The confusing alphabet soup of Wi-Fi versions got renamed. 802.11n became Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ac became Wi-Fi 5, and 802.11ax became Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 7 is still in development so 6 is the best in-use version.
Technically 6E is the best in-use version for compatible devices. Same as WiFi 6 but adds the 6GHz spectrum that was recently unlocked by many regulatory agencies around the world. The 6GHz range is significantly less congested and would have better real-world performance in dense residential areas.
Edit: A few months ago I stumbled upon this site where the author goes quite in-depth about WiFi and does so in a way that is easy to understand. They debunk/corroborate claims and technologies advertised by manufacturers so it really helps demystify the process of selecting the right WiFi gear.
That is a wonderful website, very well written. Thanks for sharing.
And then, because they can’t help themselves, they came out with 6E. Honestly I think all standards bodies (USB, HDMI, WiFi) just love making stupid sub-versions that make things even more confusing.
pre-numbering, it was almost like trying to decipher Sanskrit when going out to buy a router.
WiFi has literally gone the opposite of USB.
It used to be obvious what USB speeds were, whereas WiFi was 802.11b or whatever.
Now we have WiFi 5 or WiFi 6. And we have USB-C PD 10gbps with AltModeUSB has gotten more complicated and does way more now in more contexts. It charges laptops now, it carries multiplexed displayport signals, it does its own handshake and performs hardware level initialization protocols.
Meanwhile we've been wanting the same thing out of wifi since the start. Nothing's really changed, we just want it to go faster.
What's the difference?
It's more nuanced than faster speeds. All newer versions of WiFi came with speed improvements but compared with previous versions WiFi 6 speed improvements were comparatively modest. The advantage with WiFi 6 over its predecessors was a focus on improving latency and reliability. The number of supported clients was drastically increased with the implementation of technologies first developed in cell networks. Wireless antennas used to be limited to serving each client one at a time. Now they've been given the ability to multitask.
You can liken it to a restaurant where the cook is the network, the waiter is the wireless antenna, and each customer is a wireless device. With WiFi standards before version 6, the waiter was not very good at their job and once they collected an order, they would give it to the cook and wait for the cook to finish cooking the entire meal before delivering it to the customer and moving on to the next customer. This method was improved in the past by making the waiter quicker which is where we get the speed boosts. You can also improve on this by adding more antennas or "waiters" to the environment but the waiters themselves are still not operating as effectively as they can on an individual level. This is why WiFi 6 is such a major improvement that flies under the radar. The improvement may not be that noticable in a home environment where the antennas only have to serve a limited number of clients but in an environment where hundreds or even thousands of clients are communicating simultaneously, this is a critical improvement. On top of this, the improvements have decreased the rate of packets being dropped and improved latency so even in home environments, a network running on WiFi 6 will be more robust and reliable. WiFi 7 will go back to the old paradigm of significantly increasing speed once again.
Lots of really cool little things that add up to making it faster
Never heard about Wi-Fi 4. Always 'n' letter was advertised.
Wi-Fi 5 kinda associated with 5 GHz bandwidth, but can be also used on the 2.4 GHz.
802.11a was 5GHz long before Wi-Fi 5 was a phrase, and "Wi-Fi 5" as a phrase does not imply any particular frequency.
It was like a posthumous award
It's Wi-Fi 6, a new version of the Wi-Fi standard which provides increased bandwidth and decreased latency.
I don't know why it's relevant to show it directly in the icon though.
My device always shows the WiFi number. It's nice to know since I live in an apartment building with shared wifi. The shared wifi is 4/5 and mine is 6 so I can see at a glance if I'm connected right.
I can't imagine another reason it'd be useful though.
Seems like consistency with showing 4G/5G/etc.. Nice to know if you're on public WiFi.
It may be beneficial on some devices that requires low latency (like streaming to a VR device or remote gaming). I can see the difference in latency from wifi5 to wifi6 when remote gaming.
It's wifi 6
It means it is only 1/3 evil
That's... Not how any of this works 🤔
Permanently Deleted
In base 10, the "6" simbol means this much "IIIIII" of something or the unit which is this amount from the beginning.
I'm surprised that you didn't go into Roman numerals. VI
Show it for marketing. Not that this WiFi standard would matter much to most users, but if you show it there, you can still make them want it.
This isn't a wrong answers only post so lets make sure everyone is aware of Internet Protocol versions 4 and 6.
Most internet addies look like this 001.002.003.004
That's IPv4, the current common standard. And were running out of addresses.
To fix this some systems are using IPv6 which adds two more numbers (and more bits per number) as well as a whole batch of protocol improvements.
I'm pretty sure that's what the WiFi ⁶ enumerator is about.
...or maybe I'm wrong. All the interne6 suggests its the WiFi protocol version 6. Sorry.
c/confidentlyincorrect
It's the WiFi version. Some devices also show 6E.
Not only are you correct, your description of ipv4 and ipv6 sounds like if 8 year old looked at the wikipedia page of ipv6 for five minutes, and was asked to explain it in-depth a month later. I'd recommend just deleting your comment, it's awful in so many ways.
