Quick, Upgrade to WiFi 6!

Intel released its WiFi 6 AX200 M.2 format adapter back in April. I just found it available on Amazon at the end of June, and thought for the price it could be a cheap upgrade. My Lenovo ThinkPad T470S had the same M.2 format adapter for the Intel 8265NGW chipset, so it was a quick swap out for the new AX200NGW.

Photo of Intel AX200NGW next to Intel AX8265NGW M.2 format adapters

Once I had the new adapter installed and the antenna leads swapped over I closed my laptop back up and booted into Windows 10. Since I hadn’t though to download the driver ahead of time I needed connect via CAT6 cable to my switch, and then go here to grab the correct driver. One simple install later and my Windows 10 install was up and running.

I dual-boot my laptop with Ubuntu and Windows 10, so now I needed to get Ubuntu working. Similarly I needed to be cabled into my switch again, and I installed the Ubuntu Kernel Update Utility (UKUU, which you can read more about here). I grabbed a kernel in the 5.1 release train since that appeared to have support for this new Intel chipset. I rebooted, disconnected my network cable, and was automatically connected to my home WiFi network.

Now that I’ve got a WiFi 6 capable device, I’ll need to see about getting my hands on a capable AP for some home lab testing.