what's going on with wifi router!

EpicGamer835 · June 25, 2021

Why does this router has gigabit lan(one 2.5 gigabit port too) ports but they have wireless speeds upto 10.8 gigabit???even if we use all ports still we can not manage to have 10 gigabit?

flibberdipper · June 25, 2021

Manufacturers have this fun habit of combining the speeds of all bands into one number to make it look like a big dick router. My Nighthawk R7000 brags about being capable of "up to 1.9Gbps," but on one 5GHz band under nearly perfect conditions (aka my PC with an 8260 being about 16 inches away with only my desk separating them) I can only get about 600-650Mbps.

I'm sure if I could activate everything on this router (two 5GHz networks and two 2.4GHz) and then somehow managed to saturate each one, assuming they can pull full speed on both the normal network and the guest network, I might be able to get at least a little closer to that bold 1.9Gbps claim.

WkdPaul · June 25, 2021

Since it's limited to Wifi, that means you'll only get that speed between wireless devices, but as mentioned, this stuff is always about marketing since the LAN can't get up to that speed.

tikker · June 25, 2021

2 hours ago, EpicGamer835 said:

but they have wireless speeds upto 10.8 gigabit???

It's always attractive to list the theoretical maximum speeds it could potentially in the ideal circumstances operate at.

Realistically and practically I think nowadays the majority of people prefer wireless stuff anyway. Just look at the reluctance of TV manufacturers to include gigabit ports (looking at you LG...) on multi-thousand dollar units. Faster speeds also generally means it's more susceptible to less than ideal circumstances regarding wire runs to avoid interference, kinks and other kinds of abuse. Though WiFi has similar issues regarding walls and such.

What maniac needs 10 gig ethernet (or WiFi) in a normal household anyway? Being able to download your Steam game in probably a literal minute is nice, but how often do you need to do that? Even in a worst case scenario of a 100-125 Mbps 4k HDR Blu-ray streaming to 4 people it would only use half of a gigabit. If you do need 10 gig, chances are you know that and you're probably not looking at Asus, but more networking focussed brands anyway.

ISPs have started rolling out 10 Gbps service here, but most people I know don't even have gigabit yet.