5 ms·

This is all good, but will it be able to penetrate the 12-inch German walls in my apartment effortlessly? WiFi reception was pretty good when I used to live in

This is all good, but will it be able to penetrate the 12-inch German walls in my apartment effortlessly? WiFi reception was pretty good when I used to live in cardboard houses. But now 5GHz struggles a lot with the thick concrete walls at my place.

lurking_swe 2y ago
pros and cons of very thick walls i guess…it’s difficult to make changes to your home. Wifi 7 (6ghz) barely penetrates a single “drywall” wall (in U.S.). It will have a very hard time penetrating thick concrete / brick walls. in your case if you wanted good wifi 7 signal in all rooms you’d probably need to run wired backhaul and install an access point per room. Probably not worth it. It might make sense to have wifi 7 in your living / dining space though. Especially if you have an open kitchen.
- phonon 2y ago
  You can get powerline/wifi kits...sometimes installing your own Ethernet isn't feasible.
  - danielu 2y ago
    There are also MoCA kits which allow you to use the existing coax cabling.
- teruakohatu 2y ago
  If Wifi 7 (6ghz) cannot penetrate dry wall does it have much application for home users?
  - lurking_swe 2y ago
    depends on the user. The short answer is it’s worth it if your wifi airspace is very congested or if you have a use case for wifi 7 speeds, such as moving large files around your LAN often. The 6ghz band has poor range but this can be a benefit actually. It means your neighbors 6ghz signal can’t flood your home like their 2.4ghz and 5ghz can. So there’s very little interference on the 6ghz band. This also means a more stable connection and a little lower latency. If your wifi works well today i wouldn’t bother upgrading. Unless it’s a fun hobby purchase.
  - danielu 2y ago
    The fact that 6 GHz Wifi cannot penetrate walls is a great feature for people living in apartment buildings. The 2.4 GHz band is insanely overcrowded. The best of both worlds would be to install 6 GHz access points in each room, and run a wired connection between them.
- Spivak 2y ago
  Why the scare quotes around drywall? It's just gypsum board. If you have plastered walls it's the same thing. But it needs far less skill to install correctly since the sheets are manufactured, smooth, and you just have to hang them.
  - lurking_swe 2y ago
    you’re 100% correct. i added the “” because i wasn’t sure if everyone would be familiar with the slang, especially those living outside the US.
landgenoot 2y ago
The good thing is that you don't have any interference.
toast0 2y ago
2.4Ghz should penetrate your walls better, but maybe not enough better to matter? Wifi 6 and 7 run on 2.4, 5, and 6 Ghz (wifi 6e), as opposed to wifi 5 (ac) which was 5ghz only, so if 2.4ghz is viable for you, you'll get some help from an upgrade. Some of the coordination stuff might help you run multiple APs, but with strong attenuation from walls, you might not have much overlap anyway.
dzhiurgis 2y ago
Any benefit of thick concrete walls other than weird flex? AFAIK modern building materials are better for environment, insulation, repairs, build time and cost. Source: dad was a builder and inspector for 50 years in eastern europe. I’ve grown up in german house from 1890. He’s helping to work on my “cardboard” house in NZ now. Big aspect of course is - houses are built to the local conditions and market, but he loathes block/concrete houses back home. They are being replaced by cardboard homes too.
- Numerlor 2y ago
  Already having them in place without moving would be the main benefit
- rednafi 2y ago
  Thermal insulation is usually better in concrete apartments. Also, when I was working in the US, the places I lived were mostly "cardboard" houses by default. In Germany, I don't have much choice. So in my case, it's not even weird flex.
  - gruez 2y ago
    "cardboard" houses have insulation in the walls. Meanwhile I can't imagine how solid (?) concrete would have better insulating properties than fiberglass insulation sandwiched between two "cardboard" walls.
- Spivak 2y ago
  And I'm not entirely sure what part of the house they're calling cardboard. It's typically concrete foundation, wood framing, and drywall (i.e. gypsum i.e. stone) walls. Drywall doesn't deserve the hate, it's fantastic. Flame resistant, cheap to repair and replace, easy to cut and penetrate to install drops run wires. Wiring my whole house with ethernet was a single day affair because of it.
- rangestransform 2y ago
  Sound insulation, I can’t trust builders these days to put enough insulation between apartments in mass timber buildings

