Dual band Wi-Fi range extender
Let’s talk a bit about some of the technical aspects of the Wi-Fi range extender, before looking at real-world performance.
The adapter offers theoretical simultaneous dual band Wi-Fi speed of 2402 Mbit/s on 5GHz and 574 Mbits/sec on 2.4GHz. The device offers:
- Beamforming – a signal processing technique in which a wireless signal is directed toward a specific receiving device.
- BSS color – a method used to distinguish between the BSS of access points and their clients on the same RF channel.
- UL/DL MU-MIMO – DL MU-MIMO enables an access point to send data to multiple terminals simultaneously, while UL MU-MIMO allows an access point to receive data from multiple terminals simultaneously.
In my new home office, Wi-Fi speeds with Wi-Fi 6 are mediocre averaging around 188 Mbits/sec (and even less with Wi-Fi 5). There are a few thick walls for the signal to get through which hampers Wi-Fi performance.
One of the main functions of the AX3000 is to act as a WiFi 6 booster.
You need to think carefully where to place the AX3000. A good first start is to place the device around equal distance between the router and the target room. In my case, I placed the device on a different floor to the router. Then in KDE’s networks I connect to the WiFi 6 access point created by the AX3000 instead of direct to the router.
Here’s the performance connecting to the AX3000.
Wi-Fi speeds have improved from on average 188 Mbits/sec to 429 Mbits/sec. That’s a significant improvement although it doesn’t max out my internet speed.
And that was just a first experiment. There are lots of things to tweak including the placement of the AX3000 itself, as well as the direction of the two high gain antennas. With some experimentation, I’m able to improve speeds to around 450 Mbits/sec.
Next page: Page 3 – Wi-Fi to Gigabit ethernet adapter and Summary
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction and Set up
Page 2 – Dual band Wi-Fi range extender
Page 3 – Wi-Fi to Gigabit ethernet adapter and Summary