Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 - where is the WiFi 7?

[MonkY]

Hi everyone!

I was really happy to finally upgrade from my trusty old Asus GT-AX11000 to a new Asus GT-BE98. You can't believe how hard it was for me to not upgrade all these years from the WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E, and waited until I get the full WiFi 7 experience. But now, that is finally here, it doesn't look good at all. 

First of all, no matter what device I've used (I have tried 3 different notebooks with WiFi 7, 2 desktop PC's recently upgraded to WiFi 7 and a ton of smartphones and tablets), I have never managed to connect at anything beyond 2.8Gbps. Even with the router at 1-2m distance, and no obstacles. This means that the new GT-BE98 is actually the same speed as my old 4-5 years router (where I used to connect at 2.4Gbps). 

But then it gets worse. Not only that the WiFi 7 band is useless (and you can't even see the 320Mhz band in Windows 10, you need Windows 11), but even devices with WiFi 6E or WiFi 6, are actually slower than the previous router. For example, on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (that only has WiFi 6E) I get on the old one speeds like 900Mbps DL and 500Mbps UL (I have a maximum 1Gbps DL and 500Mbps UL speed from my ISP), but on the new one, the DL speed goes down to 6-700Mbps DL (and strange, the same 500Mbps UL).

Even worse than that: my main computer I have tested (an i9-13900K with a BE200 card) works so bad with the new router, that only does like 70Mbps DL instead of 900Mbps I had before. But that's only on the 6Ghz - 320Mhz band, the one for WiFi 7. If I connect to 5Ghz - 1, I get the same 700Mbps or so (still worse than before).

I have tried resetting the router to factory defaults. I have tried all the 4 available firmwares, with no success. 
I don't know what else to try... and I am about to breeak the return window. Yes, for the way it works now, and for how expensive this router is (the most expensive router I ever had), I wasn't expected to see issues like this.

So, please... if you have any ideas, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

[Saltgrass]

I wonder what this means, it seems the EU has not chosen to adopt the entire band.  I do not see anything on that page which addresses the asterisk.

[jzchen]

I’m afraid I’m really not sure what is going on.  Might want to use a WiFi Analyzer to see if the ~ 6000 MHz - 6500 MHz has traffic/noise.  I found you have a regulatory agency and there’s a 100’s pages document of their frequency assignment:

https://www.ancom.ro/en/radio-spectrum_2749

A company called D-Link (I have used their networking products in the past) is ready to release WiFi 7 products there:

https://www.dlink.com/ro/ro/for-home/wifi-7

ASUS Romania officially doesn’t show any, but at least shows the GT-AXE16000 which has 6 GHz…

https://www.asus.com/ro/networking-iot-servers/wifi-routers/all-series/filter?Series=ROG-Republic-of...

[Saltgrass]

I found something else that might turn off WiFi 7.  It seems if the security settings aren't WPA3, at least for the 6 GHz radio, I got a warning about WiFi 7 being disabled.

[MonkY]

You can't connect on WiFi 7 unless you have WPA3. 

[jzchen]

May try German Intel web page for drivers:

Download Intel Drivers and Software

[MonkY]

Thanks, but the german website has the same identical files (i even compared them by content).

[Saltgrass]

This is what mine shows when I disable the WiFi 7 setting.  

 

[MonkY]

Meanwhile, I have noticed something really strange. I have read this guide from here: https://dongknows.com/wi-fi-7-upgrade-on-a-windows-computer/ - and I have noticed how Dong-Knows-Tech has connected on channel 165. If I look in my router, for the WiFi 7 settings, I have only upto channel 93. Could that be the culprit? How to enable above channels for the WiFi 7 band?

[Saltgrass]

Some countries only use one of the 6 GHz bands so they are limited to the lower control channels, depending on what is approved.

[MonkY]

Well, I don't see my country in that list, but I see this:

European Union

Adopted

5925-6425 MHz  (*only adopting 5945-6425) And because my country is in UE, it should be adopted... at least I think so. I will try to set my computer and my router as US based, just for testing... BRB.