WiFi 6E Problems - RAXE500

Hello Netgear Community!

I wonder if things got any better these days?

Can someone confirm I can use Windows 10 PC with this Fenvi FV-AXE3000 Wi-Fi 6E AX210, Bluetooth 5,2, PCIExpress adapter

And this RAXE500 router to get full Wifi6E experience?

I know that AX210 has only 2x2 TX/RX Streams; Bands 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, 6Ghz, (160Mhz) would I be able to use its full potential with RAXE500?

Is there a way to unlock power for 6Hz LPI power restrictions if router is used outside the US?

I just tried with Windows 11 and AX210 driver 22.60.0.6 and WPA3 still doesn't work.

For your desktop PC with the AX210, are you using antennas connected by a long coax cable? if so, then the signal loss over the length of the cable is really harmful to 6GHz band, especially since the FCC intially really crippled the 6GHz band, though the WiFi industry is working to get the FCC to be more reasonable.

One of the main issues with the FCC limitation is the transmit power limits. On 160MHz channel width, there is a cap of 250mW for the AP and 127mW for the client device, but that does not mean that you will always be at that limit, since they further impose another gut punch of PSD.

PS, at 80MHz channel width, the transmit power due to the restrictions, are cut in half for both the client and AP (and arefurther halved at 40MHz, and 20MHz)

The limitations, if paired with a long cable, or worse, an antenna that is not well suited for the 6GHz band in addition to a long coax cable causing a 5+ dB  drop in signal strength of what is already a heavily limited transmit power.

These are all things that will improve over time as the FCC loosens some of the restrictions, and WiFi AP and client devices release firmware updates to take advantage of looser restrictions, as the hardware is highly capable.

For the desktop setups the main isue that I have seen are from companies selling the adapters with a very basic 2 stream antenna, and a really long coax.

They end up suffering so much line loss that they struggle on 6Gz and even 5GHz DFS channels.

Aside from that, Windows 10 currently does not have full WPA3 support on the 6GHz band unless you go with a beta/insider build of Windows 10, though that update will make its way to the mainstream builds once everything is confirmed stable.

Thank you to all that replied to my original post!

plemans  comments regarding FCC restrictions..."In terms of speeds, its an issue with LPI (low-power indoor) and the basic usage of how 6ghz works. Like 2.4ghz can penetrate further and though more materials than 5ghz, the 5ghz can do more than 6ghz.

As I understand it, the FCC's Low Power Indoor designation for 6GHz is not intended to mean lower power (signal) than existing (2.4GHz / 5GHz) indoor home devices. The LPI designation is a way to differentiate home use from outdoor commercial applications (such as Outdoor AP's or Point-to-Point devices, Emergency systems). If you look at the LPI power restrictions for the 6GHz band, they're identical to the current 5GHz designations, so I do not believe that should be a factor here..

6GHz Low-Power (indoor only)
Maximum Conducted Power: 24 (dBm)
Maximum EIRP: 30 (dBm)
Maximum Spectral Density EIRP: 17 (dBm\MHz)

My AX210 Antenna is about 20 feet in line of sight of the access point (indoors), so the only material it has to go through is the air. In addition to that, the 6GHz band is specifically advertised as "Reduce congestion and interference". If 20' of air with no other 6GHz devices is considered congestion or interference for a wireless device, I don't know what to say to that. 

If I'm wrong, and the FCC is removing some restriction on transmit power, does that mean Wi-Fi 6E devices can be updated with firmware, or would that require new hardware?

Here are some quotes from the literature on the box and website advertising the RAXE500 and WiFi 6E. None of these statements would indicate to a consumer the 6GHz band on the RAXE500 (or WiFi 6E in general) is designed to be lower power/signal and/or slower than 5GHz.

