802.11ac and Wifi Certified

[roxisue1989]

We are lookin' at puttin' Wifi in our house, and I figure if I am going to do that then we should set it up as the fastest we could get it. This way weather it is our phones, computer, tablet or TV - all will have a fast wireless connection.

There seem to be a zillion wireless routers out there, so I started doing some research and found that 802.11n is currently the latest, but 802.11ac will be much faster and that they started releasing then just recently.

For the 802.11n routers, I think the WD My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Router might be the best bet, since it was designed specifically to accelerate movies, video and gaming, which I want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Tpk=wd%20n900

Here is where I am confused, the 802.11ac standard won’t be issued till early 2013, yet I am seeing 802.11ac products on the market claiming they are 802.11ac – even though they can’t be ‘Wi-Fi CERTIFIED’ since the 11ac standard isn’t finalized yet (Google is my friend ;-).

I would love 802.11ac now, but some of the reviews of these first 802.11ac product mention that they are based on a first draft of the 802.11ac spec, and might have some performance issues with products that are based on the final 802.11ac spec

This article has more info on this:

http://pusz4frog.wordpress.com/2012...ld-wait-till-q2-of-2013-to-buy-a-11ac-router/

Even though the WD 802.11n router is great, I feel it is best to wait on 802.11ac, since I have waited this long, another 6 month shouldn’t kill me.

Am I crazy for wanting to wait till early next year to buy an 802.11ac router?

Is 11ac worth it, or should I just get the WD n900 11n router?

 

[JackMDS]

You need to put cable in the walls you better plan for need of the years thereafter. You buy a $20,000 Air condition unit make sure that it will last and provide service for the future.

You buy a plastic Box for around $100 there is No need for all of this philosophical heart braking shenanigans.
802.ac is Not really in solid existence and it will take and some more time to be a viable working solution (it took few years of pre/draft whatever to make 802.11n solid solution). Imagine the amount of money that the marketing people mange to artificially drain out of people that ended up buing the lame line of draftN followed by the preN and then the standard and paid full for all of them.

The Current solid Fast solution is 802.11 a/b/g/n. (aka Dual Radio) is fast and stable and works well.

That said some people need "Bragging Right" to survive socially (Not that any thing is wrong with it) . So One should get an inexpensive exotic looking Wireless Router. Spray it with a color of One choices (Gold is good). Get a Gold/Silver Metal looking foil Sticker for laser jet printers, make a fancy label, stick it on the painted Router, put it next to the 65" TV, and One is all set (social wise). You can even make a video of it and load it to you-tube.
- - - :sneaky:.

 

[VirtualLarry]

LOL at the gold sticker idea, Jack.

Personally, I can't afford to splash out on those $100+ routers.

I invest in decent-brand refurb routers, and slap DD-WRT on them, and get a nice, cheap, very functional network in my apt.

Currently, I'm using WNR2000 v2 units, but I was previously using WNR834Bv2 units. The '2000 units have twice as much RAM (32MB), but both are limited to only 4MB flash (sadly).

 

[kbp]

^ Stream it to you-tube!

 

[roxisue1989]

Thanx everyone for the words.

JackMDS, you might have a point about over thinking this, it does seem like 11ac is really an unfinished product.

I think I will wait on it, although the fastest network bragging rights are now good for party talk as everyone looks at their iPhones

 

[JackMDS]

First you have to know the different between WIFI and IEEE Standard.

IEEE is an organization that all the parties of Interest participate in and decide on an Established Standard.

The reason that it took so long to 802.11n to be ratified is because some participants insisted on swaying the standard toward their hardware features, so it took years to come to a mutual agreement.

WIFI is a voluntary private organization that Manufactures of Wireless hardware can apply voluntarily and submit their hardware (and hefty check too). If they pass the certification it means that the the product is adhering to the standard features and it is compatible with other standard product.

Many inexpensive Wireless devices are Not WIFI certified because the manufacturers want to save on the cost of certification (that does Not mean that they are Not compatible).

