The next generation of Wifi, Wi-FI 7, is here. Netgear has released a new router which can reach theoretical speeds of over 10 Gigabytes per second.
While consumer data speeds usually top at 1 Gigabyte per second, there is still a market for faster connections based on physical location to servers. Checking if your current router meets Wi-Fi 6 standards is a good place to start. Tom’s Guide reports:
For those looking to upgrade to one of the best Wi-Fi routers right now, you may be finding yourself at a bit of a crossroads. Do you pick up a router with Wi-Fi 6E since their price has come down significantly, or do you go all in on Wi-Fi 7 with the aim of future-proofing your home network?
This can certainly be a tough decision but by investing in your own Wi-Fi routerand pairing it with one of the best cable modems, you’re actually going to save money in the long run since you won’t have to pay your internet service provider monthly rental fees. You also get complete control over your home network.
Since no mainstream computing equipment uses the standard, getting this technology now would be useless. For a proper connection, all the pieces of the network must meet a similar standard. Ethernet cables, modems, routers, and antennas must all allow a certain speed for it to flow. The Verge explains:
You can think of Wi-Fi 7 as being to Wi-Fi 6E what Wi-Fi 6 was to Wi-Fi 5. It still operates on the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, like Wi-Fi 6E, but it improves things by offering more potential bandwidth (faster downloads), bundling connections across bands (faster downloads and more stability), and using more signal modulation tricks for dealing with congestion.
Some of the marketing around Wi-Fi 7 centers on bringing you 8K video, but… I’m somewhat skeptical here. Even if 8K streaming were common, a compressed 8K feed would be lean enough for most modern routers to easily handle.
Wi-Fi 7 might be too early for everyone save the most tech savvy. Knowing of emerging technologies can help companies and consumers plan for future network upgrades which underpin so much of modern life.
Testing your connection through speed tests is a good place to start. From there, it is possible to work backwards to the modem to see what piece of gear is creating a bottleneck.
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