RAXE500 Box

"Recommended for a 5-6 bedroom home" - (I think this was supposed to say tent-home, or a homeless encampment, perhaps)

Under "WiFi 6-Expanded":

"Dedicated WiFi for new devices"
"Smoothest & fastest streaming, gaming & video conferencing"
"Enjoy top speeds for all your devices"

Under "Cutting Edge Performance":

"New 6GHz WiFi Band** - Enjoy faster speed and less congestion with over 200% more available spectrum than dual-band (5GHz & 2.4GHz) WiFi alone."
The ** says "Clients must support 6GHz band (WiFi 6E)."
"Ultra Low Latency - Very few devices on the 6GHz band means lower latency for gaming and real-time traffic".
"More High Bandwidth WiFi Channels - Blazing fast speed and less interference with 3X more high-bandwidth 160Mhz WiFi channels."
RAXE500 Product Page

Under "WiFi 6E Stands Alone - Open an Exclusive New Path to the Future of WiFi"

"Reduce congestion and interference"

RAXE500 Data Sheet - RAXE500_DS_11Mar21_tcm148-119463.pdf

Under "Wifi 6E: Expanding WiFi with New Speeds"

"Nighthawk® RAXE500 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router is powered by WiFi 6E, delivering the smoothest and fastest streaming, eLearning,
video conferencing, and gaming experience. Now you can have all the power of 6th generation WiFi plus expanded speeds, connections, and capacity with a completely new and wider 6GHz WiFi band that has up to 3.5X more WiFi channels."
"Plus, eight high-performance antennas on the router amplify WiFi signals for maximized range and reliable coverage for a 5-6 bedroom home."
Introducing WiFi 6E, delivering the smoothest and fastest streaming, eLearning, video conferencing, and gaming experience. Now you can have all the power of 6th-generation WiFi plus expanded speeds, connections, and capacity thanks to a completely new and wider 6GHz WiFi band with more WiFi channels.
New 6GHz WiFi Band—Exclusive access for only devices supporting the new 6GHz band means less congestion and faster speed
More Spectrum—Up to 200% more spectrum than dual band (2.4GHz & 5GHz) WiFi to WiFi 6E devices
More High-Bandwidth WiFi Channels—Up to 3.5X more high-bandwidth 160MHz WiFi channels for applications such as your
8K video streaming 
Ultra-Low Latency—Less traffic on the 6GHz band gives you lower latency for your AR/VR gaming and other WiFi-intense applications
Cutting-Edge WPA3 Security—The latest WiFi security protocol to keep your family and network safe
Under WiFi Range - Faster and expanded coverage throughout your home and for all your devices.

ULTIMATE RANGE - WiFi coverage throughout very large homes

Topology 

[1] Is the LAG connection between the router and the CM1100 modem working well?
Yes, is seems to be working just fine. My Internet bandwidth is capped at 1gbps dows so I cannot tell if it's truly using all of the bandwidth, but thus far I have not had any disconnects or loss of the link aggregation on either the modem or router side.
[2] Is the LAG connection between the router and the Synology DS420+ working well?  Is the performance of the NAS noticeably improved as a result?
Yes here as well, the Synology NAS created the bond without issue and the connection has not dropped once. When using the 2.5GBPS LAN port the write speed sits around 1890mbps, so that is quite an improvement over the 900ish mbps I was receiving before aggregation with a single LAN. I do have 2 Samsung 980 Pro NVMe drives in the NAS in addition to the 4x 10tb IronWolfs so that may be helping with write speeds too. Wireless is slower than that, as expected, but still not bad on the 5GHz AX.
Thus far have no issues or complaints with the speed of the Wired connection or the Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz AX bands. My only issue here is with the 6GHz band signal/performance and being unable to connect securely.

avtellaregarding WPA / SAE....

According to the latest (1/28/2021) WiFi Alliance certification for the AX210, it's listed as supporting WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise with Windows 10, version 2004 on the 6GHz band. Intel also has the AX210 listed on it's list of devices that support WPA3 on Windows 10

WPA3-Personal:
Intel® Wireless adapters fully support WPA3-Personal using Windows® 10 May 2019 version 1903 Update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 21.10.X or later.
WPA3-Enterprise:
Intel® Wireless adapters fully support WPA3-Enterprise using Windows® 10 May 2020 version 2004 Update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 21.90.3.X or later.
According to Microsoft, they have supported WPA3-SAE as of WDI 0.1.1.8.

Running "netsh wlan show wirelesscapabilities" (Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19043 Build 19043 21H1) shows both SAE and OWE are supported. SAE is supported in Linux, but I have the same authentication issue there as well (OWE works).

