Wi-Fi 7 on Windows 11

The other week I tested Wi-Fi 7 on Linux. It worked great. Let’s see how Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 adapter performs on Windows 11 23H2.

Intel NUC 12th generation with Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 adapter

Drivers

Download and install latest driver from Intel’s website. Windows Update itself won’t install any driver, so some manual steps are required. I originally tested driver version 23.20.0.4, and now updated to 23.30.0.6.

Setup

We are using TP-Link Deco BE85 BE19000 consumer Wi-Fi 7 router connected to a 10 Gigabit iperf3 server running on MacBook connected via OWC 10 GbE to Thunderbolt adapter. We have done this on Linux before, so let’s see how the same Wi-Fi adapter performs on Windows.

Wi-Fi 7 on Windows 11 test topology

Performance

On the router, we have configured and verified 320 MHz wide Wi-Fi 7 channel. But when we connect the Windows client, looking at the data rate, it is surprisingly low – if you forgive me calling 2882 Mbps ‘low’ 😊 Considering that the NUC is about 1 meter away from the router, I would expect ~5 Gbps data rate. So what’s going on here?

Connected Wi-Fi 7 client, but low data rate

Interestingly enough, it is the same data rate as we see when connected using 5 GHz 160 MHz channel. Yes, I know, that’s a no-no in Wi-Fi design. We are just testing here.

Hmm, 160 MHz wide 5 GHz channel gives us the same data rate
netsh wlan show interfaces command output

Since Windows doesn’t expose the channel width in the UI, we don’t quite know what is happening on the air. Let’s generate some 6 GHz traffic, and check using Oscium’s WiPry Clarity tri-band spectrum analyser. I love this little USB tool. In this example I use a WLAN Pi as a Remote Sensor. It scans for Wi-Fi networks and streams spectrum information to WiFi Explorer Pro on Mac.

WLAN Pi Remote Sensor with Oscium WiPry Clarity scanning 6 GHz
Windows client is using 160 MHz instead of 320 MHz

Bingo! Apparently, on Windows Intel BE200 uses 160 MHz channel width and doesn’t support 320 MHz wide channel. That halves our data rate and throughput. I wish Windows made channel width more obvious in the UI. Intel BE200 adapter supports 320 MHz wide channels on Linux without a sweat, so hopefully it will get fixed in a future Intel driver or Windows release.

Updated: Apparently, I didn’t read Intel’s release notes closely enough, my bad 😊 Intel BE200 adapter on Windows 11 is only able to use Wi-Fi 6E today. Windows 11 will introduce Wi-Fi 7 support in a future update. Since Wi-Fi 6E supports channel widths up to 160 MHz, that’s why we are not being able to use full 320 MHz channel width. What really confused me was the “Protocol: Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)” misleading Wi-Fi network status reported by Windows. Thank you Ben for spotting the note in Intel’s documentation.

What does that translate to? Lower data rate and lower throughput. I would expect download and upload to be around 2.5 Gbps using 320 MHz wide channel. With the latest Intel driver 23.30.0.6, we get 1.71 Gbps TCP download speed with 16 parallel streams, and upload of 2.17 Gbps. But only the upper 160 MHz half of the 320 MHz wide channel is used.

1.71 Gbps TCP download speed with 16 parallel streams
Upload TCP speed 2.17 Gbps with 16 streams

I also ran a quick Speedtest.net test (I know it is not a proper throughput testing tool) on a 900/900 Mbps WAN link.

On a Linux Wi-Fi 7 client, I measured nearly 890/890 Mbps. Original Intel driver 23.20.0.4 performed 383/818 Mbps. The latest Intel driver 23.30.0.6 delivered more symmetric numbers, and results were closer to the actual WAN link speed.

Speedtest.net speeds using the latest 23.30.0.6 Intel driver

Summary

Wi-Fi worked well, but application speeds including Speedtest.net and other tools performed quite poorly and subjectively ‘felt slow’. iperf3 test showed higher performance, but the main problem for the purpose of a throughput test is that the adapter only uses 160 MHz out of the available 320 MHz.

When it comes to recommended channel width in real world, it depends. 80 MHz or 40 MHz wide channels are most likely the best place to start depending on your circumstances and region.

For reference: Disable 6 GHz on Intel BE200 adapter

If you are performing tests on an SSID that has multiple bands enabled, and you want to force the client to drop off 6 GHz and join using a 5 GHz channel instead, Intel BE200 driver has the option to disable the 6 GHz band.

