5 things to look for in an 802.11ac router and adapter

There are definitely some things you should look for in both the router and adapters.

The back of Netgear’s D6300 modem router. You’ll notice there is both an ADSL port and an Ethernet Internet WAN port, so it’s ready when the NBN comes along.

Upgrading to the new 802.11ac wireless will likely double your current 802.11n performance — even more so if you’re on one of the older 802.11n standards (like 300Mbps and 150Mbps) or 54Mbps 802.11g.
So, you’re not messing around and want to jump straight to the best wireless network available right now? Yes, you’re prepared to face the early adopter’s fee in exchange for knowing that your wireless network will be viable for years to come. It’ll offer super-fast local file transfers and won’t prove to be a bottleneck to super high-def video transmissions from the NBN.
If that’s the case, getting the right 802.11ac will be crucial for the long term viability of your network. There are definitely some things you should look for in both the router and adapters. Here, we explain what to look for in an 802.11ac router and adapter.

Five things to look for in an 802.11ac router:

01 1,300Mbps speeds

1.3Gbps is the current top speed for 802.11ac routers. When the spec was launched last year, some of the initial units came out only supporting 867Mbps, meaning they had just two spatial streams instead of three (each spatial stream adds 433Mbps). We might still see some 867Mbps routers appear, the same way we still see 300Mbps 802.11n routers, but we figure if you’re going to go all out and set up an 802.11ac network, you may as well enjoy the best it has to offer. As an aside, in some cases you may see routers advertising a 1,750Mbps transfer rate. Don’t be fooled by these. It’s a bit of marketing legerdemain, where vendors take a dual-band router and add the bandwidth of both bands together, even though a given wireless station can only use one band at a time. What 1,750Mbps really means here is 1,300Mbps for 802.11ac in the 5GHz band, and 450Mbps in the 2.4GHz band for 802.11n.

02 A Gigabit WAN port

You may still be on ADSL right now, but in the future you’re likely to be moving to the NBN. The NBN requires an Ethernet port for connectivity. That WAN port has to be Gigabit to support NBN speeds. Fortunately, an increasing number of routers support ADSL now and have an additional Ethernet WAN port, making them NBN-ready. Some other routers may allow you to reconfigure one of the LAN ports as a WAN port. That’s less desirable (since you effectively lose a LAN port), but it will get the job done.

03 Dual-band support for 450Mbps 802.11n

Let’s face it: most of your wireless gear won’t support 802.11ac for some time. Your tablets, laptops, mobile phones and Wi-Fi capable cameras will still be 802.11n for months or years from now. Fortunately, every 802.11ac router released so far supports dual band and is backwards compatible with Wireless N. If you’re going to have to support Wireless N for your ‘legacy’ devices, you may as well support the fastest form of it, and that’s 450Mbps.

04 A vendor that can supply both adapters and routers

802.11ac was still a draft standard. It’s possible that some vendor incompatibilities will linger until everybody can patch their devices to be fully interoperable. Until that happens, there may be some issues getting products from different vendors to work together. When we tested the first batch of 802.11ac routers a few months ago, we had some problems getting devices from different vendors to interoperate smoothly. Some talked just fine, but others were unusually slow or couldn’t ‘see’ the wireless network. We’d recommend a one-vendor solution for now, so you can be sure everything works.

05 Something you won’t hate being visible in your home

As we’ll explain in a little bit, if you want the best speeds you’re going to have to put the router somewhere with an unobstructed line of transmission to your wireless gear. We’re guessing if you want 802.11ac, you also want the best speeds, and that will mean putting the router somewhere where people wandering around your house might see it.

Best 802.11ac router:

• Netgear D6300 Modem Router

Five things to look for in an 802.11ac adapter

So you have your shiny new 802.11ac router. Now it’s time to update your wireless gear to support the new standard. The best way to do that is through an adapter, which for now are few and far between, though more are sure to come.

01 Support for 1,300Mbps

Your router runs at 1.3Gbps, so you want your adapter to as well. This can be tricky. We’ve yet to see 1,300Mbps USB adapters for example (the current ones work at 867Mbps), but there are bridges and PCIe adapters that work at the top speed. In some cases then, you might have to settle for something slower, but if you can find a way, go with 1,300Mbps.

02 Positioning options

For the best reception, you want to be able to position the adapter away from the laptop or electronic equipment it’s attached to, and you want to be able to angle and lift it. A thumb drive designed to stick out of the side of your laptop can’t do that, but a USB device with a stand and extension cable can.

03 USB 3.0 ports

Unaccountably, the first USB 802.11ac adapters only offered USB 2.0 ports for connecting and sharing drives. We say unaccountably, because USB 2.0 is not fast enough to support the full speeds of 802.11ac transmission. Even the minimum spec of Wireless AC runs at 867Mbps; USB 2.0 runs at a maximum of 480Mbps. At very close range, that means that USB 2.0 has the chance to bottleneck your wireless performance.

04 Bridging to multiple devices

If you’re going with 802.11ac and plan to use it to link fixed position devices like gaming consoles and TV sets, why not look to a bridge, rather than a USB solution. A bridge takes data off the airwaves and puts them on a wired link and vice versa. Bridges like the Linksys WUMC710 allow you to actually hook multiple wired devices into your new 801.11ac wireless network.

05 Fast, dual-band Wireless N support

You probably won’t always be using the device on your own wireless network. You still want it to have fast wireless support for when you’re away from home, since that’s what most other networks will be using for a year or so.

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