802.11

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

Do one or more of the following traits describe your router?

1. It's old.

2. It supports only 802.11g or "draft-N" Wi-Fi.

3. It's not working as well as you think it should.

4. It died last night.

5. It doesn't support the cool DD-WRT firmware you've been itching to try.

If you answered yes to any of the above, today's your lucky day. For a limited time, and while supplies last, GearXS has the refurbished D-Link DIR-601 802.11n Wi-Fi router for $9.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. It sells … Read more

The new 802.11ac standard is the latest and arguably the most anticipated Wi-Fi standard, due to its much faster speed. Since it was first showcased at CES 2012, there's been an influx of new routers that support the new Wi-Fi standard; the first one was shipped in late May.

There's a different side to this development, however. Most, if not all, of us for now can't really enjoy the new speeds. That's because 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 no clients that have built-in 802.11ac support. So for now, the new 802.11ac is just like a thoroughbred without a proper jockey: it's not gonna win any race.… 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

Netgear today teamed up with Broadcom to announce and demonstrate a new line of wireless networking products that use Broadcom's 802.11ac chips. These are the chips that Broadcom showed off in preparation for and during CES 2012.

These devices include two routers, the Netgear R6300 WiFi and the R6300 WiFi, and one USB adapter, the A6200 WiFi.

All of these devices are based on the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard (or 5G Wi-Fi, as Broadcom calls it). The Netgear R6300 is the top of the line and supports the three-stream 802.11ac standard that offers up to 1.… Read more