Disable 6 GHz band on Intel BE200

10 Gigabit Ethernet on Intel NUC

Earlier this week, I tested a 10 Gigabit Ethernet M.2 network adapter on Raspberry Pi 5, and it didn’t quite cut it. Mainly due to limited PCIe Gen 2 performance. Now, the question is can this 10 Gigabit adapter actually push 10 Gbps of traffic at all?

To find out, we are going to slightly reconfigure this Intel NUC 12th generation mini PC. It has an M.2 M-key slot for NVMe drive. Let’s use this slot for our 10 GbE adapter. And we will boot Windows 11 off an external USB SSD drive.

Remove NVMe from the M.2 slot
Install 10 GbE network adapter instead
Intel NUC with 10 GbE adapter connected to 10 GbE switch

Install Windows 11 23H2 version on a USB SSD drive, boot Windows, run Windows Update, voila!

Windows Update installed latest driver automatically
It uses PCIe Gen 3
And x2 link width
10 Gbps Full Duplex

With default iperf3 settings we get 6.44 Gbps/7.93 Gbps in the downlink and uplink direction respectively. Not bad, but is that it? Of course not.

iperf3 with default settings

I don’t really want to enable Jumbo frames as it’s not always possible to enable Jumbo frame support end-to-end, especially if part of the network doesn’t support it or isn’t under your management. Fortunately, 8 parallel TCP streams in iperf3 do the trick for us. We get 9.48 Gbps download speed.

9.48 Gbps download

In the upstream direction from this NUC to my MacBook with 10 GbE adapter, we also get 9.48 Gbps. I am happy. You? 😉

9.48 Gbps upload

Summary

After all, this 10 GbE M.2 network adapter is indeed capable of pushing 9.48 Gbps of traffic in either direction. But! It is not really a good choice for a system like Intel NUC. I can’t pop the lid back on, the heatsink is too tall. Frankly, I can’t recommend this adapter at all. It runs hot at 84° Celsius in idle.

If you are looking for a daily driver, and your system supports Thunderbolt, get yourself this OWC 10GbE to Thunderbolt adapter. Here is my test. It works out of the box on Windows (I tested this Intel NUC 12th Gen) and macOS (I tested MacBook Pro M1 and M2). Interestingly, it uses the same chip as the above M.2 adapter. Just compare the two products and their heatsink sizes. The AQC107 keeps the main CPU utilisation very low, but it produces a significant amount of heat.

OWC 10 GbE to Thunderbolt network adapter connected to Intel NUC
OWC 10 GbE to Thunderbolt network adapter connected to MacBook

10 Gigabit Ethernet on Raspberry Pi 5

Raspberry Pi 5 comes with PCI Express connection and a number of HATs (hardware attached on top) and Bottoms (the opposite of that) are now available for sale. That unlocks some very exciting options. Let’s see how fast can a 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter on Raspberry Pi 5 go, shall we?

Pineberry’s HatDrive! Bottom proved to be really handy for converting Pi’s PCIe connection to M.2 M-key format. My Kalea-Informatique 10 Gigabit adapter uses exactly that, so that’s a match. Why did I choose this adapter? Very unscientifically this time – it was the first readily available and I was in a fail-fast mood :)

10 GbE adapter connected to Raspberry Pi 5
Pineberry HatDrive! Bottom board with 10 GbE network adapter
Detail of the AQC107 chip powering the network adapter

Enable PCIe port on Raspberry Pi 5

First things first. We need to enable the PCIe connector on the Pi.

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

# Enable the port
dtparam=pciex1

# Configure PCIe Gen
dtparam=pciex1_gen=2
Enable PCIe and configure mode

Build custom Linux kernel and include the Aquantia driver module

Vanilla Raspberry Pi OS doesn’t include the Aquantia AQC107 kernel module. So we need to burn a micro SD card with a vanilla Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm image, boot the Pi 5 and build a customised kernel.

git clone --depth=1 --branch rpi-6.8.y https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux
cd linux/
sudo apt install flex bison aptitude -y
sudo aptitude install libssl-dev
make bcm2712_defconfig

Edit the config file:

sudo nano .config

Add these 2 lines to .config file:

CONFIG_AQTION=m
CONFIG_AQUANTIA_PHY=m

Trigger customised kernel build on the Pi. This will take some time, so bear with us, please.

sudo make -j4 Image.gz modules dtbs
sudo make modules_install
sudo cp -v arch/arm64/boot/dts/broadcom/*.dtb /boot/firmware/
sudo cp -v arch/arm64/boot/dts/overlays/*.dtb* /boot/firmware/overlays/
sudo cp -v arch/arm64/boot/dts/overlays/README /boot/firmware/overlays/
KERNEL=kernel_2712
sudo cp -v arch/arm64/boot/Image.gz /boot/firmware/$KERNEL.img
uname -a
sudo reboot

After reboot, the LED light on the network adapter should come to life and we can capture first impressions.