At the moment No one can claim that their 802.11ac is WIFI because their is No standard and there is Nothing that the WIFI organization can certify accordingly.

The IEEE 802.11ac networking standard of 802.11 is currently under development.

It is in Draft 3 mode with expectation to be finalize by the end of 2012 and ratified as a standard well into 2013.

I.e., expect WIFI certification in at least a year from now.

What that means? If someone sells today an 802.11ac Wireless device, what they sell is their guess of what the final standard would be.

Why most people are confused? Because most Americans' volume of knowledge comes from Marketers and Bloggers that are Not obliged to tell the real situation.

P.S. Do not believe to all the stories that you hear about the so call celebrities (aka, useless homo sapiens), most of them are Not true either.

 

[you2]

Not directly related bu since you linked the wd router; do you have any information comparing this router to the rt-n66u ? They seem to be around the same price - i realize that the one you link has 7 lan ports while the rt-n66u has 4. From the basic specs it seems similar to the rt-n56u (which is also Atheros based and a bit less expensive) but unsure here.

 

[cmetz]

roxisue1989, there's a huge gap between claimed performance and reality in wireless. Wired is better, wherever you can do it you should just run cables.
As for wireless, many client devices can't take advantage of many of the performance features in 802.11n, such as multiple streams, and in practice you end up with 802.11g performance most of the time.

I'd recommend you look for a router in the $50-$75 range. 802.11N is currently mature and not that expensive, so go for that. Unfortunately, none of the SOHO grade routers deliver what I would call enterprise-grade reliability - that is, it's fairly common for them to die after a year or two. So rather than buy a $150-$200 router, buy one now that's half the cost, pocket the savings, and a few years ago when it dies, THEN buy a $50-$75 fully standardized and mature 802.11ac router. And by then you'll also be able to buy devices that can make use of it.

You can find some decent entry level routers in the $25-$50 range when you factor sale prices, but you need to be pickier about getting a decent model as you get cheaper.

I would strongly recommend you stick to the major brands in this market (e.g., Linksys, Netgear) and look for something currently supported by DD-WRT, Tomato, or OpenWRT. (Even if you never plan on actually using third-party firmware, having the option is a good thing - it can breathe new life into aging devices that have been abandoned by their vendor)

WD is new in the router business. Probably not a good idea.

 

[evti]

As was said, hold off on 802.11ac since it's a work in progress. I use a Linksys WRT400N as my main router (it's dual band), and they go for $30-40 USD. Throw on WRT-DD (which is custom firmware) and you've got something that is more than adequate.

 

[you2]

So you are suggesting something like TP-Link n750 ($80) or rt-56u ($100) are better option than the asus rt-n66u ($160) ?

(Been looking for a decent wireless router for a bit and debating if it is worth going cheap or expensive) - All of these routers will take wrt-dd; but only the 66u s will take tomato

 

[cmetz]

you2, I've never personally used TP-Link branded gear, but I believe that TP-Link actually makes many of the generic OEM units these days. If you are going to run DD-WRT or another third-party firmware anyway, they appear to be a good value choice.

The TP-Link TL-WDR4300 (I think this what you mean by N750?) is a 2.4GHz 2x2 and 5GHz 3x3 router. Odds are very high that your devices will not support the 3x3 5GHz mode - unfortunately, odds are very high that your devices will not support 5GHz at all. Compare to the TL-WR1043ND, which has the same 2.4GHz 2x2 radio and gigabit switch, though a little bit less CPU horsepower, less RAM, and no USB port - but it's half the cost ($45 on coupon at Newegg right now). Unless you really need those things -- and for most home users, you don't -- just get the cheaper one.

No sense paying for features you won't use.

There are four major players making SOHO router chipsets: Broadcom, Atheros, Ralink, and Ubicom. I would suggest that you stick with Broadcom or Atheros, as they've been doing it longer and are generally better supported. If you want to run DD-WRT or Tomato third-party firmware someday, you should lean towards Broadcom, if you want to run OpenWRT you should lean towards Atheros. Ralink and Ubicom support in third-party firmware gets spotty at best.

