What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Nowadays, it is very typical to have Wi-Fi 6 hardware. Therefore, users may have a version 6 network. But the demand of people is something new: Wi-Fi 6E that can decrease congestion.

The Federal Communications Commission allows using the 6 GHz band without a license on April 23, 2020. However, some of the 6E hardware devices were available in the market from 2021. All countries have not created the same decision, though. It is the reason why 6E is experiencing regulatory barriers in some nations.

What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Wi-Fi 6E is a standard that you can operate on the 6 GHz band. But its earlier generations use 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

This 6 GHz spectrum works similarly to version 6 is used over 5 GHz. The difference between them is that the latest device provides extra non-overlapping channels. As per Wi-Fi Alliance, there are "14 additional 80 MHz channels and seven additional 160 MHz channels." As the channels won't overlap with each other, it helps to decrease congestion.

Devices compatible with the 6 GHz spectrum can be version 6 devices. No previous devices are available using version 5 (802.11ac) standards or something else. The devices that used the 6 GHz channels will speak a similar language. Besides, these may use version 6’s new congestion-busting features.

What are the benefits of Wi-Fi 6E?

The 6GHz band provides more than 1Gbps internet speed. Besides, this increased spectrum indicates lower latency. When you play online games, video calls, or virtual computing sessions, you need a response from the keyboard, voices, or mouse click of less than one millisecond instantly.

If you have quicker connectivity, you can experience the benefits, especially for home network capacity. Whole-home gigabit coverage and multi-gigabit capacity indicate that normal users get the chance finally to enjoy next-generation computing experiences. This network allows you to enjoy virtual reality gaming in your home. Besides, you can even participate in augmented reality business presentations while other family members watch Netflix or YouTube. You won't see any lack of bandwidth here.

How to Get Wi-Fi 6E:

You can feel that it is a must-have technology soon. Some nations like the US, Brazil, and Korea have opened up the technology already. But multiple countries haven't opened up the wireless spectrum for commercial use yet.

The 6E devices support the previous versions, but if you are willing to use the new 6GHz channels, the technology should have a 6E router and a 6E client device. It indicates that you should have computers, phones, smart home devices, etc. Whether you use a new version 6 router, you still have to upgrade this to a version 6E model.

Should You Upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E?

The answer is No. The 6E routers have hit the market very recently. Prices will decrease in the forthcoming year. Plenty of 6E-compatible devices is there that can be attached to the router.

However, it is not helpful if you want to expand the work-from-home capabilities to your backyard. Whether you are searching for a new router in the market, you will require something future-proof.

Over 6 GHz Needs New Devices:

Suppose you are using multiple version 6 devices and a 6E-enabled router. But it doesn't matter as no device will communicate over the 6E. These devices will take the help of version 6 on the 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz channels.

The pre-CES 2020 of the Wi-Fi Alliance acknowledges the 6E. It indicates the 6 GHz as "an important portion of unlicensed spectrum that may soon be made available by regulators worldwide."

When Will the Wi-Fi 6E Hardware be Available?

The headquarters of FCC is in Washington, DC. At the beginning of this year, the hardware has become more common. When it was the last quarter of 2021, you could purchase the Asus band's routers and mesh networking systems.

Netgear, TP-Link, and other manufacturers announced more of the 6E routers. The hardware is compatible with Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Google Pixel 6. However, no Apple device is compatible with it.

A company like Intel is now promoting the hardware, known as "GIG+." Intel is now including the feature in all its devices. As a result, most Intel-powered laptops allow using the 6E.

When it comes to technology, you will always find something new. 6E is the latest one when it comes to Wi-Fi. You should know one thing is that version 6 is not the newest update for network speed.

But if you use this, you will find extended battery life and less wireless congestion. Besides, the latest hardware is not widespread also. For future proof, a 6E router can be purchased. However, to use wireless devices, this 6E is not compatible yet.

Are Wi-Fi signals letting hackers see into your home?

Wi-Fi Signals – Windows to Home

It has been discovered that Wi-Fi signals can be a window to your home. Researchers have observed that cyber thieves could utilise the microwave radiation of the signal in creating three-dimensional image so a location together with the objects as well as the individuals within it.

 It has been suggested by the team that this hack has the potential of generating scans of buildings and also track the individuals indoors, though it could also be utilised in locating people buried by an avalanche or earthquake. The scientist at Technical University of Munich – TUM, had made this discovery, which had developed a holographic imaging process depicting the radiation of a Wi-Fi transmitter to generate three-dimensional images of the surrounding environment.

The system of the team enabled them in creating holograms that tends to develop a three-dimensional image alike to that of peering through a window of a home. According to Dr Friedenmann Reinhard and Philipp Holl ‘s report in the study published in the scientific journal Physical Review letters, though the optical holograms tend to need an elaborate laser technology, generating hologram together with microwave radiation of a Wi-Fi transmitter would need one fixed as well as one movable antenna.

