802.11ac

Trendnet's AC1750 Dual Band Wireless router (model TEW-812DRU) is a major upgrade from the company's previous TEW-692GR, and the first 802.11ac-enabled router from Trendnet.

In my testing, the device offered excellent Wi-Fi performance and was easy to use. Its only minor shortcomings are the lack of a wall-mount option and its slow storage performance when using a plugged-in USB external hard drive.

At the current street price of around $150, some $50 less than its peers cost, the TEW-812DRU is the most affordable 803.11ac-enabled router on the market. Even those that don't currently have 802.… Read more

Apple's next round of upgrades to its Mac computers are rumored to include a new, faster version of the ubiquitous 802.11 Wi-Fi spec.

Citing sources, The Next Web says Apple is working with Broadcom to include 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology in its Mac lineup, a move that would increase wireless networking speed when used with 802.11ac routers.

The 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which Broadcom has called "5G Wi-Fi," supports up to three streams and speeds of up to 1.3Gbps on the 5GHz band. That speed is dropped down to 450Mbps over a three-stream version … Read more

It's been an exciting -- and busy -- year for networking and storage, two very important categories in consumer electronics. Important because they are at the core of information technology -- without either, most or all of your gadgets will come to a grinding halt. And as far as I know, we haven't yet seen the limit of what they can do.

That said, here is a quick roundup of the current state of this sector and what we can expect, based on my educated guesses, heading into CES 2013.

802.11ac This year will be remembered … Read more

WD today announced the availability of its 802.11ac Wi-Fi products, including a new router and a media bridge.

WD, one of the largest hard-drive makers in the world, jumped into home networking just recently with the My Net router family, which includes the already reviewed My Net N900 HD and My Net N900 Central. The two new devices announced today complete the company's Wi-Fi portfolio by adding support for the latest 802.11ac standard.

The two new products include a 802.11ac router, the My Net AC1300 HD Dual-Band router, and a 802.1ac-compatible media bridge, the My … Read more

Linksys today announced the availability of its latest Smart Wi-Fi router, the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750 HD Video Pro router (model EA6500). This is the company's first router to support the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard.

The new router is to compete with similar routers from other networking vendors, such as the Netgear R6300, the D-Link DIR-865L, and the Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H.… Read more

The latest 802.11ac standard is the latest and arguably the most anticipated Wi-Fi standard, thanks to its much faster speeds. Since it was first showcased more than a year ago, there's been an influx of new routers that support the new Wi-Fi standard.

There's a different side to this development, however: we can't enjoy the new 802.11ac standard the way we do 802.11n just yet. That's because as Wi-Fi standards go, in order to have 802.11ac Wi-Fi connections, in addition to a supported router, you'll also need hardware clients, such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones, that support this standard, and currently there are very few clients that have built-in 802.11ac support. However, Windows computer owners can quickly add 802.11ac to their systems via a USB adapter, such as the TEW-805UB from Trendnet. Mac users can rest assured that 802.11ac will soon be supported.… Read more

Since the beginning of the year, Broadcom has been the only provider of 802.11ac chips, which it calls 5G Wi-Fi, made to power routers, such as the Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H and other Wi-Fi clients. The playing field has changed a little now with Marvell announcing today a chip of its own, the Avastar 88W8897.

Marvell's new chip is slightly different from those offered by Broadcom. First of all, the Avastar 88W8897 combines 802.11ac, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Bluetooth in one die, providing more options for mobile devices. Secondly, this chip offers 802.11ac in the 2-by-2 (… Read more

The Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H is the first 802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) router on the market, and Buffalo's WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge is the first 802.11ac client. Since those are currently the only two 5G Wi-Fi devices, it was impossible to get a complete picture of the 802.11ac standard itself by testing them.

However, I was able to quite easily pair them together and experience the 802.11ac connection. Unfortunately, while the connection was very fast, it wasn't close to what the 802.11ac standard has to offer.… Read more

Now that you can actually buy the first wireless networking products that use 802.11ac, Buffalo's router and media bridge, it's time you learned about the this new wireless standard. While the "ac" designation definitely does not mean "air conditioning," I can say for sure that 802.11ac is cool.

And by cool, I mean fast. That's the biggest difference about 802.11ac compared with previous wireless standards. But first let's see how similar it is.

802.11ac supplements 802.11n

802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) is the next step after 802.… Read more