications of reliable, extensible wireless are far more easily dealt with. Pick a router with mesh if you need to extend range. Pick one that can do cellular fallback if you want more reliability. Pick one that has regular firmware updates and hasn't been built down to a price the way so many ISP-provided routers have been. Plus, keeping the ISP-provided device in dumb mode makes it much easier to change ISPs. Not the sort of thing ISPs like.
They do like the idea of having more control over customers, though, which is why the idea of having more services they can sell to buff up tier differentiation is so tempting and why Qualcomm is happy to supply the means. This doesn't mean things will get better for consumers – the evidence is that the more ISPs concentrate on just delivering the bits to order, while letting other parts of the industry develop the specializations and techniques to manage and innovate everything else, the better it all works.
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Nobody's expecting consumers to want or be able to manage a full-fat router. The ISPs are never going to go out of their way to encourage a market in anything that reduces their control. Yet there is a global market of billions who could have a better experience if they could plug in a box that managed their broadband needs better than, and independent of, their ISP. That huge potential exists, but we're not supposed to notice. Nor have we. Now that's misdirection. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/ee_touts_nextgen_broadband_smart/?td=rt-3a
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZRFaSTi7Oa@iNsv0qj7oqgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZRFaSTi7Oa@iNsv0qj7oqgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZRFaSTi7Oa@iNsv0qj7oqgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.wi-fi.org/countries-enabling-wi-fi-in-6-ghz-wi-fi-6e
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/17/opinion_column/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/24/opinion_column_ipv6/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/wireless_world_of_tomorrow/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/06/space_comms_revolution_starlink_aws/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZRFaSTi7Oa@iNsv0qj7oqgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Or if you're with Virgin Media, they routinely update the firmware and wipe user settings on their hubs, and/or break as many things as they fix, as well as trying to direct everything to their DNS so they can pimp user browsing data, offering pitiful firewalls and configuration options. Can't speak for other ISPs, but I'm pretty sure VM make things massively worse by homebrewing their hub firmware from RDK-B, which is a level of dabbling clearly well beyond the company's capabilities.
All such problems went away when I bought an entry level mesh system. I could have bought something a lot more hardcore from Netgear, or congugured multiple Asus routers as a mesh, but a TP-Link Deco does everything I need faultlessly. It gives me wifi that just works, without the unacceptable compromises of running an ISP router.
Whoops !!!
Doctor Syntax,
You missed the No.1 Golden Rule ... never use the supplied ISP Router.
Lock Down and/or 'Random' reconfiguration is the 'joy' you are trying to miss !!!
I want to configure the router to *MY* requirements and improve the security of the connection.
I do not want to harm anyone else by mis-configuring the router but generic configurations are not safe as if you break through one config you can attack *all* the ISP's routers equally.
P.S. Cloning the MAC Address of the original ISP router can be useful to avoid 'simple' detection if you replace the router !!!
[... something about grandmothers & eggs ..... :=) ]
:)
That sounds like you should be reporting them for an offence under the Computer Misuse Act.... except the ploddery wont be able to figure that out and will go "Thats a civil matter sir"
Interest, expertise and time
The geeks among us will like the idea of being able to tinker with all sorts of settings on devices, disaggregate devices and services and deploy our own hardware.
I run my own LAN and Wifi setup at home and use my broadband router as a modem only (yes, sadly still on FTTC), giving me exactly the choices outlined.
Most will have neither the interest, expertise or will to invest the time to eke out the last bit of performance from a home network because largely it is 'good enough'.
WiFi 7 just brings with it the opportunity to sell more hardware - new end points, more access points (one per room please) and the network to connect them all.
Marketing at its best...
Of course you're right that wifi 7 isn't going to offer anything anyone actually needs over and above wifi 6 but I actually disagree that what the country needs is for ISPs to stop bundling their own router in with the package. There will always be some who want a dumb modem they can attach to their own mesh network but 9 out of 10 people just want a single box they can plug in and start using immediately. And that's before you consider the support headache of a customer phoning up their ISP to complain that "the internet isn't working" when there could be a whole myriad of boxes between their laptop and the modem.
By all means campaign for ISPs to offer better routers or routers which are updated more frequently but forcing the customer to go out and buy, configure and maintain their own router isn't solving the problem.
But mostly, please do campaign for the ability to put the ISP's box in dumb mode.
I have OpnSense for my routing. pfSense is another alternative which does much the same thing.
I have a separate pair of wireless access points, currely Apple AirPorts but I will likely replace them at some point in the near future.
But wouldn't it be even better if the router was not tied to a specific ISP, so when you change ISP you don't need new hardware. In much the same way as when you change electricity supplier you don't need a new meter. Same for water, gas, even POTS phones.
Yes, I understand how PPP is involved etc, but it doesn't have to be. Just stick DHCP on the ISP's end and routers would be truly plug and play, not even needing TR-069 provisioning.
whats the bet it barely goes thru 1 wall befor eits out of range.
Too pessimistic
The 6GHz band's failure to penetrate walls is a feature, as it means you are less likely to experience interference from other units in an apartment building, as 2.4Ghz is a lost cause and even 5GHz is congested in most places. It does require you to have a multi-AP setup, preferrably with wired or optical backhaul, but I am starting to see new build housing equipped thus.
Most consumer-grade WiFi gear is indeed ghastly, with numerous bugs that cause inexplicable (and practically undebuggable) authentication bugs and connection brown-outs. Most could do with a simple watchdog timer that performs a scheduled reboot at 3AM to maintain stability throughout the day.
Re: Too pessimistic
In most newbuild houses in the UK (and indeed most in the past 25+ years) most internal walls will be plasterboard, so the attenuation of signals within the property will be minimal. Even internal supporting walls for a two story house will typically be lightweight blocks that are mostly air.
I’ve found that a lot of the problems with WiFi in the home can be solved quickly and easily by investing in a bunch of ethernet cables for those things which don’t actually need to move around…
…but then that won’t generate any revenue for the ISP and doesn’t look great on the marketing material.
You forgot "politicians" ...
in that first sentence: Magicians, management, and marketing depend on misdirection.
Re: You forgot "politicians" ...
Nah, politicritters rely on down right lying!
One who merely relied on misdirection would be considered an outlier, and would be shunned by the rest of the herd!
You mean like Zen internet?
Unlocked router - that gets firmware updates regularly.... and you can buy another unlocked one off the shelf if you want and mesh it out the box....
And they don't connect in... and encourage you to fiddle... as long as you are responsible they don't give a hoot what you are using....
There are still some good ISP's out there.
I'm on City Fibre out in the sticks of March, in the Fenland of East Anglia.
My ISP is Zen, and my package for £40 per month provides me with 900Mbps up and down which I do check regularly,
However, I don't use the ISP provided Friz Box.
I use a Netgear RAXE500 triband Wifi 6E router/
Its excellent, providing coverage for all my devices, over the 3 bands it operates on, with minimal interference.
Our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra;s operate on the 6G Wi-Fi band, and using Wi-Fi analyser it appears we are the only ones using that band in the area.
But that will change, as more devices come onto the market, that can operate at those frequencies.
I welcome Wi-Fi 7 and will probably upgrade my router a few years from now. But in the meantime, I'm happy with my current set-up, with over 20 devices, spread over all 3 bands, and up to 4 over ethernet on our network
Another reason not to use the ISP's router - they can't log in remotely as PlusNet did with mine, lock it down and prevent me reconfiguring the DHCP reserved IP addresses I'd previously set up when it was still open to configuration from the LAN side.