AX86U wifi question 80 or 160 lock?

[willyburz]

Rando question for the pros here. Using AX86U, and just got a high quality 2021 AX Chromebook after my 2015 Pixel Chromebook has run out of updates. It's 2x2 as all are, will I see a difference in speed between 80 hz and 160hz? Im on gig network and am testing 610-730 meg 15-20 feet out or so. Is it worth locking 160hz or is the 160hz gonna have a steeper drop around the house vs. locked at 80hz currently?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Only you can answer that question as everybody's WiFi environment is different.

 

[bbunge]

With 160 MHz you will chance getting bounced by RADAR as DFS channels will be used. With 80 MHz you can avoid DFS channels by setting the 5 GHz to channel 36 or 149 and above. I use 160 MHz on channel 36 with no issues.
With that said it is good to use the dual band smart connect. If the 5 GHz gets bounced the clients will switch to the 2.4 GHz band.

 

[willyburz]

Yah, I've always just locked it at 80hz on 161...but I now that I have two new high quality AX Chromebooks, I've been testing at distance and trying this comparison, and just switched the other day to 160hz on 44. I tend to test about 25-75 megs higher average so far with the 160hz locked. Just enough to ride with it for now. I tried it across the house the other night and was still pulling around 642, so pretty damn happy with that!! This AX86U is a monster, continues to impress the hell out of me "Outside of that crappy April firmware! Even my AC clients are pulling consistent impressive numbers.

Honestly they are very close whether locked 80 or 160, gonna run 160 for a month or two here and see if any issues with clients far away in garage, etc. So far so good.

 

[Tech9]

How many of your devices support 160MHz? The higher average throughput may be a result of Wi-Fi channel change only.

 

[willyburz]

3 ax clients that can use 160, the rest are ac. I sweep and move around the house with the wifi analyzer, and both my 161 on 80hz setting, and 44 at 160hz are pretty clean. I just pulled a 734 down, 34 up at about 20-25 feet from router, on my new Chromebook.

 

[Tech9]

3 ax clients that can use 160, the rest are ac

What link speeds the AX clients connect with? Look at router's client list, Tx Rate and Rx Rate.

 

[willyburz]

TX 2,401+ and RX 2400+ or something, I haven't looked on the others. I'm running an s33 modem and connected on the 2.5 ports. The fastest wifi test I've pulled so far was 770 ish.