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Forum Discussion
Orbi 770 - Use MLO backhaul? Use 5Ghz DFS or leave at 40? And Wifi 7 connection issue questions.
I recently purchased the RBE773 (Orbi 770 3-pack system) - got a nice deal 1) 5 GHz - Use channel 40 (default) or one of the 5GHz DFS channels? Is there a benefit to changing the 5GHz channel fr...
FYI, That Mfr seems to be late to come forth with new stuff after they go to market. I bought one of there BE series PCI cards last year. Had no BE or MLO support so I returned it. No idea if they ever got MLO support on it or not. I can't recommend that company.
Thanks a lot Furry!
Yes, unless I can consistently get much better actual download speeds from the so-called "Wifi 7" TP-Link adapter than my Netgear wifi 6E A8000 USB adapter's download speeds, I will return the TP-Link adapter given the lack of Wifi 7 support in the initial driver.
This adapter took close to 1 year to come to market after announcement.
For $129 (on sale from $179), the TP-Link should at least support 802.11be as it claims.
I assume my Orbi 770 does not need any special non-default settings to support 802.11be...
Something to post over on there forums about. LOL.
Ya, they seems to be lacking in full feature support after going to market. I tried one of there gaming routers years ago. Sent it back too. I personally now avoid that mfr due to there historical nefarious reasons.
No configurations needed. My Intel BE200 PCI card connects fine and when connected shows MLO on the Orbi system.
I need to check on this again as I just put my RBR770 online yesterday. đ
The odd thing is at least one person on the Best Buy site reviews for the TP-Link adapter claims with MLO it is getting twice the speed as their Netgear A8000 USB adapter and mentions wifi 7 in their review (so same two adapters I am using, although the7y did not mention which mesh system / router they are using).
Someone else mentions they are not seeing wifi 7 though.
TP-Link replied to the review with this:
wifi 7 is NOT available in all versions of windows 11. you must have 24H2 in order to use this feature. due to the complexity of ALL of the different drivers, PC configurations, and wifi devices, the roll out is slow as additional tests and drivers are built in to it. while most of these use the same intel chipset, PCs with built-in solutions will likely get the updates first, followed by the custom DIY/ plug n play solutions. neither complaint here is valid as neither one can be solved by TP-Link or any other manufacturer. WiFi 7 is essentially gated behind microsoft updates + your specific hardware configuration
So I wonder what hardware configuration is being referred to.
The laptop I am testing the TP-Link with is a Dell XPS 15 9530 with a 13th Gen Intel i7 CPU and 64GB RAM running Windows 11 24H2.
I will also test the TP-Link with my desktop (13th Gen i7 13700H 64 GB RAM) when I get a chance...
(*Amount of RAM should not matter for wifi 7 support of course, but mentioned it for reference only).
I believe TPLink may use Milrotek chip set vs Intel. Intel is known and seems to be working for BE connections. The PCI card I got was Mikrotek. After I got my Intel cards in, I started seeing MLO connections, i.e. WiFi 7
Yes, 24H2 is needed for any 7/MLO support.
My PCI card is install in a HP z640 Workstation with 24H2 installed on it. Ram isn't a factor for WiFi.
I wonder if those reviewers on Best Buy's site are actually connecting to wifi 7.
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Just found this on the TP-Link forums... (Not my post):
https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/715780?sortDir=ASC&page=2
Re:Archer TBE6500UH: Tri-Band High Gain Wi-Fi 7 USB Adapter - No 802.11BE@skiingj This is the response I received from tp-link. One of their statements is contradictory which I highlighted. My UniFi AP has âReal-time spectral analysis for enhanced channel selectionâ so this is not the issue.
Thanks for your contact. There are 2 issues mentioned:
1. The TBE6500UH always prefers to use 5GHz/ax, with a link speed of only 688 Mbps.
2. Occasionally, it can connect to 5GHz/be with a link speed of 2882 Mbps, but it has never successfully connected to the Unifi MLO dual bands (5+6GHz).
Regarding the first issue, the TBE6500UH on Windows may occasionally display 802.11be as 802.11ax. This issue will be addressed in a future driver update. The 688 Mbps link speed corresponds to 802.11be Mode with a Channel Width of 40MHz, which indicates the card is indeed operating in BE Mode. However, it only negotiated a 40MHz bandwidth with the AP, which may be due to occasional channel interference or DFS interference. This is a normal occurrence. To improve the situation, it is recommended to try changing the channel.
Regarding the second issue, the TBE6500UH does not currently support MLO, but support for this feature will be added in a future driver update.
(end quote)
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So in short, based on their reply above, TP-Link took forever to release the adapter ("coming soon" for many many months) and, when it finally did get released, they did not even implement Wifi 7 properly / fully.
That said, even though it says connected to 5GHz only, I do see a 2882 Mbps link rate each time. And got reasonably high speeds when close to Orbi 770 router.
But for Wifi 7 it should be up to 6500 Mbps.
Let me do some testing later today if / when I get a chance.
Ya. No confidence there.