Holographic Processing of Wi-Fi

Friedemann Reinhard, director of the Emmy Noether Research Group for Quantum Sensors at the Walter Schottky Institute of the TU Munich had stated that `utilising this technology we can generate a three-dimensional image of the space around the Wi-Fi transmitter, as if our eyes could see microwave radiation.

The researchers visualized arenas of positioning particularly in the domain of industry 4.0-automated industrial amenities wherein localizing parts and devices tends to be difficult. Earlier work has portrayed that there is a possibility of utilising microwave radiation to view through walls though the team at TUM have developed a new system which enables them in creating an image of the total space through holographic processing of Wi-Fi or cell phone indicators.

Creation of images through microwave radiation tends to require special purpose transmitter having large bandwidths. The very small bandwidths of distinctive household Wi-Fi transmitters operating in the 2.4 as well as 5 gigahertz bands had been adequate for the researchers with the utilisation of holographic data processing.

Bluetooth/Cell Phone Signals 

Besides this Bluetooth as well as cell phone signals can be utilised. It is said that the wavelengths of these devices tend to match to spatial resolution of a little centimetres. Philipp Holl executing the experiment commented that instead of using a movable antenna, that measures the image point by point, one could utilise a larger number of antennas in obtaining a video-like image frequency.

Future Wi-Fi frequencies like the proposed 60 gigahertz IEEE 802.11 standard would enable resolutions down to the millimetre range. The notion of treating microwave hologram such as optical images permits the microwave image to be joined with the camera images.

 The extra information removed from the microwave images could be implanted in the camera image of a smart phone for instance in tracing a radio code which may be attached to a lost item. However the scientists are only at the commencement of the technological improvement

MIT's new Chronos System Promises Precise Wi-Fi Tracking

Chronos – Wireless Localization Technology

Several users tend to use Wi-Fi to browse social media, check emails and watch videos. However according to Dan Misener, Radio technology columnist, researchers at MIT have invented something known as Chronos which is the latest way of using Wi-Fi in tracking the exact position down to the centimetre. Chronos is a `wireless localization’ technology or a Wi-Fi positioning system and is essentially a method of utilising Wi-Fi in figuring out where you are.

There are various means of doing this though Chronos tends to work by measuring the time it may take for a signal to travel from one wireless device to another device. For instance, if you have a smartphone and it is connected to a wireless router, the router tends to send information to the phone. The phone receives the same and then sends back a signal.

On measuring the time taken and by applying some calculation to the signal, one can determine where the smartphone is with regards to the router, the distance and the angle. In many ways, it tends to be the same way how radar or sonar systems seem to work. Chronos could be considered as a way to turn a regular Wi-Fi router into a kind of radar system which can distinguish objects and where they could be in the world.

Difference is Accuracy

The big difference is the accuracy. Customers-grade GPS tend to pinpoint you within a few metres distance but Chronos system tends to locate you within tens of centimetres. Moreover there are instances where GPS sometimes does not function at all like in underground or when one is indoors. Chronos tends to work anywhere within a Wi-Fi router range.

There are various other Wi-Fi based location system and are often utilised in airports, hotels and shopping mall to track foot traffic. U.S. malls tend to use shopper’s cell phones to track them, but those systems need several access point and many routers to cover a large area and triangulate the location of someone.

The distinctive thing regarding Chronos is that it only needs a single access point, a single router and one can set this up at home or a small business without incurring much expense.

Utilised in Locating Lost Device within the Home

The researchers have also informed that Chronos tends to be 20 times more accurate than the prevailing systems. One reason for using it in home is `home automation’ wherein there is a rise of the smart homes which tends to respond to who is in them.

Hence knowing who is at home and where people are within a home could be useful information. In a demonstration, the researchers had shown how Chronos tends to accurately identify which room a person was in 94% of the time. This device could also be utilised in locating a lost device within the home which could be helpful whenever a phone or a tablet would be misplaced.

Chronos can be used in controlling who gets to access the Wi-Fi, which could be useful for small businesses. Deepak Vasisht, one of the MIT researchers had informed at last month’s symposium, that if one walks into a Starbucks, they tend to get free Wi-Fi, but if one talks to them, they inform that they are very much keen in restricting free Wi-Fi access only to their customers and do not want to give free Wi-Fi to their neighbours which could end up causing congestion for their own customers. Hence a coffee shop could use Chronos to cut off Wi-Fi freeloaders.

The Hearing Aid Hacked to Hear Wi-Fi

Smartphone Apps – Translating Characteristic of Wireless Network

Wearable technology is very often linked with smartwatches as well as smart glasses though a person in the UK had hacked his own hearing aid in order to tune in to the sounds of close wi-fi networks. Co-founder of Phantom Terrains, Frank Swain utilises smartphone app for translating the characteristics of wireless networks like their name and speed into sound while traveling around London.

