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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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Privacy
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Most consumers are familiar with the 802.11 standards; however, this new sequential number rebranding is intended to simplify things. Previously, the naming design used the alphabet, starting with a to bto g and n, with each one representing the next generation. We'd expect z to be the last or fastest one, or until they have new names, but suddenly we're on 802.11ac, which is faster than all previous versions, so it's understandable that users would be a bit confused. Thus, starting from 802.11n, Wi-Fi will be referred to as Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ac as Wi-Fi 5, and 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6.
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WiFi 6: higher data rates, increased capacity, enhanced performance in dense environments, and improved power efficiency. Operating on the same 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band as Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 is rated to support transfer speeds of up to 10 Gb/s, which ranges from four to ten times faster than the current standard.
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802.11ax utilizes OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), one of the big advancements with LTE technology.
TL;DR: less congestion in crowded networks and better speeds.
Lol, no. Not in any way.
https://xkcd.com/2501/
Might be true for people buying their own WiFi routers.
Which already isn't most consumers, because most people use what their ISP gives them.
You’re kidding, right? Wireless G, N, AC, AX etc are commonly printed all over the boxes of routers and is the main way to talk about their speed and how new they are. Do you not buy your own router? It seems as common to me as 3G/4G/5G but for a different kind of wireless.
I wouldn’t expect my mom to know it, I would expect most people on Lemmy to know and most somewhat tech familiar people to know. Not deep into the specs, but knowing AC is faster than N.
Most consumers don't buy their own routers. The only time I've helped people buy routers in the last decade is to get one you could install a vpn on. Looking at the wireless standards never crossed our minds.
Fair enough. I thought it was just as common knowledge as wireless cellphone standards. Kinda surprised to see most people on Lemmy don’t pay attention to these, lots of the kinds of people who wouldn’t use the ISP supplied router / AP are here. Or so I thought.
I don’t know the 802.11 specs at all, but I know enough to purchase a router that won’t be outdated quickly.
people on lemmy know but people on lemmy aren't the general public
They might be printed on there, but as long as it looks like it has wifi (pointy units or the wifi symbol on your phone), people will buy it.
802.11 isn't anywhere near common knowledge. That's why it was named WiFi and trademarked to begin with.
Regular people sure, but this is Lemmy. The nerd concentration here is significantly higher than average. I dunno, just thought it was fairly common knowledge in tech literate people that wireless G is outdated, AX is current, things like that. I can’t imagine spending money on a router without knowing the basics, which I’d consider the G/N/AC etc standard to be the minimum you need to know for making a decent purchase.