Surface laptop 3 shows Protocol 802.11g not 802.11ax

Question

Hi, the Laptop 3 i7 16 GB RAM with Win 11 shows in WiFi properties 802.11g not 802.11ax, yet the link speed shows 961/1201. Why?

Is the Surface just displaying the protocol incorrectly?

802.11g wouldn't be able to get anywhere near this speed.

Is the Surface misconfigured somewhere?

Latest windows patches are applied. Internet service is 1G.

SpeedTest is definitely slower on Win 11 vs Win10. Used to get >750 Mbps now getting 600 Mbps. Network equipment is the same as before about 4 ft from the ASUS RT-AX88U.

I have a 2nd laptop Lenovo Win 11 that shows 802.11ax, uses the same Intel driver and runs at 750 Mbps.

A 3rd laptop is direct connected at 950 Mbps.

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Answer 1

Hi surfhawaii,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. We'll work together to find out the what could be causing this or if this is normal.

Please check in Device Manager, expand Network adapter then double-click Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201. Go to its Driver tab then take note of its Driver version. Go to its Advanced tab then check if these options are available under Property: 802.11a/b/g/ Wireless Mode and 802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode. If they are available, select them and take note which Value are they set to. Check also what are the other values are available for each of them. If possible take some screenshots and share those to us here.

I will cross reference this also on our end here and see what results I get.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

Hi surfhawaii,

Thank you for the response and for the details provided.

I'm not sure also what happened but I was able to check here on my end also, though it was on a Surface Pro 7 and Surface Book 3 15". Both devices are set by default 6. Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g instead of 5. Dual Band 802.11 a/g which happened to your end. I would like to confirm though, is the device working fine now when you change it to 6.Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g?

Answer 3

I'm at a loss why changing to 6. from 5. would make any difference, but the Surface currently is showing the protocol as 802.11ax.

The overall performance is definitely slower than what it used to be on Win 10.

I might run a cable to direct connect the Surface to get around the slower wireless speed.

Thanks again for the help.

Answer 4

Hi Marrion, Here are the settings. Thanks

1. Driver

2. Advanced

3. AX

Answer 5

Hi Marrion, I don't understand what actually happened, but when I changed Wireless mode 802.11a/b/g to number 6 (Dual Band a/b/g) from 5.Dual Band a/), the protocol changed to 802.11AX (from 802.11g).

Protocol changed to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) - no idea on why???

Anyways, thanks for responding back.

:-)