Adapter recognised
10 Gbps Full Duplex
lspci -v output

Temperature

First thing you will likely notice is how hot this network adapter runs. It runs at 85° Celsius in idle which is slightly worrying and you can literally burn your fingers if you are not careful. Thumbs down on the thermal design front.

High idle temperature

Under load, surprisingly, it ‘only’ runs 0.5° warmer.

High temperature under load

How fast can it go then?

Raspberry Pi 5 officially supports PCIe Gen 1 and Gen 2. It is not certified for Gen 3.

PCIe Gen 1 mode

In this slowest mode, I got 1.71 Gbps/1.53 Gbps iperf3 TCP results with standard iperf3 settings. No jumbo frames, no other tweaks.

PCIe Gen 1 throughput

PCIe Gen 2 mode

Again, with standard iperf3 settings, I measured 3.44 Gbps/3.04 Gbps TCP throughput between 2 computers both connected to 10 Gbps switch ports via 10 GbE Full Duplex.

PCIe Gen 2 throughput

In idle conditions, this setup draws 7.5 W, and 8.9 W under 10GbE adapter iperf3 -R load (3.45 Gbps). Using more iperf3 parallel streams (the -P parameter) did not help at all.

Power draw

PCIe Gen 3 mode

The adapter supports PCIe Gen 3, but it doesn’t work with the Pi. The Pi is not certified for Gen 3, so I can’t say anything bad about this. The Ethernet adapter is not recognised in Gen 3 mode, and no interface is present in ip a. Sometimes the Pi will fail to boot.

According to dmesg, the Pi forced Gen 2 mode:

brcm-pcie 1000110000.pcie: link down
brcm-pcie 1000120000.pcie: Forcing gen 2
Forcing PCIe Gen 2 mode athough Gen 3 has been configured

I powered my Pi from M2 MacBook USB-C port. So I thought, I might be running into under-voltage issues. I tested the official Raspberry Pi 27 W (5 V * 5 A) AC power and it made no difference.

Did you upgrade Raspberry Pi 5 firmware?

Yes, I did. It is running the latest version available as of March 2024.

Latest firmware installed

Low CPU utilisation

One feature I really enjoyed is the extremely low CPU utilisation under load. I saw slower 2.5 GbE adapters hammer CPU with interrupts, but that’s not the case for this NIC. AQC107 does really good job at keeping the CPU cool.

Low Raspberry Pi 5 CPU load under network load

Cable analytics

Marvell supports Cable Diagnostics feature which uses TDR to measure cable length and detect Ethernet cable for defects. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be supported on the AQC107 chip.

Cable Diagnostics not supported

Can you get 10 Gbps out of this adapter at all?

I am glad you asked. How does an Intel NUC with this 10 GbE adapter sound? I’ve just tested it, here you go.

Intel NUC with 10 GbE adapter

Summary

The high operating temperature really makes this adapter something I can’t recommend. With maximum throughput below 3.5 Gbps, I think you would be better off choosing a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter, which runs cool and delivers 2.35 Gbps/2.35 Gbps throughput.

Have you tested any other 10 GbE adapter? Did you get better results? Did you find any 2.5 Gbps Ethernet adapter that supports Cable Diagnostics? I am all ears.

Special thanks

Thanks to Luke Jenkins for exploring and sharing the kernel build instructions. Also, thanks to the WLAN Pi team. You can buy the team a coffee using this link.

Wi-Fi 7 comes to WLAN Pi M4

With the WLAN Pi team, we have designed and launched a M.2 adapter from A-key to E-key, which allows you to install a certified Wi-Fi 7 adapter Intel BE200 to your current WLAN Pi M4.

WLAN Pi M4

Is WLAN Pi selling ‘keys’ now? 😉

What is a ‘key’? It is formed of the notch on the Wi-Fi adapter PCB, and plastic blob separating pins inside the M.2 slot. The idea is to prevent users from plugging incompatible cards to the slot, and avoid any ‘magic smoke events’. Here is more about M.2 and the individual key types if you are interested.

