New iPad Pro Includes Special Mode to Turn Off Wi-Fi 6E

[rebirth83]

I’m confused. Can someone help me? I have the new IPad Pro 6th generation. However there isn’t a spot to turn off WIFI 6E. My internet is acting really weird and my iPad is almost unusable without internet

 

[Frankfurt]

That’s awesome! Would you mind turning off 6E and testing it on 5GHz for comparison? Does your router provide a way of verifying whether the iPad is using 160 MHz channels? Or alternatively would you mind running the Apple wifi performance diagnostics utility and posting the results? Many thanks!

I can see which channel the iPad connects to (5 or 6 GHz) via the eeor app. 5GHz speeds in my case are typically between 300-400 Mb/s while 6GHz is 500+ pending on location.The values I posted above I am getting straight line from a hub at 6 ft distance.

 

[thatsthequy]

What access points do you have?

eero Pro 6E

 

[thatsthequy]

Remember when the 2020 iPad Pro got LIDAR and people were wondering why bother? And then it clicked into place when the iPhone 12 Pro came out with the self same LIDAR? It was a way of getting LIDAR into the hands of developers a few months early while still keeping the iPhone secret.

Why has the iPad Pro got Wifi 6E and the iPhone didn't? I'd like to think it's so Apple can officially test a new Airport Mesh system with a large installed user base of real world products rather than a limited set of laboratory prototypes.

Current third party systems are expensive, appear to be brand locked, and sound fiddly to set up after reading through this thread. Why wouldn't Apple then use the 2022 iPad Pro as the test bed for a new wifi system? They have powerful CPUs, an app ecosystem, and I'm sure a lot of their customers here wouldn't mind being brand locked into an Apple system (for better or worse) which could form the basis of a lot of in-home integration what with their HomeKit and Matter news mentions.

Again, I'd like to remind people that most of the AirPort team at Apple ended up at eero. I am not sure there are many left at Apple working on infra-side Wi-Fi.

 

[dannys1]

Wifi 6E does more than have fast internet speeds. It’s essentially a wireless connection with close to Thunderbolt speeds. The original rumors from Kuo said the headset will feature wifi 6E pairing to a more powerful processor as well.

Wooow wow wow - NOT close to Thunderbolt speeds. Thunderbolt is 40gbps! We'll be lucky to get close to a standard 1gbit wired ethernet connection with 6E.

 

[dannys1]

You paid for 10G internet but is bottlenecked by a 2.5G home system? Why would you do that?

He said he has a Wifi 6E AP on a 2.5gbit connection. Wifi 6E can barely do 1gbps - he'll have a UniFi Wifi 6E AP which has a 2.5gbps socket on it to help 6E in theory slightly get past it's 1gbit connection which it would be limited to with a 1gbit ethernet connection. He didn't say his entire network was working through 2.5gbps, just the AP - and that's the fastest wireless AP you can currently possibly buy.

 

[nicolas_s]

Another feature people wanted so much but once they get it, they disable it, like "always-on display".

 

[dannys1]

no roaming issues, fastest connection available.

But you haven't achieved either of those things. You've made it so 5ghz devices will never swap to 2.4ghz even if it's faster. 5ghz is faster in the same room as the AP with line of sight. At some point when roaming through rooms or being outside, you're going to want it to swap to 2.4ghz, in your case it won't do that as it'll just stay on the 5ghz SSID. You need 2.4ghz access for distance.

 

[falkon-engine]

But you haven't achieved either of those things. You've made it so 5ghz devices will never swap to 2.4ghz even if it's faster. 5ghz is faster in the same room as the AP with line of sight. At some point when roaming through rooms or being outside, you're going to want it to swap to 2.4ghz, in your case it won't do that as it'll just stay on the 5ghz SSID. You need 2.4ghz access for distance.

Again your radio environment is different from mine. In my particular environment, I don’t have a need for any high bandwidth ac/ax device to ever roam on 2.4 GHz. I live in a building and when I go outside I use LTE/5G.

The only devices that need 2.4 GHz on my network are those low bandwidth IoT devices that don’t have a physical 5G radio.

After this discussion, I tried one SSID with smart connect enabled on my router just to see what would happen… and my ps5 was hanging out on the 2.4 GHz band and Never got steered to the 5 GHz band. The ps5 is in line of sight of the router and does not need to use 2.4 GHz whatsoever.

So I went back to my previous config: one SSID for 2.4 GHz, another for my two 5 GHz radios, and one more for the 6 GHz spectrum. Manual control.

 

[dannys1]

Again your radio environment is different from mine. In my particular environment, I don’t have a need for any high bandwidth ac/ax device to ever roam on 2.4 GHz. I live in a building and when I go outside I use LTE/5G.

