1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,960 I can guarantee you that whatever Wi-Fi speed you're getting at home is slower than what 2 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:09,520 it says on your router's box, even if you're sitting right next to the antennas. 3 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:15,040 But why? And how can the router companies get away with putting these speeds on their marketing 4 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:20,560 if it doesn't reflect reality? It's like the feeling you get when you compare the burger in the picture to the one you actually 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:25,400 get. Well, those speeds on your router are theoretically possible. 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:29,440 In other words, what you'd be getting under optimal conditions. 7 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,520 But the bad news is those optimal conditions don't really exist. 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:40,880 One big reason why is interference. This can come from many sources, other Wi-Fi networks, wireless controllers, drones, and 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:45,200 even microwave ovens, among other things. These can all mess with your signal. 10 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:51,300 But what if you live in the middle of nowhere? You have no gadgets in your house besides a router and a laptop, and you only ever use 11 00:00:51,300 --> 00:00:56,520 a toaster oven. You'll still be fighting against obstructions like walls and furniture, and even if you have 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,680 a clear line of sight between you and the router, you still have to think about signal 13 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:06,600 attenuation. Just as a radio station gets more static-y, the farther away you drive from it, the radio 14 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:11,500 waves that make up Wi-Fi signals invariably get weaker over distance. 15 00:01:11,500 --> 00:01:16,720 This is especially true with higher frequency signals on the 5 and 6GHz Wi-Fi bands. 16 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,560 The higher the frequency, the more data they can carry and the faster they'll be, but 17 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:24,600 the laws of physics also dictate that they'll be shorter range. 18 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:29,520 Having more power to boost the signal often isn't an option, as there are legal limits 19 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:34,240 on how much power a wireless router can put out in order to stop it from interfering with 20 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:39,480 other electronics. This means if you get too far away, or there's just too much interference to where the router 21 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,200 and client can't reliably hear each other, they have to negotiate a slower speed, as 22 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:49,080 sending less data over a certain frequency is a good way to stabilize the connection. 23 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:53,160 So it might end up working just fine, but you won't see anything close to the speed 24 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:59,000 on the box. But did you know that even if you could reach those unicorn-like optimal conditions, like 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,240 in our country house with just a laptop right beside the router, that number on the box 26 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,360 is still probably exaggerated. 27 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:13,140 Like grossly exaggerated. Even under the best conditions possible, you'll still need to make sure your devices support 28 00:02:13,140 --> 00:02:18,400 the same revision of Wi-Fi as the router, and have the same number of spatial streams 29 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:25,800 to take advantage of the full bandwidth. The vast majority of client devices, phones, laptops, etc., don't support more than two 30 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:32,320 spatial streams. So even if your router supports more, that speed on your box won't reflect what you 31 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:39,320 actually get on one device. But it can help in terms of performance when multiple devices are doing something bandwidth-heavy, 32 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:45,800 like streaming video. But this Wi-Fi 6 router is a great example of something even more egregious. 33 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:49,840 It promises you 1800 megabits per second of speed. 34 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:55,040 Wow! In all likelihood, that's way faster than your home internet connection. 35 00:02:55,040 --> 00:03:00,300 But upon closer inspection, that number is derived from adding the 5 GHz and the 2.4 36 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:05,200 GHz speeds together. And Wi-Fi 6 just doesn't work that way. 37 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:10,040 You have to pick one band or the other, so while the 1800 is technically correct in 38 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:15,240 that it's the right theoretical total bandwidth, it's very misleading in terms of what people 39 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,280 think of when they hear speed. 40 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,520 And we also have to say a quick word about channel width. 41 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:27,080 If we're talking about Wi-Fi 6, you can have channels up to 160 MHz wide, meaning lots 42 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:34,960 of space to move data. But not only are some devices unable to receive a 160 MHz signal, you open yourself up to 43 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:40,080 a lot more potential interference and signal attenuation, meaning many folks have found 44 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:43,480 160 MHz channels to be fairly unreliable. 45 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:48,440 And although Wi-Fi 7 is on its way soon, which will support broadcasting on multiple 46 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:53,960 bands at once and better performance with wide channels, this doesn't mean we should 47 00:03:53,960 --> 00:04:00,640 let manufacturers off the hook for their borderline dishonest claims about their products or expect 48 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,360 that they'll label their wares in a more realistic way going forward. 49 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:09,720 But of course, we're not trying to say it's as egregious as something like the Hawaii chair. 50 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:13,480 That was crazy. So thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video, hit like, hit subscribe, and hit 51 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,480 us up in the comments section with your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.