Searching for a router supporting 2.4, 5, and 6E GHz bands with special character compatibility.
Searching for a router supporting 2.4, 5, and 6E GHz bands with special character compatibility.
Yes, tri-band mode refers to the ability to activate multiple frequency bands simultaneously. It allows devices to use 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz at the same time, unlike some models that can only switch between two bands at once.
I agree with that. Most consumer items should operate as expected. Acer appears to be a mix of modem and router? I usually avoid those, yet their site doesn’t mention tri-band support. I just want to note that devices should use separate bands—2.4 GHz for guest networks and 5 or 6 GHz for main connections. I’d configure my router with the 2.4 GHz channel on a guest network, link all IoT and unreliable gadgets to that SSID, while keeping my primary network on 5 or 6 GHz. This way the main network can reach the guest network, though guests typically can’t connect back to it directly. It’s an indirect method for achieving better security through VLAN setup on consumer devices.
It seems the documentation actually lists restrictions rather than allowances. It’s common for 2.4Ghz to be reliable outside of 5Ghz bands. I mistakenly believed WiFi 6e required tri-band support, which isn’t always necessary. It’s really frustrating when standards lack consistency—features should be dependable, not optional. The industry is quite inconsistent with things like WiFi, USB, HDMI, and DisplayPort, often offering only the latest names without real functional improvements.
It's not the standards themselves that are too flexible, but rather the idea that someone deliberately imposed a weak restriction on their CPE gear to cut costs. This issue is highlighted in the manual and is considered extremely foolish.
Not sure who I'm going with next, Zyxel works well but I was kinda annoyed they never added Band-C support and do not report WiFi link rates over SNMP, plus its extremely easy to outright crash snmpd. Ubiquiti also made some stupid decisions with WiFi 6, their lower end APs only supporting WiFi 4 on 2.4Ghz. This is all too common. I ended up with about 3x the speed on 2.4Ghz moving to WiFi 6, as WiFi 4 had not been coping well with all the interference increasing over the years. I haven't needed it, but I resent manufacturers cutting corners to save a few cents.
I’ll focus on enterprise APs that operate independently without relying on cloud services or dedicated applications.