WDI Version (Windows) : 0.1.1.9

WDI Version (IHV) : 0.1.1.9

SAE Authentication : Supported
OWE Authentication : Supported

Here's an output of the connection log, it does show Wireless security succeeded then all of a sudden Wireless security stops. Strange, but does seem to indicate some sort of Windows / Driver issue.

As I type this, I just got notification Intel officially released driver 22.40.0.7 for the AX210. When it installed through Windows Update a few days ago I got a BSOD and had to roll back, but about to try it again and hope for the best....

Update: This is the third time attempting to post this today, so all of my formatting and links are gone (sorry)...  If anyone did see my original reply, I did install the latest Intel driver 22.40.0.7 that I was notified about today. No blue screens this time but still unable to connect to WPA3.

Thank you to all that replied to my original post!

To address plemans comments regarding FCC restrictions..."In terms of speeds, its an issue with LPI (low-power indoor) and the basic usage of how 6ghz works. Like 2.4ghz can penetrate further and though more materials than 5ghz, the 5ghz can do more than 6ghz. "

As I understand it, the FCC's Low Power Indoor designation for 6GHz is not intended to mean lower power (signal) than existing (2.4GHz / 5GHz) indoor home devices. The LPI designation is a way to differentiate home use from outdoor commercial applications (such as Outdoor AP's or Point-to-Point devices, Emergency systems). If you look at the LPI power restrictions for the 6GHz band, they're identical to the current 5GHz designations, so I do not believe that should be a factor here..

6GHz Low-Power (indoor only)
Maximum Conducted Power: 24 (dBm)
Maximum EIRP: 30 (dBm)
Maximum Spectral Density EIRP: 17 (dBm\MHz)

My AX210 Antenna is about 20 feet in line of sight of the access point (indoors), so the only material it has to go through is the air. In addition to that, the 6GHz band is specifically advertised as "Reduce congestion and interference". If 20' of air with no other 6GHz devices is considered congestion or interference for an access point, I don't know what to say to that. 

If I'm wrong, and the FCC is removing some restriction on transmit power, does that mean Wi-Fi 6E devices can be updated with firmware, or would that require new hardware?

Here are some quotes from the literature on the box and website advertising the RAXE500 and WiFi 6E. None of these statements would indicate to a consumer the 6GHz band on the RAXE500 (or WiFi 6E in general) is designed to be lower power/signal and/or slower than 5GHz.

RAXE500 Box

"Recommended for a 5-6 bedroom home" - (I think this was supposed to say tent-home, or a homeless encampment, perhaps)

Under "WiFi 6-Expanded":

• Dedicated WiFi for new devices
• Smoothest & fastest streaming, gaming & video conferencing
• Enjoy top speeds for all your devices

Under "Cutting Edge Performance":

• New 6GHz WiFi Band** - Enjoy faster speed and less congestion with over 200% more available spectrum than dual-band (5GHz & 2.4GHz) WiFi alone."The ** says "Clients must support 6GHz band (WiFi 6E).
• Ultra Low Latency - Very few devices on the 6GHz band means lower latency for gaming and real-time traffic.
• More High Bandwidth WiFi Channels - Blazing fast speed and less interference with 3X more high-bandwidth 160Mhz WiFi channels.

RAXE500 Product Page

Under "WiFi 6E Stands Alone - Open an Exclusive New Path to the Future of WiFi"

• Reduce congestion and interference

RAXE500 Data Sheet - RAXE500_DS_11Mar21_tcm148-119463.pdf

Under "Wifi 6E: Expanding WiFi with New Speeds"