WLAN Pi upgrade kit

Since Intel adapters use E-key and WLAN Pi M4 uses A-key, we needed to build an adapter. Badger Wi-Fi has the upgrade kit in stock. It comprises of the Oscium M.2 A-key to E-key adapter, Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 adapter, and 2 little bolts to secure the adapter and the Wi-Fi module.

Here is how the ‘butterfly’ setup looks like. Intel BE200 sits onboard of the A-key to E-key adapter, installed in the M.2 slot.

We are ready to connect existing tri-band antennas, and assemble the unit.

Software support

Make sure to either upgrade Linux packages to their latest versions using sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade command, or download and flash the latest WLAN Pi software image on your SD card. Release 3.2.0 supports Wi-Fi 7 Intel BE200 adapter out of the box with no effort whatsoever on your part.

Wi-Fi 7 in action

For this demonstration I use a consumer Wi-Fi 7 router TP-Link Deco BE85 BE19000. Simply because it is available, Wi-Fi 7 certified, and it supports 320 MHz channel width – not that one would deploy that in an enterprise environment, but mainly to test the maximum Wi-Fi throughput of the Pi.

A bug in macOS doesn’t allow Macs to correctly recognise Wi-Fi 7 networks. Instead of Wi-Fi 7 320 MHz wide network, my MacBook reports Wi-Fi 6 and 160 MHz wide channel. So, we will use another WLAN Pi and its Wi-Fi radio as a Remote Sensor in WiFi Explorer Pro – you need the Pro version to do this.

Nice, Wi-Fi 7 AP!

Wi-Fi 7 network

Connecting the WLAN Pi as a Wi-Fi 7 client only takes few lines of wpa_supplicant config.

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Wi-Fi 7 network settings

And we have successfully connected the WLAN Pi as a Wi-Fi 7 client to the AP using this command.

sudo wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlan0
WLAN Pi connected as a Wi-Fi 7 client

Run this command to make sure the WLAN Pi requests an IP address from DHCP server running on the router:

sudo dhclient -i wlan0 -v

What channel are we using? 320 MHz channel width? Indeed.

Adapter and channel details

Before you ask, distance between the Pi and the router is sub 1 meter. What is the Wi-Fi data rate? We are using Wi-Fi 7 (EHT), 2 spatial streams, MCS 12 and 4096-QAM and short guard interval of 0.8 µs.

Data rates

We can refer to Francois Verges’ MCS index tool to check how we are doing. Yes, I have tried, but I have only been able to achieve MCS 13 extremely rarely.

MCS table

How far from the AP can we maintain 4096-QAM?

I hardly ever achieved MCS 13. To maintain MCS 12, I had to stay within about 1.5 meter distance from the router. I got best results with antennas position in this ‘V’ pattern.

V-shaped antenna placement

With a different client device designed for Wi-Fi 7 from the ground up (with professional quality antennas and placement), I would hope for slightly longer MCS 12 and MCS 13 range.

It’s throughput test time

It’s time to run an iperf3 test and see how much traffic we can actually push over the air and also how much the WLAN Pi M4 can handle. Here is our test setup. I recommend the OWC 10 GbE Thunderbolt adapter (it uses Thunderbolt protocol, not USB) connected via USB-C to your Mac.

With the help of Oscium WiPry Clarity 6 GHz spectrum analyser connected to another WLAN Pi, we can monitor the life spectrum and see how much red the iperf3 test introduces. We are able to achieve download TCP speed of 2.27 Gbps and upload speed of 1.74 Gbps.

I used iperf3 -c 192.168.68.51 -P32 -R to test download speed, and iperf3 -c 192.168.68.51 -P32 for upload. Number of parallel streams set to 32 provided the best performance.

Summary

Wi-Fi 7 works well on the WLAN Pi M4. In fact, it works better than Wi-Fi 7 on Windows 11. We have covered Intel BE200 on Windows 11 in this blog posts.

I was expecting 2.5 Gbps-ish throughput, which we have got quite close to. During the test, CPU of the WLAN Pi was running around 80 % utilisation, and interrupts were reaching 100 %. So, hardware of the WLAN Pi itself posed a bottleneck.

mpstat 1 300 -P ALL
High CPU utilisation due to interrupts

Orientation of the antennas mattered more than I expected to. Best position was a ‘V’ shape with antennas positioned away from the board. With AUX antenna placed 90 degrees relative to the Main antenna, data rates and throughput dropped. Perhaps there is RF noise from the board itself coming into play.