The only devices that need 2.4 GHz on my network are those low bandwidth IoT devices that don’t have a physical 5G radio.

After this discussion, I tried one SSID with smart connect enabled on my router just to see what would happen… and my ps5 was hanging out on the 2.4 GHz band and Never got steered to the 5 GHz band. The ps5 is in line of sight of the router and does not need to use 2.4 GHz whatsoever.

So I went back to my previous config: one SSID for 2.4 GHz, another for my two 5 GHz radios, and one more for the 6 GHz spectrum.

Fair enough - that's weird though with regards to your router - it sounds like an ISP router or something you've flashed.

I don't get any issues with UniFi AP's being controlled by a UDM Pro. I wouldn't ever use a games console or anything requiring low latency via Wifi though - hardwire everything!

 

[belvdr]

Fair enough - that's weird though with regards to your router - it sounds like an ISP router or something you've flashed.

I don't get any issues with UniFi AP's being controlled by a UDM Pro. I wouldn't ever use a games console or anything requiring low latency via Wifi though - hardwire everything!

I used to use Ubiquiti, but found other WAPs to be much better and at a better price. At one place, I had 3 UAC-AP-PROs to cover the property and I went to a Google Nest and covered it with one. I had trouble with 5GHz even in the same room, and this was in the countryside, with neighbors no closer than 1000 feet. It was just nuts.

I'm guessing it was something to do with antennas, but never got into it. I purchased a two pack of the Nest thinking I would need them both, and was shocked when I didn't.

I hardwire whenever I can too. It's always less latency and keeps the RF environment cleaner for devices that need WiFi. My new place has every TV with Ethernet.

 

[falkon-engine]

Fair enough - that's weird though with regards to your router - it sounds like an ISP router or something you've flashed.

I don't get any issues with UniFi AP's being controlled by a UDM Pro. I wouldn't ever use a games console or anything requiring low latency via Wifi though - hardwire everything!

It’s an Asus axe16000 router. A few GUI quirks but works like a champ. Stable.

I also have a UniFi controller running on a raspberry pi, with some of their gear on my network managing the dhcp and some other things. I also have a unifi wifi 6 AP too, but it’s out of service for now until I move into a bigger multi-level house.

I don’t have any trouble with the ps5 and Wi-Fi 6. Works well, even game streaming. But agree that a Ethernet connection would be best.

 

[belvdr]

my ps5 was hanging out on the 2.4 GHz band and Never got steered to the 5 GHz band. The ps5 is in line of sight of the router and does not need to use 2.4 GHz whatsoever.

It’s an Asus axe16000 router. A few GUI quirks but works like a champ. Stable.

I had to laugh. I had these types of things too when I ran the Ubiquiti gear mentioned above. It was annoying.

 

[dannys1]

I used to use Ubiquiti, but found other WAPs to be much better and at a better price. At one place, I had 3 UAC-AP-PROs to cover the property and I went to a Google Nest and covered it with one. I had trouble with 5GHz even in the same room, and this was in the countryside, with neighbors no closer than 1000 feet. It was just nuts.

I'm guessing it was something to do with antennas, but never got into it. I purchased a two pack of the Nest thinking I would need them both, and was shocked when I didn't.

I hardwire whenever I can too. It's always less latency and keeps the RF environment cleaner for devices that need WiFi. My new place has every TV with Ethernet.

They're made to be setup ceiling mounted so the antenna's spread out and bounce off the back where as a consumer router (or a Nest in this example) can just be placed on a table. So there's always that to consider.

My early experiences with them weren't great, but the last 4-5 years have been great and super solid, even if they are flakey with what features they push out to software (and making some over the top claims) - I would swap APs now but if I was a normal user I'd probably opt for some kind of Wifi mesh system instead - especially as many people can't get ethernet to each AP.

 

[belvdr]

They're made to be setup ceiling mounted so the antenna's spread out and bounce off the back where as a consumer router (or a Nest in this example) can just be placed on a table. So there's always that to consider.

My early experiences with them weren't great, but the last 4-5 years have been great and super solid, even if they are flakey with what features they push out to software (and making some over the top claims) - I would swap APs now but if I was a normal user I'd probably opt for some kind of Wifi mesh system instead - especially as many people can't get ethernet to each AP.

Mine were on the ceiling, and drove me nuts. I would be stuck on 2.4 or if I was on 5, then I'd get a really low bandwidth figure, even in the same room. I put the Nest in the basement and received better throughput than I ever did with the UAPs in the same room. That's why I think @falkon-engine's issue lies with the Asus. I'm not intending to bash on anyone's setup; it's their own choice. However, when I researched WiFi 6 gear, only a couple of models received positive reviews from many folks. His issues sound very similar to mine with UBNT.