• Nighthawk® RAXE500 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router is powered by WiFi 6E, delivering the smoothest and fastest streaming, eLearning,
  video conferencing, and gaming experience. Now you can have all the power of 6th generation WiFi plus expanded speeds, connections, and capacity with a completely new and wider 6GHz WiFi band that has up to 3.5X more WiFi channels.
• Plus, eight high-performance antennas on the router amplify WiFi signals for maximized range and reliable coverage for a 5-6 bedroom home.
• Introducing WiFi 6E, delivering the smoothest and fastest streaming, eLearning, video conferencing, and gaming experience. Now you can have all the power of 6th-generation WiFi plus expanded speeds, connections, and capacity thanks to a completely new and wider 6GHz WiFi band with more WiFi channels.
• New 6GHz WiFi Band—Exclusive access for only devices supporting the new 6GHz band means less congestion and faster speed
  More Spectrum—Up to 200% more spectrum than dual band (2.4GHz & 5GHz) WiFi to WiFi 6E devices
  More High-Bandwidth WiFi Channels—Up to 3.5X more high-bandwidth 160MHz WiFi channels for applications such as your
  8K video streaming 
• Ultra-Low Latency—Less traffic on the 6GHz band gives you lower latency for your AR/VR gaming and other WiFi-intense applications
  Cutting-Edge WPA3 Security—The latest WiFi security protocol to keep your family and network safe
  Under WiFi Range - Faster and expanded coverage throughout your home and for all your devices.
• ULTIMATE RANGE - WiFi coverage throughout very large homes

To address Topology  's questions....

• [1] Is the LAG connection between the router and the CM1100 modem working well?
  • Yes, seems to be working just fine. My Internet bandwidth is capped at 1gbps dows so I cannot tell if it's truly using all of the bandwidth, but thus far I have not had any disconnects or loss of the link aggregation on either the modem or router side.
• [2] Is the LAG connection between the router and the Synology DS420+ working well?  Is the performance of the NAS noticeably improved as a result?
  • Yes here as well, the Synology NAS created the bond without issue and the connection has not dropped once. When using the 2.5GBPS LAN port the write speed sits around 1890mbps, so that is quite an improvement over the 900ish mbps I was receiving before aggregation with a single LAN. I do have 2 Samsung 980 Pro NVMe drives in the NAS in addition to the 4x 10tb IronWolfs so that may be helping with write speeds too. Wireless is slower than that, as expected, but still not bad on the 5GHz AX. Thus far have no issues or complaints with the speed of the Wired connection or the Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz AX bands. My only issue here is with the 6GHz band signal/performance and being unable to connect securely.

To address avtella's comment regarding WPA / SAE....

According to the latest (1/28/2021) WiFi Alliance certification for the AX210, it's listed as supporting WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise with Windows 10, version 2004 on the 6GHz band. Intel also has the AX210 listed on it's list of devices that support WPA3 on Windows 10

• WPA3-Personal
  • Intel® Wireless adapters fully support WPA3-Personal using Windows® 10 May 2019 version 1903 Update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 21.10.X or later.
• WPA3-Enterprise
  • Intel® Wireless adapters fully support WPA3-Enterprise using Windows® 10 May 2020 version 2004 Update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 21.90.3.X or later.

According to Microsoft, they have supported WPA3-SAE as of WDI 0.1.1.8.

Running "netsh wlan show wirelesscapabilities" (Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19043 Build 19043 21H1) shows both SAE and OWE are supported. SAE is supported in Linux, but I have the same authentication issue there as well (OWE works).

WDI Version (Windows) : 0.1.1.9

WDI Version (IHV) : 0.1.1.9

SAE Authentication : Supported
OWE Authentication : Supported

The Windows connection log does show Wireless security succeeded then all of a sudden Wireless security stops. Strange, and does seem to indicate some sort of Windows / Driver issue.

As I type this, I just got notification Intel officially released driver 22.40.0.7 for the AX210. When it installed through Windows Update a few days ago I got a BSOD and had to roll back, but about to try it again and hope for the best....

The wpa3 issue is a intel/windows issues. Otherwise the S21 wouldn't work. 
I've ran into the same thing with my RAXE500. 

In terms of speeds, its an issue with LPI (low power indoor) and the basic usage of how 6ghz works. Like 2.4ghz can penetrate further and though more materials than 5ghz, the 5ghz can do more than 6ghz. 

The fcc doesn't currently support as high of power output on the 6g band as it does on the 5ghz and 2.4ghz band. So you see a much more rapid fall off in terms of signal strenght with distance than you do either band. 

there's been talk of it being increased by the fcc this fall but so far its only approved for low power indoor usage. 

I've messaged with netgear before on this I currently wouldn't recommend the RAXE500 over the RAX200 because the 3rd band is close to useless with its lower output power and the fact that windows/intel haven't even caught up on drivers yet.