Convert Cisco Meraki MR access point to Catalyst DNA mode

Same hardware, your choice of management

The latest generation of Wi-Fi 6E Catalyst Wireless access points (CW9162, CW9164, CW9166 series) gives you the option to either cloud-manage them using Cisco Meraki Dashboard, or manage the APs by Cisco Catalyst 9800 series Wireless LAN Controller (WLC).

They are the exact same hardware and they ship pre-loaded with the Catalyst/DNA and Meraki software image. Depending on the mode setting, they either boot one image or the other.

What do we need

  • Catalyst Wireless CW9162I, CW9164I, CW9166I, CW9166D1, CW9163E access point in Meraki mode
  • Cisco Meraki MR access point license to perform the conversion
  • Cisco DNA Essentials or DNA Advantage access point license if you want to use join and manage the AP by a Catalyst 9800 controller

Choose AP mode before ordering

You will have the best experience when you order your access points in the right mode.

Order the right mode

Order a DNA persona AP and it will auto-discover your Catalyst 9800 controller using one of the supported methods. In the UK, I can order the “-ROW” AP and manage it by Catalyst 9800, and optionally add Catalyst Center (previously known as DNA Center) to get analytics, assurance and other great features. Find the right access point SKU and regulatory domain based on your coutry using this tool.

If you prefer, order the Meraki mode access point, connect it to the internet, and claim it in the Dashboard. Meraki APs use a single “-MR” SKU globally.

Conversion from MR to Catalyst/DNA mode

If you ordered a Meraki access point and your requirements have changed, you can convert the AP to DNA mode.

1. Make sure you have an active Meraki MR license. Why? We need the license to connect the AP to Dashboard, and to open a conversion request with Meraki technical support team.

2. Provide power and internet connectivity to the access point.

3. Log in to Dashboard. Navigate to Organization > Configure > Inventory and add the access point using its Meraki S/N.

Enter the Meraki S/N from the product label

4. Add your MR license to Dashboard under Organization > Configure > License Info.

5. Wait for the AP to connect to Dashboard and change its LED to solid green or solid blue. Perfect, the AP is now online.

6. Complete this checklist first. Disable Meshing feature and make sure your Catalyst 9800 is ready for the AP to connect after conversion has completed.

Disable Meshing feature

7. Open a new support case by clicking the (?) question mark in the top right hand corner > Cases > New Case.

8. Include all these details to speed up the conversion process. Find your Customer Number by clicking the person icon in the top right hand corner. To get your Daily Support Code, click the same person icon, then open My profile.

Hi,

Please convert my CW*****-MR AP with Meraki SN ****-****-**** to DNA mode. I do have an existing DNA license. I disabled Meshing in the Dashboard.

I have completed this checklist:
https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Other_Topics/916X_Management_Mode_Checklist_and_Troubleshooting

I am aware that the AP will not join Dashboard after the conversion, unless I convert it back to MR mode.

Please go ahead and start the mode change immediately.

My customer number: ****-****
My support passcode for today: ****

Have a great day!

9. If this conversion is urgent, call into Meraki support. No, don’t e-mail the support team, call them. Have the case number by hand. Find the best phone number here.

10. After the support engineer starts the conversion, your AP will reboot. It is now in the Catalyst mode. You can verify that by keeping an eye on the Console port output during its boot. Just to remind you (and myself): The new Console port baud rate is 115200 from 17.12.1 release onwards.

Autoboot in 5 seconds
Catalyst Mode Selected

11. The AP should now follow the standard Catalyst LED pattern. It is ready to be managed by a Catalyst 9800 series controller – be it a hardware appliance, virtual machine, or public cloud instance.

12. Our DHCP server assigned an IP address to the AP, which has automatically discovered and joined the WLC located in the same IP subnet.

Successful WLC discovery and AP join
Followed by automatic software image upgrade
The AP has joined the WLC and is ready for use

To enable SSH and Console access, create a username, password and enable password in the Catalyst 9800 controller’s AP Join Profile > Management > User section. SSH protocol is disabled by default. You can enable it in the AP Join Profile.

You have full Console access and control over the AP

Will faster micro SD card make my WLAN Pi M4 boot faster?

No, it will not, unless you make some bad choices. But, faster card will make your life easier and significantly speed up the image flashing process.

