Question Anyone know of of a Wi-fi 6e PCI adaptor that fully supports Windows 10 on 6ghz band?

[danny2000]

Does anyone know of a Wi-fi 6e PCI adaptor that fully supports Windows 10 on the 6ghz band? TP-link states that it only supports/shows the 6ghz band on Windows 11.

 

[Eximo]

Driver lists support for both 10 and 11, so I don't think that is a thing.

Any PCIe device with a driver for your version of Windows is likely to work just fine, and chances are it would also work on Windows 8.1 and 7 just as well.

 

[bill001g]

Most wifi adapters have intel ax210 chips.

You can get the drivers from intel and it says it support win10.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/204836/intel-wifi-6e-ax210-gig.html

Pretty much of you search for ax210 you will get boards that use that part. I have not looked in a while but all vendors for wifi6e where using this part maybe another vendor has wifi6e stuff by now

 

[danny2000]

Yes, they list support for Windows 10, but states that you will not see the 6 ghz band in Windows 10.
WiFi 6E builds on the existing WiFi 6 (802.11ax) standard. WiFi 6E offers all of the cutting-edge features of WiFi 6 and allows access to a new 6GHz wireless band.
Microsoft Windows PCs must use the latest Windows 11 operating system release and have a WiFi 6E-capable network adapter with the latest drivers installed to access the 6GHz wireless band.
Microsoft recently announced that they are not backporting WiFi 6E support to Windows 10. Even if you have a WiFi 6E-capable network adapter, if your PC uses Windows 10, you can't use WiFi 6E until you upgrade to Windows 11.
Currently, the Intel AX210 WiFi chipset is the only network adapter hardware with WiFi 6E support. Multiple vendors sell WiFi adapters that use the Intel AX210 chipset; review the specifications before purchasing to make sure that the adapter supports WiFi 6E. This is on Netgear's website.

 

[dwd999]

Yes, they list support for Windows 10, but states that you will not see the 6 ghz band in Windows 10.
WiFi 6E builds on the existing WiFi 6 (802.11ax) standard. WiFi 6E offers all of the cutting-edge features of WiFi 6 and allows access to a new 6GHz wireless band.
Microsoft Windows PCs must use the latest Windows 11 operating system release and have a WiFi 6E-capable network adapter with the latest drivers installed to access the 6GHz wireless band.
Microsoft recently announced that they are not backporting WiFi 6E support to Windows 10. Even if you have a WiFi 6E-capable network adapter, if your PC uses Windows 10, you can't use WiFi 6E until you upgrade to Windows 11.
Currently, the Intel AX210 WiFi chipset is the only network adapter hardware with WiFi 6E support. Multiple vendors sell WiFi adapters that use the Intel AX210 chipset; review the specifications before purchasing to make sure that the adapter supports WiFi 6E. This is on Netgear's website.

You can't believe everything they say since they don't offer any 6E routers so they can't test it. Maybe their comments will change when they release their own 6E routers. And I wouldn't believe Microsoft's comments since they are dependent on Intel for all of the drivers. I have one of these adapters (cause the antennas are great) but I only have a 5Ghz router. I'll buy their router when they release it and then I'll find out how well 6E works. Ironically they are adamant that this adapter only works with Windows but if you use any linux distro with a kernel 5.1 or higher (e.g. Ubuntu 21.10) it works, at least in the 5Ghz band that I've tested (again because the drivers come from Intel).

Perhaps if you want more info you could start a thread asking who has a 6E router (apparently there is only one by Netgear and one by ASUS at the moment) and they could tell you what their experience is.

 

[danny2000]

You can't believe everything they say since they don't offer any 6E routers so they can't test it. Maybe their comments will change when they release their own 6E routers. And I wouldn't believe Microsoft's comments since they are dependent on Intel for all of the drivers. I have one of these adapters (cause the antennas are great) but I only have a 5Ghz router. I'll buy their router when they release it and then I'll find out how well 6E works. Ironically they are adamant that this adapter only works with Windows but if you use any linux distro with a kernel 5.1 or higher (e.g. Ubuntu 21.10) it works, at least in the 5Ghz band that I've tested (again because the drivers come from Intel).

Perhaps if you want more info you could start a thread asking who has a 6E router (apparently there is only one by Netgear and one by ASUS at the moment) and they could tell you what their experience is.

Well thanks. I am trying to find someone who has 3 things working together: Windows 10 64-Bit; Wi-fi 6E router; and a Wi-Fi 6E network card. The posts that I've seen on other sites about the Asus, TP-Link, and a few other brands cards which all use the Intel 210 chip, all cannot see the 6 ghz band in Windows 10 even though that they have a 6E router. I do know, that for the 6 ghz band to work in Windows 11, you have to make sure and select WPA-3 and not WPA2.

I have a 6E router coming tomorrow so I'm trying to find a 6E NIC card that will fully work in Windows 10 (meaning the 6 ghz band). No one was saying that the card itself won't work on Windows 10, just that the 6 ghz band won't work on Windows 10.

I believe that the Intel 210 chip has already been out since 2020; Asus, I think, was the first in the U.S. in 2020.
Intel released the 211 chip early in 2021 but no one has used it yet from what I can see.

 

[dwd999]

Well thanks. I am trying to find someone who has 3 things working together: Windows 10 64-Bit; Wi-fi 6E router; and a Wi-Fi 6E network card. The posts that I've seen on other sites about the Asus, TP-Link, and a few other brands cards which all use the Intel 210 chip, all cannot see the 6 ghz band in Windows 10 even though that they have a 6E router. I do know, that for the 6 ghz band to work in Windows 11, you have to make sure and select WPA-3 and not WPA2.

I have a 6E router coming tomorrow so I'm trying to find a 6E NIC card that will fully work in Windows 10 (meaning the 6 ghz band). No one was saying that the card itself won't work on Windows 10, just that the 6 ghz band won't work on Windows 10.

I believe that the Intel 210 chip has already been out since 2020; Asus, I think, was the first in the U.S. in 2020.
Intel released the 211 chip early in 2021 but no one has used it yet from what I can see.

If there's no way of making 6E work in Windows 10 Microsoft will be making a big mistake by trying to force us to use Windows 11. A lot of us won't be going to Windows 11 until its more fully developed and has fewer bugs; I'll probably wait until next year or maybe 2025 if I get a Ryzen 7000 instead of a Alder Lake. Please let us know what your router experience is since we're all thirsty for knowledge about 6E.

Subsequent edit: so when I searched Microsoft's site about WPA3 I found a page that says if you open the Command Prompt and type the command

netsh wlan show drivers

it shows you on the Radio Types supported line that AX is supported and in the Authentication section that the WPA3 mode is supported even in Windows 10, the same as Windows 11. So at least on the receiving end this implies that if you set your router for WPA3 then 6E should be available. This is with the 22.140.0.3 driver so its not a driver issue just in case Windows didn't update you to that. If 6E still doesn't work then that implies that Microsoft is deliberately refusing to support it in Windows 10 since they know how to make it work in 11.