The two TP-Link devices are Atheros based. RT-N56U is Ralink based. RT-N66U is Broadcom based.

Finally, check smallnetbuilder.com for reviews of wireless performance. This varies a lot between units, and the real world RF performance is much more important than any on-paper spec.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There are four major players making SOHO router chipsets: Broadcom, Atheros, Ralink, and Ubicom. I would suggest that you stick with Broadcom or Atheros, as they've been doing it longer and are generally better supported. If you want to run DD-WRT or Tomato third-party firmware someday, you should lean towards Broadcom, if you want to run OpenWRT you should lean towards Atheros. Ralink and Ubicom support in third-party firmware gets spotty at best.

You forgot RealTek. My refurb Belkin N150 v3000 routers are RealTek chipsets, as is the TrendNet 652BRP v2.x I installed at my mom's place.

 

[JackMDS]

It seems that next year with coming of 801.11ac more chipset makers will join the Wireless crowd.

More is always good, it gives more choices and lower the price.

Look here in the middle of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

 

[you2]

Thanks cmetz; the WR1043nd looks interesting; is it even worth considering the rt-n16; the only major feature that seems lacking (not clear from reviews) on the wr1043nd is printer support.

 

[donfm]

You need to put cable in the walls you better plan for need of the years thereafter. You buy a $20,000 Air condition unit make sure that it will last and provide service for the future.

You buy a plastic Box for around $100 there is No need for all of this philosophical heart braking shenanigans.
802.ac is Not really in solid existence and it will take and some more time to be a viable working solution (it took few years of pre/draft whatever to make 802.11n solid solution). Imagine the amount of money that the marketing people mange to artificially drain out of people that ended up buing the lame line of draftN followed by the preN and then the standard and paid full for all of them.

The Current solid Fast solution is 802.11 a/b/g/n. (aka Dual Radio) is fast and stable and works well.

That said some people need "Bragging Right" to survive socially (Not that any thing is wrong with it) . So One should get an inexpensive exotic looking Wireless Router. Spray it with a color of One choices (Gold is good). Get a Gold/Silver Metal looking foil Sticker for laser jet printers, make a fancy label, stick it on the painted Router, put it next to the 65" TV, and One is all set (social wise). You can even make a video of it and load it to you-tube.
- - - :sneaky:.

I love this guy's comments!!......lol Keep em coming Jack!!!

Stop worrying so far ahead would be my advice and get a good wireless N router. Chances are that by the time all this new technology is mainstream you will be ready for a new router anyway. So it costs you another $150 to get the latest technology in routers at that point. Remember not only the router must be able to perform under the new standards but you will have to buy new equipment as well to utilize the new router's capabilities and speeds. Heck most people cannot even utilize the full dual band 3x3 450Mbps streams in the N900 routers now let alone worry about the future at this point. If the past is any indication of the future they will all be backward compatible with the old standards as well. Just my opinion.

 

[cmetz]

Thanks cmetz; the WR1043nd looks interesting; is it even worth considering the rt-n16; the only major feature that seems lacking (not clear from reviews) on the wr1043nd is printer support.

The RT-N16 gets good reviews, people seem to like it. However, it seems a bit overpriced relative to its feature set unless you can find a good deal on it.

If you're sure you need printer support and you want your router next to your printer, that can be a decent feature. You can get a Monoprice USB print server for $17 + shipping. I haven't used that unit, but my experience with others is that the various cheap USB print servers and the SOHO router USB port print servers are about the same - unfortunately, they're not all that good. If you want network printing that works well, buy a printer with a built in print server. Laser printers with built in print servers are cheap these days.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Most Brother inkjet printers are either ethernet or WiFi capable or both.

 

[Franco_Barba]

Go with the Asus RT-AC66U I have it and it works really good, the construction quality is really good