I am interested on 802.11ah to my L14.
802.11ah it support 15MBs under 1 Sub-GHz. it is Libre spectrum and there is a Libre freescale s.o.c for.
The question I (thought, anyway) I was responding to was whether the machine itself, independent of the network adapter, could handle that speed. That would be a data transfer question, so one way to find out is to see how fast it can transfer data by, eg, moving data from a USB drive to the hard disk. If its faster than what you expect over the network adapter (and it should be), then the answer is “yes.”
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What part is a lie 
I use all cable when I can. It’s faster, more secure (I unplug two at night). I know what the specs say for /n, and what they say for /ac. If I’m to upgrade a laptop, I need to know if I’m going to have to upgrade it again in a year or 2.
I guess I’ll have to think it over more or hope that a /ac or even ax is incorporated or risk a replacement /ac that is closed source.
~s
Also i recommend you do a retest of N speed with Wireguard because Bandwidth Throttling exist and more.
Also keep in mind that over 802.11n like ac, ax it for big offices corporations, ac,ax not really for home use.
Doesn’t that “15MBs” equate to only 124 +/- Mbps?
I’d be drooling over the /ah but I think I’ll wait 6-8 months for the beta tests to settle down. I feel upgrading from /n to /ac is a big plus, and for me, /ac is faster. If it’s no difference for other people - too bad
I speak Cable
~s
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I run a monthly audit of a few things, and one is cable internet speed test at the same place I’ve been testing for the last 10 years or more and the spot I test is 2,000+ miles away. Not much has changed, with n/g/b/ or /ac. Cable. I’ve no real reason to test WiFi, but do once a month, in case a device drops too low, like it did a few weeks ago to 4.5Mbps while all others were fine.
I disagree on what /ac is for. As far as I know, most modems support, and have supported /ac for a long time… if memory serves, I think /n was started in 2008 and /ac in 2014. Most devices made for the last while supported /ac, be it for a corporation or a as a means of getting a fix of Facebook.
This surprises me. To find /n instead of /ac in L-##
I doubt one can buy a Ltop or Dtop and with /n instead of /ac. /n won’t be there.
Thanks for your input - it’s helpful to get various opinions.
~s
The conclusion that it “should be replaced” - because that is a trade-off that some customers will be unwilling to take.
(For example, in my case, the real speed of 802.11n is much faster than my internet connection and the real speed is adequate for video streaming on the LAN to wireless devices. So even though my WAPs are capable of 802.11ac, I don’t feel the need to make the trade-off on the client and put in a better client WiFi card.)
Honestly, if WiFi speed is particularly important to you then I would say … make the decision now whether to buy the Librem 14 but replace the WiFi module from Day 1. (You can find several topics in this forum about customers doing this. The replacement WiFi module is relatively cheap and you just need to grab the blackbox Intel WiFi firmware package from another company’s repo, if memory serves.)
All assuming that your router/wireless access point is even capable of 802.11ac.
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802.11/n and 802.11/ac etc have nothing to do with the wired ethernet adapter. Those are wireless standards. It sounds like maybe you are conflating the two? The reason why the librem-14’s wireless card is stuck on /n is that there are NO open source drivers for any of the newer standards. I went ahead and installed a /ac card in my librem 14 with its associated non-libre drivers to get the faster speeds and bluetooth operational. The wired port on my librem-14 easily hits 900 Mbps+ on speedtests, which it should, as its a 1Gbps port. My internet connection is 10Gbps but my router and all my computers only have 1Gbps ports currently.
Nope. I’m strictly a wired person. Don’t care about Wi-Fi… except now and then, I’ll pull out the Cat6 and go mobile to the back garden.
Earlier today, while defending my sanity, I tested 4 devices and provided the results. Again, they showed /n to max at 100, and /ac to max at 300. (+/- 10-20)
If interested, I have a Hitron and specs state:
The CGNM-2250 delivers speeds of up to 960Mbps with twenty-four bonded downstream channels over its DOCSIS interface. The integrated four-port Gigabit Ethernet switch and Wi-Fi 3×3 802.11n+802.11ac dual-band MIMO Access Point enable fast and easy home entertainment networking.
~s
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It is not 124 +/- Mbps it is 15Mbps on ah, i really like ah because i can get wifi from 1km to10km from AP.
It is not really a plus from N to AC because N already support 600mbps on 5 Ghz. I could say that N it better than AC because AC can not work on 2.4 ghz for long range.
Purism put the best 802.11X WiFi Chipset on Librem 14 for sure based for freedom. Purism it putting the best M.2 socket keyed E too, E it the best M.2 socket, so Purism was limited to find a m.2.e wifi module to L14 with freedom in mind. I not sure what i going to say but i guess the BT on L14 has a Libre driver, but i guess that this BT controller it still need a closed binary to work.
Of course you can sacrifice freedom for another closed 802.11module
Tell that to our ISP. What ever. I’m sorry I even asked.
~s
Wow. I know how a lamb feels around lions. I’ll just take it that the existing /n does not exceed CABLED Internet speeds of up to 300 (zero not being a stating point - k?) with all gremlins, pot-holes, wind direction, tide heights and other excuses excluded.
I don’t want to use /n as I have read many papers on it, and it’s old and /ac is newer plus my own tests here, with seasons ISP techs at my elbow says MY 1 rig cannot work with /N but does with /ac. I posted /n and /ac birthdays here earlier.
Thanks everyone, must just be a glitch in the matrix
EOD
~s
I don;t know where you got that I was talking about AC speeds in the post you replied to; I was talking about the Atheros N module shipped with all Librem 14s.
I’m also perfectly capable of testing WiFi device speeds in a controlled testing environment. My mesh network and ISP speeds are not in any way the limiting factor, I assure you.
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I think that’s where you are confused. 802.11ac does not work over CAT6 cable. Or any other cable. It’s a wireless only standard. It’s called WiFi 6 (?). 802.11n is the same, and called WiFi 5 I think. If you want CAT6 cable, you’re looking at an Ethernet adapter, nothing to do with WiFi, nothing to do with the Atheros network adapter.
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I think the text you quote might mean: if you have an 802.11ac wireless access point operating at its theoretical maximum wireless bandwidth (i.e. marketing wank speed) communicating with a wired device then Cat 5e cable coming into the WAP won’t cut it. You would need Cat 6 cable coming into the WAP.
But then you would also need wired networking equipment that is better than gigabit ethernet.
802.11ac is WiFi 5.
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but that’s simply not true, CAT 5e is Gigabit rated. My old house was wired with CAT 5e and I had no problem fully saturating it for LAN transfers
correct. WiFi 6 is 802.11ax
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Yes, but 802.11ac at its marketing wank speed is well above 1 Gbit/sec.
Also, it is usual to quote a WAP’s speed as the sum of what you can marketing get over 2.4 GHz and what you can marketing get over 5 GHz. While no individual client may be capable of using both radios simultaneously, the WAP itself may be so capable. So you will need more than a GbE connection into the WAP to support those marketing speeds.
Some WAPs have dual GbE connections in an attempt to provide enough incoming bandwidth. If you have a single ethernet connection into such a WAP then, to support those marketing speeds, you need Cat 6 and you need at least 5GBASE-T equipment at the other end.
To be clear, I am not for one moment suggesting that anyone really needs to recable to Cat 6 and throw away all their gigabit ethernet network equipment. A total of 1 Gbit/sec to the WAP is adequate for most purposes. This is a theoretical discussion about 802.11ac.
only because someone hijacked the discussion about the capabilities of the Atheros module shipped with the L14 
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