lurking_swe 2y ago

pros and cons of very thick walls i guess…it’s difficult to make changes to your home. Wifi 7 (6ghz) barely penetrates a single “drywall” wall (in U.S.). It will have a very hard time penetrating thick concrete / brick walls. in your case if you wanted good wifi 7 signal in all rooms you’d probably need to run wired backhaul and install an access point per room. Probably not worth it. It might make sense to have wifi 7 in your living / dining space though. Especially if you have an open kitchen.

phonon 2y ago
You can get powerline/wifi kits...sometimes installing your own Ethernet isn't feasible.
- danielu 2y ago
  There are also MoCA kits which allow you to use the existing coax cabling.
teruakohatu 2y ago
If Wifi 7 (6ghz) cannot penetrate dry wall does it have much application for home users?
- lurking_swe 2y ago
  depends on the user. The short answer is it’s worth it if your wifi airspace is very congested or if you have a use case for wifi 7 speeds, such as moving large files around your LAN often. The 6ghz band has poor range but this can be a benefit actually. It means your neighbors 6ghz signal can’t flood your home like their 2.4ghz and 5ghz can. So there’s very little interference on the 6ghz band. This also means a more stable connection and a little lower latency. If your wifi works well today i wouldn’t bother upgrading. Unless it’s a fun hobby purchase.
- danielu 2y ago
  The fact that 6 GHz Wifi cannot penetrate walls is a great feature for people living in apartment buildings. The 2.4 GHz band is insanely overcrowded. The best of both worlds would be to install 6 GHz access points in each room, and run a wired connection between them.
Spivak 2y ago
Why the scare quotes around drywall? It's just gypsum board. If you have plastered walls it's the same thing. But it needs far less skill to install correctly since the sheets are manufactured, smooth, and you just have to hang them.
- lurking_swe 2y ago
  you’re 100% correct. i added the “” because i wasn’t sure if everyone would be familiar with the slang, especially those living outside the US.

landgenoot 2y ago

The good thing is that you don't have any interference.

toast0 2y ago

2.4Ghz should penetrate your walls better, but maybe not enough better to matter? Wifi 6 and 7 run on 2.4, 5, and 6 Ghz (wifi 6e), as opposed to wifi 5 (ac) which was 5ghz only, so if 2.4ghz is viable for you, you'll get some help from an upgrade. Some of the coordination stuff might help you run multiple APs, but with strong attenuation from walls, you might not have much overlap anyway.

dzhiurgis 2y ago

Any benefit of thick concrete walls other than weird flex? AFAIK modern building materials are better for environment, insulation, repairs, build time and cost. Source: dad was a builder and inspector for 50 years in eastern europe. I’ve grown up in german house from 1890. He’s helping to work on my “cardboard” house in NZ now. Big aspect of course is - houses are built to the local conditions and market, but he loathes block/concrete houses back home. They are being replaced by cardboard homes too.

Numerlor 2y ago
Already having them in place without moving would be the main benefit
rednafi 2y ago
Thermal insulation is usually better in concrete apartments. Also, when I was working in the US, the places I lived were mostly "cardboard" houses by default. In Germany, I don't have much choice. So in my case, it's not even weird flex.
- gruez 2y ago
  "cardboard" houses have insulation in the walls. Meanwhile I can't imagine how solid (?) concrete would have better insulating properties than fiberglass insulation sandwiched between two "cardboard" walls.
Spivak 2y ago
And I'm not entirely sure what part of the house they're calling cardboard. It's typically concrete foundation, wood framing, and drywall (i.e. gypsum i.e. stone) walls. Drywall doesn't deserve the hate, it's fantastic. Flame resistant, cheap to repair and replace, easy to cut and penetrate to install drops run wires. Wiring my whole house with ethernet was a single day affair because of it.
rangestransform 2y ago
Sound insulation, I can’t trust builders these days to put enough insulation between apartments in mass timber buildings