Apple's documentation on this topic is incredibly vague. What, precisely, is there limited compatibility with?
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iPhone 16/Plus What doesn't work on Wi-Fi 6E?
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I wouldn't say it's incredibly vague but if you read it and understand then it could apply to you, those that don't likely won't care. What they're talking about is if you have different SSIDs split up for the different bands. Most routers out of the box consolidate bands into one SSID such as Netgear who call in "smart connect." However, sometimes this feature doesn't work the best and can prioritize clients signal strength vs throughput resulting in performance loss so some opt for separate SSIDs to force a specific band/throughput.
Starfia
macrumors 68000
Maybe I've unknowingly picked up a little more intuition about wireless frequency bands and network names, but I don't see any ambiguity there.
To try to rephrase it as I'm reading it:
Different frequency bands (such as the early 2.4GHz, the newer 5GHz, and the newest 6GHz bands) are typically presented as individual networks, even by a single access point. These networks, like any two or more networks, can have their own names.
Apple devices can connect to, and switch as needed between, more than one frequency band from a single access point when offered. Rather than representing this as multiple networks in the interface, Apple devices treat this as "one network." However, it will only do this if the access point is configured such that all of the frequency bands share a network name. When this is not the case, Apple devices represent them as separate networks and ask the user explicitly what to do. This situation is what Apple calls "limited compatibility."
To try to rephrase it as I'm reading it:
Different frequency bands (such as the early 2.4GHz, the newer 5GHz, and the newest 6GHz bands) are typically presented as individual networks, even by a single access point. These networks, like any two or more networks, can have their own names.
Apple devices can connect to, and switch as needed between, more than one frequency band from a single access point when offered. Rather than representing this as multiple networks in the interface, Apple devices treat this as "one network." However, it will only do this if the access point is configured such that all of the frequency bands share a network name. When this is not the case, Apple devices represent them as separate networks and ask the user explicitly what to do. This situation is what Apple calls "limited compatibility."
Isn't this exactly how every single Wi-Fi capable device on the market connects to Wi-Fi, regardless of whether it's 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or 6GHz? I've had separate SSIDs for different bands since the 802.11n days, and I've never had any device, including iPhones, warn me that connecting only to the 5GHz band without also connecting to 2.4GHz would have "limited compatibility". For that matter, my Android and Windows devices don't warn me about connecting only to 6GHz either - it's just Apple and 6GHz, for some reason that I can't figure out.