Anyone using 802.11ac?

[Tom Speirs]

Im pretty much wired mostly but what is wireless here I am in the process of upgrading to ac. So far I am pretty impressed. I got a netgear nighthawk and an intel mini pci-e card internally for laptop.

I am only in an apt/flat but my laptop gets around 45mb copying a 50gb file across the network which to me seems incredibly impressive.

I've got a WD ac bridge on the way to replace a 5ghz 300mb n bridge in my 2nd bedroom and an asus pci-e card on the way for my pincab. The bridge and the pci-e card should theoretically be ac 1300 capable so I am looking forward to seeing what kind of speed I can get.

Anyone messed with this new tech yet?

I also signed up to amazon prime last week and I am very impressed with that too. Its a fantastic deal and will pay for itself shortly.

[Adultery]

Can't speak to ac as almost everything I use is wired except my laptop and it's only an n, I only really use that for coding and downloading music from Beatport, so the speed isn't important.

Amazon Prime is great though! The wife loves the free kindle books, I watch movies for free, and we already order stuff from there all the time so the prompt shipping is completely worth the investment, no doubt!

[Draco1962]

I have asked Santa to bring me a new wireless router. I am not looking for the one to carry me through to the next century, but I would like to replace the old spotty Linksys Wireless G - T-Mobile Hotspot router.

I have been reviewing a few and the Trendnet AC1750 (TEW-812DRU) caught my attention after reading quite a few reviews on Amazon, Newegg, and Bestbuy, in addition to several PC mag reviews.

[hansolo77]

Wow I'm out of the loop. Is ac a new standard or a new trial? I'm using a D-Link DGL-4500 and it's been working fine for me. I was not aware a new speed format was available. Are there USB adapters that you can buy for this? My dad's bluray player is downstairs in the living room and he sometimes has trouble streaming hi-def movies from the server. It's a bandwith issue because SD movies stream fine. Also, they tend to have issues with their computer in the bedroom too, this could solve a lot of problems.

Also.. my family all got Kindle Fires this year for our tax return purchase. I (having to one up everybody) got a Kindle Fire HD. We thought about getting the Amazon Prime subscription. My step-mom orders from Amazon all the time, and is already a perferred member and gets free shipping on a lot of orders. Dad spent some time looking through the available online video catalogs and wasn't very impressed with the selection; so we decided not to order it. The only advantage for us would be the free shipping, which she already gets most of the time anyway. As for the videos, anything GOOD we already have and prefer to watch on a larger screen at home anyway.

[Krakerman]

AirPort Extreme

Best wireless router I've ever had. The newest rendition has the 802.11ac!!

[Draco1962]

@Han - You can find out more about 802.11ac here. Coupled with Gigabit Ethernet ports for any wired connections, it is probably the way to go. Most of the routers I have reviewed are wireless a,b, g and n compatible.

My modem supports Gigabit Ethernet and our newer desktops have built-in Gigabit ethernet ports so this will be a solid win for our wired connections (current router only works on 10/100 so should see a 10-fold increase in wired performance).

802.11ac is supported by some of the newest laptops, tablets and smartphones, but you can purchase USB add-on adapters for older laptop and tablet systems that may have native support for USB and 802.11n or prior.

As for your parent's bedroom PC, they may or may not experience much improvement if there are environmental factors causing interference, such as distance, walls, wiring between their system and the router, or EFI from devices such as nearby cordless phones, micorwave ovens or the like.

One solution that some people use is Ethernet over Powerline. Usually this consists of a module plugged into a power outlet near the router and connected via Ethernet cable and another at the remote source. Again, if the wiring between the two are on the same electrical circuit, then greater throughput. If on separate breakers or a great distance, then it will diminish somewhat. The TRENDnet 500 Mbps Powerline Ethernet AV Adapter Kit TPL-401E2K is another option I am looking at to wire my son's room for his Xbox 360 and laptop. At $53.58, not a bad deal and throughput is faster than the wireless 802.11g that both of his devices support. If he should end upgrading to an Xbox One like he has been talking about, he will get the additional benefit of a Gigabit connection.

[Adultery]

Yeah free super saver shipping is fine, but free next day shipping is better!

Not to mention the kindle lending library for prime, it's worth it imho. I don't like waiting for stuff though... I also get it cheap because I'm a student, so it makes the decision easier for me.

[Tom Speirs]

AC seems way faster than power line. Its as close as you can get to gigabit Ethernet without running a cable. Like I said I am only in a flat so don't know what its like over distance. Also in regards to the laptops you can actually get internal mini PCI-e cards that go inside the laptop and that is what I did with mine. Just need to open up the laptop and replace the one that's supplied. I got a top end Intel one for about $30. They actually seem cheaper than the usb stcks. There are some issue with some brands of laptops blocking them for no good reason. They white list certain cards in the Bios although Sony don't do that.

I have not looked at the movies or ebooks. It just seemed like a good way to save money. I am always ordering toys!

[Tom Speirs]

PS: I was kind of out of loop on AC too. I only just heard about it. Its still in draft so you could get stung much like what happened with N.

[Adultery]

We're playing with ac in our labs at school and it supposedly gives gigabit a run for its money, and will probably be close to the accepted standard.

Apparently the conversion to digital over the air TV opened up the frequencies that make ac possible, but a lot of wireless mics and baby monitors operate in the same frequency range, so these items cause enough interference to be a problem.

So there's a little extra knowledge for ya.

[Tom Speirs]

Well no babies or Karaoke parties here so I am guess I am good until everyone catches on

[Tom Speirs]

Got burnt on the AC bridge. It was a WDC My Net AC. Crap speeds, equivalent to G.

I came to the conclusion that all the bridges available are old tech and your better to buy one of the new generation of routers and use it in bridge mode. So that is going back and I got another Netgear router which will be used in bridge mode.