Friday, December 3rd 2021
Synology Teases RT6600ax Router With 5.9 GHz UNII-4 Support
When it comes to routers, Synology might not be the first brand that springs to mind, but the company has produced some interesting routers, especially when you take into account its custom OS, the Synology Router Manager, or SRM for short. The company has teased a new addition to its small family of routers, which should launch at some point in the first quarter of next year, that brings with it a few interesting features.
The RT6600ax as it's called, will be one of the first routers to support the UNII-4 WiFi band, also known as the 5.9 GHz band. This is an extension of the 802.11ax/WiFi 6 band and it's not related to WiFi 6E which uses the 6 GHz band. UNII-4 only adds a total of four 20 MHz WiFi channels, but the key here is that it allows for a third 160 MHz wide channel, something that could be handy in congested locations. For now, UNII-4 is only going to be usable in the US, although more countries are likely to be considering opening up the extra frequencies for WiFi usage. That said, it's unlikely that Europe and Japan will allow it, since neither region supports the UNII-3 frequency band.
Synology didn't provide any details on who the hardware partner is, but considering its past WiFi products have all been based on Qualcomm hardware, we're likely to see a continuation of that partnership with the RT6600ax. What we do know is that there will be 4x4:4 support on the 5 GHz band, but considering the six antennas, the 2.4 GHz band might only be 2x2:2, unless some of the antennas are of the dual-band type. Sadly it looks like Synology cheaped out a little bit and only added a single 2.5 Gbps port, although it can at least be used as either a LAN or a WAN port. The RT6600ax also has three Gigabit LAN ports, a Gigabit WAN port and what appears to be a USB 3.0 port.
To go with the RT6600ax, Synology will also launch version 1.3 of SRM in 2022, which is said to add a host of new features such as VPN Plus, which allows for blocking access to certain devices on the network from users connected over VPN. Synology will finally also add VLAN support to SRM and more advanced SSID support, improved network analytics and a new mobile app. Synology should also be releasing SRM 1.3 for its current models, although no timeline for this was provided.
Source:
Synology
The RT6600ax as it's called, will be one of the first routers to support the UNII-4 WiFi band, also known as the 5.9 GHz band. This is an extension of the 802.11ax/WiFi 6 band and it's not related to WiFi 6E which uses the 6 GHz band. UNII-4 only adds a total of four 20 MHz WiFi channels, but the key here is that it allows for a third 160 MHz wide channel, something that could be handy in congested locations. For now, UNII-4 is only going to be usable in the US, although more countries are likely to be considering opening up the extra frequencies for WiFi usage. That said, it's unlikely that Europe and Japan will allow it, since neither region supports the UNII-3 frequency band.
To go with the RT6600ax, Synology will also launch version 1.3 of SRM in 2022, which is said to add a host of new features such as VPN Plus, which allows for blocking access to certain devices on the network from users connected over VPN. Synology will finally also add VLAN support to SRM and more advanced SSID support, improved network analytics and a new mobile app. Synology should also be releasing SRM 1.3 for its current models, although no timeline for this was provided.
9 Comments on Synology Teases RT6600ax Router With 5.9 GHz UNII-4 Support
I doubt we'll see more Ethernet ports on consumer routers, considering the trend seems to be fewer ports. Three or four ports seem to be the norm on a lot of the mesh systems and even on some more basic routers. You're sadly going to have to invest in a standalone switch if you want more ports.
Their more recent models have performed much better, but haven't been flawless either.
Much of it was software related, some of of it firmware related and some of it due to their hardware design choices.
Then again, most hardware manufacturers these day seem to ship beta products at best and then hope that their customers are happy to wait six months to a year before it's fully working after numerous software fixes... Not that game developers are any better...
Hamstrung 5.9 GHz, but no 6 GHz.
Only one 2.5 Gbps port.
Only five total Ethernet ports.
2x2:2 on 2.4 GHz would be a downgrade.
Looks like another RT1900ac-like "first try". I'll wait for the 2nd revision, at least. Silly to rely on 5 GHz devices getting newer firmware that only works in the U.S. Terrible judgement by Synology's part to focus on 5.9 GHz versus 6 GHz.
The one 2.5Gbps port is sadly something a lot of companies have don't and it's mostly pointless.
What benefit would you get from the 6E frequencies? Also, considering that it looks like this router has fixed antennas, it might support 6E as well, but again, no official details on that.
As I mentioned above, routers are seemingly getting fewer and fewer Ethernet ports, so you should be happy to see five, rather than three.