I eventually gave it all away; it wasn't worth the time to investigate, when I spent less money for better coverage. I paid $100 for a two pack Nest and a single WiFi 6 WAP from UBNT was over $300 at the time.

Any time says Ubiquiti is enterprise grade, I cringe. I consider them pro-sumer really. Their firmware leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[falkon-engine]

That's why I think @falkon-engine's issue lies with the Asus. I'm not intending to bash on anyone's setup; it's their own choice. However, when I researched WiFi 6 gear, only a couple of models received positive reviews from many folks. His issues sound very similar to mine with UBNT.

The thing is, I don’t have any problems unless I use one SSID for all bands. I think the problem lies with the client(s) not with the router. Manual planning by using separate SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G has worked great for me for years.

That being said, I’ve placed the 5G and 6G bands under one SSID and the iPad Pro roams to 6G on its own and stays there. A beautiful 2.4 Gbps connection to the router.

 

[belvdr]

The thing is, I don’t have any problems unless I use one SSID for all bands. I think the problem lies with the client(s) not with the router. Manual planning by using separate SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G has worked great for me for years.

That being said, I’ve placed the 5G and 6G bands under one SSID and the iPad Pro roams to 6G on its own and stays there. A beautiful 2.4 Gbps connection to the router.

That's the problem I had with UBNT. When I moved to the Nest, no problems with one SSID using the same clients.

 

[falkon-engine]

That's the problem I had with UBNT. When I moved to the Nest, no problems with one SSID using the same clients.

Interesting. Something to consider. It's interesting how these devices are labelled "Wifi 5" or "Wifi 6" yet behave so differently, depending on configuration.

 

[belvdr]

Interesting. Something to consider. It's interesting how these devices are labelled "Wifi 5" or "Wifi 6" yet behave so differently, depending on configuration.

Yeah, it's a land of confusion. Nothing works identically across any of these devices.

 

[btrach144]

So I found an interesting GUI bug with the AXE16000. If you disable WPS and then reboot the router via GUI, it turns off the 6GHz band. I tried reapplying firmware and resetting NVRAM but the bug still persists.

Turn on WPS and reboot the router, 6 GHz band comes back.

Nothing like being a beta tester for ASUS on a $700 router.

 

[ryanmcv]

So I found an interesting GUI bug with the AXE16000. If you disable WPS and then reboot the router via GUI, it turns off the 6GHz band. I tried reapplying firmware and resetting NVRAM but the bug still persists.

Turn on WPS and reboot the router, 6 GHz band comes back.

Nothing like being a beta tester for ASUS on a $700 router.

Thank you for this post! I have an AXE11000 and could not get my M2 iPad Pro to recognize the 6 GHz band. As soon as I enabled WPS in the router's GUI, the 6 GHz band finally appeared on my iPad. Never would have thought to turn that on.

 

[ryanmcv]

Here’s a speedtest while connected to the 6 GHz band of my ASUS GT-AXE11000. Nearly maxes out the download speed of my 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber connection. Haven’t been able to quite max out the upload (usually settles around 700 Mbps), but I’m in an apartment building with a ton of wireless interference.

 

[H2SO4]

So what are you using nowadays? Apple only offers Linksys in their store. I’m most concerned with privacy these days, so I wonder if they keep other brands out because of their privacy policies.

I use a TPLink right now. Not as pretty, (or expensive), as an Airport but has more configurability I think. I'm limited as I want one box that does everything, so a modem as well. But back in the Airport days I was happy to have two boxes given that Airport was so polished - but not now.
In some cases I'm happy to give ups features for the smoothness of the Apple devices but after a while, I'm seeing that it's better to have a selection of things and not be tied.
I have an iPhone and MacBook and have purchased the same for my employees and family but anything else is typically non Apple.
In addition there are typically lots of additional firmware’s available for non Apple devices.
I’ll check out Eero though, I’ve read that the Airport team ended up there.

 

[Ener Ji]

Here’s a speedtest while connected to the 6 GHz band of my ASUS GT-AXE11000. Nearly maxes out the download speed of my 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber connection. Haven’t been able to quite max out the upload (usually settles around 700 Mbps), but I’m in an apartment building with a ton of wireless interference.

Thanks for sharing. What kind of performance do you get with 6 gigahertz disabled (in the same general location and time of day If possible)?

 

[ryanmcv]

Thanks for sharing. What kind of performance do you get with 6 gigahertz disabled (in the same general location and time of day If possible)?

Here’s a test using the 5 GHz band from the exact same location (about 15 feet from my router). Made sure to use the same speedtest server.