Thinking about 802.11ac router, is it too early?

bransonstewlettbransonstewlett
edited July 2012 in Hardware
I am in the market for a router, and am trying to find the right one, but I need help. I was hoping that someone here might help me out.

My wife wants to use her laptop downstairs while watching TV, so I am looking at getting a wireless router.

I am looking at some N routers, but I see that some of the new 802.11ac routers are out now, and so I started looking at them.
I found that the AC standard won’t be issued till early next year even though a few are out now.

Are the 802.11ac routers out now “Wi-Fi Certified”?

I don’t think they are since the standard is still not out yet.

From what I read in PCmag, these early ‘AC’ routers could have problems with products made after the final standard has been issued next year:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404479,00.asp

How true is this?

Comments

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Make sure you post in an appropriate area, like hardware for this question. This is the guild wars sub-forum, and if you have a similar question as your other post, just ask them both in one (i.e. is this a good router, or should I go with a .11ac router?)
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    Moved to PC Hardware

    -Digi
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    The 802.11ac standard is in draft right now. The standard has not been finalized and current draft products *could* be incompatible with the final standard. There's always the possibility of a firmware update for draft products, but it's not guaranteed. In other words, the PC Mag article is correct on that statement.

    If your current equipment is not 802.11ac, then I wouldn't bother. You won't see a benefit unless you plan to upgrade the network cards in your devices. If your current hardware is 802.11n, then go with an 802.11n router.
  • BlueTattooBlueTattoo Boatbuilder Houston, TX Icrontian
    I don't know about the 802.11ac, but if you decide to go with an N router, take a look at the Asus RT-N56U. I bought one a month or so ago to address drop-outs with my old G router. It works great for the laptops and cell phones and we're now getting very few drops watching Netflix through the Blu-ray player. the router is dual-band, very configurable with lots of features, including two USB ports for shared printers and/or hard drives. It doesn't support IPv6, if that's important to you. I read online that there is a firmware upgrade that adds it, but I couldn't find it.
  • bransonstewlettbransonstewlett
    Thanks for replys. One more question, How much faster is 11ac over 11n? 5%?, 20%? Any ideas?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2012
    In 80MHz/3-stream mode, which is a feature unique to 802.11ac, 802.11ac is a good 50% faster than 802.11n. Users regularly see speeds in excess of 11 megs/sec. A good 802.11n network will get somewhere in the range of 7 megs/sec.

    If you don't have 802.11ac network cards to support 80MHz/3-stream mode, then 802.11ac isn't much faster than 802.11n, because you can't enable the one feature that makes 11ac so much faster.

    Note that this is on the 5GHz band. Also, since people are probably curious, the Netgear R6300 is currently the fastest 802.11ac router.
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