Wi-Fi 6 is coming (did you even notice Wi-Fi 1-5?)

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019 tinsleyNET Admin

The Wi-Fi Alliance have released details of Wi-Fi 6 certification program, meaning manufacturers of Wi-Fi devices can start to implement the new standards.

Wi-Fi 6 is the first Wi-Fi standard to use the simpler naming scheme (although this is only on the consumer side, it’s still technically IEE802.11ax)

Previous versions of the Wi-Fi standards are going to be retro-renamed Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) to help consumers identify which standard devices are manufactured to.

What will Wi-Fi 6 give me?

For the average home user, the main benefit will be speed. Wi-Fi 6 will boast speeds upto 9.6Gbps (the existing Wi-Fi 5 801.1ac is rated at a maximum of 3.5Gbps) Obviously it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll ever connect at those speeds, but we expect average connection speeds to be about 30% – 40% better than on a Wi-Fi 5 router. Remember that the average internet speed to homes in the UK is about 54.2Mbps

For busier locations such as businesses, public hotspots and so on, the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 will be much more dramatic. The main aim of Wi-Fi 6 is to increase connectivity and reliability between router and device, amd be more efficient about how it keeps you connected.

Technology designed for multiple device access such as MU-MIMO and OFDMA is included in the specification, meaning more devices can be connected and receive high bandwidth data simultaneously, and more data can be sent in a single burst. As the number of IoT (Internet Of Things) devices in our homes increase, these technologies will help keep your home Wi-Fi ‘clutter free’

Also, the new Wi-Fi 6 standard is designed to be battery efficient, meaning your mobile devices won’t heat up and drain the battery while you stream from a Wi-Fi 6 access point.

Techspot have a great article here listing the technological developments of Wi-Fi 6, including what is meant by MU-MIMO, OFDMA, QAM, OFDM and many more geeky terms!

What if my device is not Wi-Fi 6 compliant, do I need to upgrade?

Nope. As with all Wi-Fi certified devices, backwards compatibility is built in, so if you’re using a phone that’s Wi-Fi 5 compatible (nearly every recent phone will be) and you connect to a Wi-Fi 6 wireless point, the router will recognise your device’s level of compatibility and use Wi-Fi 5 instead. Likewise if your phone is one of the few Wi-Fi 6 compatible phones, it will identify the compatibility of the Wi-Fi access point and use the appropriate settings.

There are already Wi-Fi 6 compatible phones?

Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S10 was the first Wi-Fi 6 phone to hit the market, Apple’s iPhone 11 will also support the standard. To compliment those, routers from cisco, Netgear, Asus and TP-Link have also been released with Wi-Fi 6 compatibility.

Network

Notwork

Don’t let your network turn into a notwork. With more and more devices using the network to communicate with each other and the outside world, your network is being put under more and more strain. On an unmanaged network, you’ll soon start to see bottlenecks and network slowdown.

Do I use a network?

Yes. Well if you’re reading this on our website then you are.

Long gone are the days when networks were restricted to large companies and universities. In one form or another, and of vastly different sizes, we all use a combination of private and personal networks today. Making those networks efficient is essential to being able to get things done.

In your home, the heart of your network is your internet router, from there you might have WiFi or cable connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, TV’s, heating systems, Games consoles, PC’s, lighting and so on.

In your business it could be a more complicated network setup involving routers, multiple access points and wider connected elements in different buildings or even different countries.

Network of Networks

Getting your network connected safely to the internet is essential for any business, but many people don’t want the hassle of managing the connection and just want the connection to work. We can manage your gateway device and configure it making sure your private network is protected from the public internet.

Your gateway device should be checking all incoming and outgoing data and destinations to make sure nothing untoward is being sent or received by devices on your network.

Servers

Some people want to micro-manage their servers, others just want them to work. We can configure your servers to work for you, how you want. From online hosted servers, to in-house servers, both hardware and virtual. We can design, install and manage the servers you need to get your job done.

IoT

In an ideal world, internet connected devices should just work. You don’t want a new coffee machine to take 4 hours to setup just so you can make a coffee from your smartphone! But this ‘Internet Of Things’ does still need managing. It might be configuring them to connect to your network or securing them if they have remote access facilities.

Sometimes, if a vulnerability is identified after the product has been sold, the manufacturer will release a software patch, but often these are not applied, we can make sure your IoT is kept up-to-date with security patches as required.

#WeCanHelp

Whatever size or type of network you have, from your home WiFi and internet connection, to a multi-site MPLS connected company, we can help you manage and protect your data, and streamline your network to make it work better for you.

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Firewalls

Protecting your private network

You might be a home user with a handful of devices connected via wifi or you might be a multi-office organisation running an in-house hosted commerce website, either way you need to protect your network at the point it connects to the internet to prevent unauthorised access, block access to untrustworthy sites, and watch for suspicious activity.

What it does

The firewall is often the outer-most line of defence around your precious data. At the perimeter it needs to be flexible enough to let you work uninterrupted, but robust enough to protect against the barrage of probes and attacks it’s likely to face. It should be configurable and dynamic to be able to adjust to your needs and to be able to identify the latest threats.

Hardware or Software

Both have their advantages and in a corporate situation, both can be used to offer multiple lines of defence against attack.

A hardware firewall will usually by faster at processing data and so reduce any potential bottleneck. They can be configured to use real-time virus checking on incoming data, monitor outgoing data for suspicious activity and provide advanced tools like reputation management, unified threat protection and bandwidth shaping.

Software firewalls have the advantage of being cheaper and easier to mange. They are installed on the device you are protecting so are portable with that device . They can offer more refined controls per device or per app, and can be configured to alert you to unexpected behaviour.

But I don’t need one at home

With more and more home devices becoming ‘smart’ the number of internet connected devices you have might be more than you think. You should be managing your internet connection because ultimately, you’re responsible for the content downloaded.

In a number of recent ‘botnet’ attacks on major sites, home internet connected devices that had been compromised were used in the attacks.

A number of home security devices, specifically those with cameras or microphones in them, have been compromised and their content streamed live to the internet.

#WeCanHelp

We can help you with with selecting, supplying, installing and managing a firewall that’s suitable for your needs. You might just need to protect your home WiFi connected devices, or you might need a corporate firewall that allows remote users to access the company network from anywhere in the world, but you do need a firewall.

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