Tests performed

  • Flash and verify WLAN Pi 3.1.4 software image to the micro SD card using built-in card reader of MacBook Pro M2 and Balena Etcher app
Software image flashing process
  • Boot WLAN Pi M4 from the micro SD card. Measure how long it takes to boot from plugging the Ethernet cable in (and PoE power provided) to WLAN Pi home screen shown on the display
WLAN Pi M4 powered via PoE

Results

Sandisk High Endurance 32 GB U3 card is the default provided with WLAN Pi M4 by default. The U3 standard reall y makes a huge difference when it comes to writing to the card and that’s why it is our go to option.

Micro SD cards tested

From practical perspective, different size or even slightly slower card won’t really make your Pi boot any faster. If you make some bad choices and reuse an older class 6 card, you will spend extra 11 seconds of your life waiting for the WLAN Pi to boot every single time.

Flash WLAN Pi imageEffective speedBoot WLAN Pi M4
Sandisk HE 32 GB U31 min 59 seconds64 MB/s28 seconds
Sandisk HE 256 GB U31 min 53 seconds68 MB/s28 seconds
Sandisk Ultra 32 GB U13 mins 54 seconds24 MB/s28 seconds
Samsung 8 GB Class 611 mins 29 seconds8 MB/s39 seconds
Compute Module 4 with built-in eMMC storageDidn’t testDidn’t test27 seconds

Recommendation

Invest in a U3 or better card and benefit from fast write speeds. There is very little premium to pay. In future, you can reuse a fast card in other device like a dash cam, Raspberry Pi 5 workstation, or video camera.

Kingston has a great blog post about SD card standards.

Micro SD card adapter that travels inside your MacBook’s SD card reader

I flash Micro SD cards few times a day (hello WLAN Pi team 😉), and I thought it might be a good idea to always have an SD card to Micro SD card adapter on me. The easiest way to do that is to insert one in your MacBook built-in SD card reader slot. But which one do you buy?

Supplied adapter

There is nothing wrong with this SanDisk adapter. But it sticks out of your laptop. You can’t leave it inserted in the Mac while travelling. And also, the Micro SD card might slip out of the adapter.

White OEM Micro SD to SD card adapter

To my surprise, this £2.60 adapter worked great… for a couple of weeks 😅 Until it disintegrated. It was designed for previous generations of MacBooks and it is not flush with the body of M1 MacBook, but it is still smaller than the full-size adapter.

You can shave off the grey plastic part, and make it even smaller. The white part allows you to easily remove and reinsert the adapter. No nails required.

The Micro SD card goes in the adapter from the side, so it won’t eject in your backpack or laptop bag.

It flashes cards at the exact same speed 61.8 MB/s as the premium £30 BaseQi. And it is easy to remove from the MacBook card reader slot.

BaseQi 420A

This adapter is primarily designed for those who want to expand storage capacity of their MacBook. And it does that really well. It fits perfectly inside SD card reader slot of 14″ M1 2021 MacBook. The problem is that it works ‘too well’. Once you insert the Micro SD card to it, it is very hard to remove the Micro SD card. Now, when you insert it into MacBook SD card reader, it is designed to stay there and again it does that ‘really well’.

Removal of BaseQi from the MacBook card reader takes 2 fingers and 2 nails. Yes, it takes significant effort.

Would I recommend it to someone who wants to use it to flash Micro SD card few times a day? No. It takes a huge effort.

Afterplug Ultra Slim Stick On SD and MicroSD Card Holder with Reusable Adhesive

Problem solved! This stick on card holder did the trick. I can reuse all my SanDisk SD card to micro SD card adapters. And I can carry a handful of them, label them and store the micro SD cards inside the adapters.

Will 20 MHz capable Wi-Fi client join an SSID using 80 MHz wide channel?

Let’s take this “Back to the basics” question and test things out.

So, we have this 20 MHz capable Windows 11 Wi-Fi client and we want to see what happens when it attempts to join an SSID that uses 80 MHz wide channel. Will it associate? Will it fail?

Here is my client with Intel AX201 adapter forced to only support 20 MHz wide 5 GHz channel.

My AP uses 80 MHz channel width.

Let’s verify the settings from a Mac. Yes, the AP broadcasts 80 MHz wide “lab5” SSID with primary channel 36.

Finally, what happens if the client device is only capable of 20 MHz channel width? As you can see, it will happily join using Primary channel 36.

More capable client devices that support 80 MHz channel width will benefit from the 4 bonded channels and use the 80 MHz channel in its entirety.