Solved Looking for feedback from people who have actually used WiFi 7

Once you have a router AND a PC that can transfer TCP/IP packets as fast as the ISP can handle them, you can't increase speed on the LAN between the ISP and your PC. That is if your ISP only provides 40Mbps down, AX speed PC is overkill. You can't go faster to/from the ISP.

Now between PC's/Tablets/phones on the LAN, different story. Speed is no longer determined for the max speed by the ISP but the individual devices AND the 802.11 speed standard they are (G, N, AX, BE). The lowest one will determine max. speed, and also the 'other' parts like cables or wireless, PC activity, etc., that could like the exchange times/speed. Of course, the speed rating of the router too.... Both Wifi versions and the capability of the router. Most 'since the 6Ghz band was introduced, just added the speed rating of the router for the 2.4 and 5Ghz band and called that the speed. However, the true speed would depend on the Band (SSID) you connected to and the 802.11 speed of the device. You'd always be lower the the listed theoretical limit.

Now having a Wifi7 router and not all devices capable of Wifi7 can limit your inter-PC Lan speeds.

Also, the router capability, usually listed with a speed of the combined bands. See What Do Those 'AX' and 'AXE' Numbers on Your Wi-Fi Router Mean? which covers that pretty well.

These web pages should interest you as well:

WiFi 7 vs WiFi 6: How is WiFi 7 different from WiFi 6? | TP-Link <--- Wifi 6 vs. Wifi 7
Ready for the New WiFi 7? TP-Link is Paving the Way <-- More general Wifi 7 info
What is WiFi 7’s Multi-Link Operation (MLO)? | TP-Link <-- this is about MLO and some non-Wifi 7 devices I think can connect to it, increasing speed between devices.

However, the wrinkle here, for me at least, with the Intel BE200, even with the latest driver MLO is working in the router, but the OS doesn't see it:

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PS C:\> netsh.exe wlan show Networks

Interface name : Wi-Fi
There are 1 networks currently visible.

SSID 1 : xxxxxx_MLO
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA3-Personal
Encryption : CCMP

PS C:\> netsh.exe wlan show Networks mode=bssid

Interface name : Wi-Fi
There are 1 networks currently visible.

SSID 1 : netlaps_MLO
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA3-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 76:7f:f0:05:66:2a
Signal : 98%
Radio type : 802.11be
Band : 5 GHz
Channel : 40
Hash-to-Element: : Supported
Bss Load:
Connected Stations: 1
Channel Utilization: 19 (7 %)
Medium Available Capacity: 0 (0 us/s)
Colocated APs: : 1
BSSID: 72:7f:f0:05:66:29, Band: 2.4 GHz, Channel: 2
Basic rates (Mbps) : 6 12 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 9 18 36 48 54
MFP Required : 1

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If I were running the InSider Canary release that has the MS Windows 11 Wifi7 features enabled I would have seen both bands, the 2.4 and 5Ghz band and channels shown. Verified by another user who installed the MS Canary release with an Intel BE200 adapter.

Since my other PC on the LAN is AX speed, I'm limited to that speed between the 2.

IrvSp said:

If I were running the InSider Canary release that has the MS Windows 11 Wifi7 features enabled I would have seen both bands, the 2.4 and 5Ghz band and channels shown.

Click to expand...

Actually, you would see 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. The Release Preview builds work fine for this.

hsehestedt said:

You make a good point. The further away from the router you get, the slower the WiFi speed becomes. So, if you start with a faster speed, your "lower" speeds at distance will still be faster than with previous gen WiFi.

Click to expand...

Once finished transcoding I'll be transferring a folder from my old desktop to the Mini PC I use for streaming. I'll post the transfer speed I got.

And something else to consider with wireless routers........Dual-Band, Tri-Band and Quad-Band.

hsehestedt said:

Actually, you would see 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. The Release Preview builds work fine for this.

Click to expand...

Yes, know that. It is the MLO SSID that would show both bands in use.

See, I am not on the Release Preview Canary build, and as far as Windows is concerned (as pasted in above) it only sees the 5Ghz. Canary will show all if using MLO.

The Wifi7 router I'm using now does NOT have a 6Ghz band... but you do not need that for Wifi7. The other features of Wifi7 are used, like MLO and 4KQAM... and others.

Like I said, I did get better speed on an 6Ghz Wifi7 connection, but what I've got is fast enough except of one program that gets updated, MS Flight Simulator, the updates are hundreds of Gigabyte's in size... When the ISP speed I had was 400Mbps down, it took some time, but now, almost a Gigabyte, good enough.

What I don't know now is everything working correctly? That is I know the router is doing its job, and after that, I'm not 100% sure the Intel adapter is, or if it is, is the OS holding it back? Reports from NETSH I can see where that might depend on the OS to give it the info (or get it from them), but does the adapter need the OS to enable the features as well?

I'll know once I get the Wifi7 MS update I guess?

Winuser said:

Once finished transcoding I'll be transferring a folder from my old desktop to the Mini PC I use for streaming. I'll post the transfer speed I got.

Click to expand...

The folder size was 10.2 GB and the transfer speed was 26.3 MB/s. Slow but slightly over twice the speed of WiFi 5.

Winuser said:

The folder size was 10.2 GB and the transfer speed was 26.3 MB/s. Slow but slightly over twice the speed of WiFi 5.

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26 MB/s is crazy slow. I get way better than that on WiFi 5. You must not be anywhere near the router.

hsehestedt said:

26 MB/s is crazy slow. I get way better than that on WiFi 5. You must not be anywhere near the router.

Click to expand...

26.3 MB/s is approx 212 Mbps.

BamaInArk said:

26.3 MB/s is approx 212 Mbps.

Click to expand...

Like I said, slow .

I get way better than that even on WiFi 5. With WiFi 6e I do in excess of 160 MB/s (1280 Mbps).

There is a lot of overhead on 2 PC's playing into the 'speed' you are seeing. PC's CPU's differences, RAM sizes and speeds, not to mention the disks, mechanical vs. SSD's.

If you want to measure PC to PC speed over the LAN, check this web page for choices, Three More Ways To Measure Network Speed - SmallNetBuilder and all are free.

hsehestedt said:

26 MB/s is crazy slow. I get way better than that on WiFi 5. You must not be anywhere near the router.

Click to expand...

When I do a transfer the signal has to go the go to the ceiling and floor to access the router than back through the floor and ceiling to reach the other computer. With WiFi 5 I was getting less then 10 MB/s and sometime less than 5 MB/s. My internet speeds aren't effected.

Winuser said:

When I do a transfer the signal has to go the go to the ceiling and floor to access the router than back through the floor and ceiling to reach the other computer. With WiFi 5 I was getting less then 10 MB/s and sometime less than 5 MB/s. My internet speeds aren't effected.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, that makes sense. I have multiple WiFi access points in the home so I'm always near an antenna.