Frank Swain – 32 years, is a science writer from London and was first diagnosed with early onset of hearing loss in his 20s. He had been fitted with hearing aids in 2012 and no sooner had he received it; he began envisaging how he could hack them so that he could hear more of the world around him. He specifically wanted to be capable of hearing something which tends to fill the modern landscape though it is undetectable to the ears. Swain in simple terms wanted to be capable of hearing Wi-Fi signals.

Two years thereafter, on receiving a grant from UK innovation charity – Nesta, the UK innovation charity, Swain together with sound artist Daniel Jones jointly produced Phantom Terrain, which is a new tool that makes Wi-Fi signals distinct. Anyone would have considered this as an odd choice till they study how the electromagnetic signals tend to permeate our modern environment.

Matter of Time – Internet of Things

Users tend to use wireless signals daily for phone calls, check the emails, access navigational data, listen to the radio and surf the web. Considering its present rate of growth, it is said to be only a matter of time before all the devices, sensors, routers as well as signals accompany the `Internet of Things’, an age wherein the world seems to be bounded by digital second skin which tends to cover the physical world that is also inseparable from our lives.

However, the infrastructure for this seems vague to us and that is the reason Swain and Jones developed Phantom Terrain in order that individuals could tune into these arenas. The software can run on a hacked iPhone that utilises inbuilt Wi-Fi sensors to pick important details regarding nearby fields comprising of the router name, encryptions, signal strength and the distance.

While his phone tends to remain in his pocket, Swain can get an aural map blended in with the normal output of the hearing aids. The distant signals seems to get interrupted as background clicks which differ with proximity while the closer and more powerful signals buzz their own network ID information in a entwined melody.

Digital Hearing – Recreate Soundscape/Amplifying Sound/Supressing Noise

Jones informed that on a busy street, one may see more than a hundred independent wireless access points in a signal range and the strength of the signal, direction, name and the security level on these are converted into audio stream made of a foreground and background layer.

Narrating his experience, Swain relates that recreating hearing is an incredibly difficult task and unlike glasses, that simply brings the world into focus, digital hearing aid tend to recreate the soundscape, amplifying useful sound and suppressing noise. As this changes by the second, sorting one from the other needs a lot of programming.

As internet technology, wireless communication and connected devices tend to become more common, the capacity of sensing the strength, intensity and what these signals imply regarding our environment would become more sought after thing. One could speculate without much effort that Wi-Fi mapping tends to become a part of urban or community planning besides sociological or environmental studies.

How to find and Block who is stealing your Wi-Fi

Slow down in Internet Connect - Reason? 

There are always some instances when wireless Internet suddenly tends to slow down due to some unauthorized user stealing your bandwidth which could be the cause. In such a case, the intruder can access your WiFi network if the basic WiFi security has not been implemented. There are also many casual or even innocent bandwidth intruders who on seeing an available network and presuming it to be OK tend to borrow it.

This should cause suspicion if the intruder might be using your WiFi network without your permission and setting up a password could help in preventing them who could be infiltrating private connection. When they attempt to log in and if they are challenged with a password, they then are at a loss and finally give up and move out. There are also other set of people who with determination and skills tend to hack a secured network and probably end up in some serious criminal activity.

WiFi Security Measures 

A real cyber criminal is all out to steal something of value from anyone and may use the computer on the network for identity and financial information which could be beneficial to him. He could also use the internet connection to download files illegally or even hack other networks setting any innocent person as the culprit when the crime is traced back to the router since they have the tools and skills needed to tamper WiFi security measures especially if the password is weak.

Android with Solutions

With Android, it is now possible to resolve this issue and find out who has been sneaking some of the WiFi with an application which is a free network tool that can be downloaded from Google Play Store known as Fing. To get started is to connect the Smartphone or tablet to the WiFi connection to be tested and download the application by pressing the download button.

Once the download is completed, the tool is able to detect the trespasser. AT the top of the main page of the app is the name of your network as well as a refresh and the settings menu button. You could tap on the refresh button update and the application shows which devices are connected to your WiFi network indicating whether the router is a Smartphone or a computer.

Apple and Windows Built-in Utilities 

Besides this, there are other options in Fing like checking open TCP port, sending reports and much more. One of the advantages is to change the viewed IP name enabling the user to know who they could be on the app and who the infiltrators could be. Once this is done the intruder, simply click on the intruder and on the option to enter a name, provide a name for the IP address.

Apple and Windows computer have been equipped with built-in utilities which show the devices that are connected to the network and these tools could be used to check for unknown computers which should not be connected to your network. It is essential to know which device is authorized with each authorized computer to be assigned a computer name which can be recognized easily while printers have built in names which the user should be familiar with.