macOS 26.2 update enables 160MHz channels on 5GHz Wi-Fi networks
35 points
by zdw
1 day ago
| 1 comment
| cultofmac.com
| HN
zylent
1 day ago
[-]
Honestly, this only really helps people in rural areas. The vast majority of urban 5GHz implementations are at 80MHz - 6GHz does allow for 160MHz channelization, but at 320MHz the attenuation is so great that most homes will require multiple APs to actually hit appropriate MCS indexes.
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chrisandchris
1 day ago
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Fot at home, I tend to stick with 2.4 GHz. It is slower, but with a <100 Mbit uplink to the internet, local speed does not matter. 2.4 does just work better with less APs and thicker walls.
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lxgr
23 hours ago
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This also only works if you're not living in an apartment building. Even then, there's Bluetooth and other things that don't share spectrum nicely with 802.11.
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SuperMouse
1 day ago
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I have at least 10 neighbours on each 2.4GHz channel.
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kotaKat
1 day ago
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That's why it's been normalized to buy five of those mesh WiFi routers and shove them all over your house, everybody's signal be damned.
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avidiax
1 day ago
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Having lots of lower powered routers is actually better for interference.

MacOS won't roam properly unless the signal from the connected AP drops below -75db, so cranking the power on all your APs will give you worse performance if you move around.

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lxgr
23 hours ago
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That's only on non-steered roaming though, right? I believe Apple devices have long supported AP/network-side steering.
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lxgr
23 hours ago
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Since most devices these days only transmit as strongly as they need to, this is actually great for spectrum sharing.
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