May I ask a question here? Does it make sense to purchase a high end wirelesss “N” router now, such as the Asus RT-N66U, Netgear WNDR4500 or Linksys EA4500?
Of course it does. Pricing is lower and the technology is more stable.
If you like being a beta tester, don't mind paying a premium for the privilege and are ok with spending more money for something that is not going to provide any immediate tangible benefit, then, certainly go for draft 11ac products.
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Tim Higgins
Managing Editor,SmallNetBuilder.com
Maybe the range tests will display some other advantages.
Don't hold your breath. There is nothing in draft 11ac that provides better performance for non 11ac gear.
There are no breakthroughs on range improvement on the horizon, only incremental tweaks. And certainly nothing that is going to change the attenuation characteristics of 5 GHz signals.
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Tim Higgins
Managing Editor,SmallNetBuilder.com
ac? In particular did you see the 449MB file transfer they did in the video? (starting @ 23:40)
NETGEAR gave me the following information about the demo setup:
Quote:
For the 11n file transfer, we used two WNDR4500 routers, one set as a router and the other set as a bridge. The router was set to 2.4Ghz in auto channel mode.
For the Multi Video stream, we used 4 different HD movie trailers, 6-10Mbps bit rate, and MPEG4 format
It's safe to assume that with all the networks around, the N router pair was in 20 MHz bandwidth mode.
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Tim Higgins
Managing Editor,SmallNetBuilder.com
are ok with spending more money for something that is not going to provide any immediate tangible benefit, then, certainly go for draft 11ac products.
Tim the product reviewed in the title of this thread is priced at the same price or lower than the Asus Dark Knight and Cisco 4500, so it's not spending more money necessarily.
Asus and Linksys are available today at Newegg for $179, the same price as this Draft-AC router.
Tim the product reviewed in the title of this thread is priced at the same price or lower than the Asus Dark Knight and Cisco 4500, so it's not spending more money necessarily.
Asus and Linksys are available today at Newegg for $179, the same price as this Draft-AC router.
That's true. But there are plenty of simultaneous dual-band two-stream N routers ("N600) to be had for much less.
Consumers have been trained to think that the bigger number on the box always buys them a better product. When in reality, how many people buying "N900 / N750 / N450" routers even have the three stream clients that they need to take advantage of the higher bandwidth the routers can provide?
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Tim Higgins
Managing Editor,SmallNetBuilder.com
That's true. But there are plenty of simultaneous dual-band two-stream N routers ("N600) to be had for much less.
Consumers have been trained to think that the bigger number on the box always buys them a better product. When in reality, how many people buying "N900 / N750 / N450" routers even have the three stream clients that they need to take advantage of the higher bandwidth the routers can provide?
Agreed, there are many affordable N600 solutions that are quite nice. However, I was speaking in direct comment to the customers original question about the value of Draft-AC when directly compared to the user's original request: Asus RT-N66U, Netgear WNDR4500 or Linksys EA4500 which do not require more money or any additional premium to move up to Draft-AC.
Specifically comparing to those N900 products, the AC product doesn't charge any price premium. That was what I was clarifying. Compared to N600, it's a different story.
NETGEAR gave me the following information about the demo setup:
It's safe to assume that with all the networks around, the N router pair was in 20 MHz bandwidth mode.
Did Netgear do the N to AC comparison during lunchtime? They brought in a dozen leaky microwave ovens and asked their staff to cook popcorn at the same time their marketing guy was onstage doing the test. Must be, there's no other rational answer.
In the video they posted, after 90 seconds the N file was 25% done (right monitor). They cut to a different "ploy" so we never saw it complete...
I tested my WNDR4500 and with my 2 x 2 Intel 6205 client. On 5Ghz with 450Mb/s set in router I transferred a single 460MB file in 41 seconds (about the same speed both directions). With 2.4Ghz, with router set to 217Mb/s, it transferred in 51 seconds (about same in both directions).
What would be wrong with them properly comparing N to AC? They had to make N look like G with high levels of radio interference. Do they think the world is made up of fools?
Lets hear from the Netgear marketing geniuses! And, I'm typically a Netgear fan. Just don't care for over marketing!! Over marketing = lying in my book.
I didn't sleep all last night waiting for you to post the preview.
Interesting that the single client max wifi throughput was not really better than 3 stream N. I am intrigued by the max 5Ghz wifi throughput in multi client environments. Could be useful in busy offices where lots-o-people tend to connect via wifi. Thats assuming the clients support 5Ghz and have a decent 5Ghz radio that connects at further than 20 feet.
Have you seen the marketing video Netgear put out yesterday regarding ac? In particular did you see the 449MB file transfer they did in the video? (starting @ 23:40) The N example showed a worst case scenario and not something I experience. I did a 449MB transfer on my laptop today to my NAS and it looked much more like the ac demo on the left screen. Gotta love marketers.
Thanks Tim.
Looks like I'll be happily sticking with my RT-N66U given your Buffalo 'Part 2' performance tests and comments about how the Asus was still by far the most impressive in terms of throughput on 2.4 GHz in the further locations (D and F). The Asus was also the best on standard 5 GHz 3 stream 802.11n, although not by a signficant margin overall, although it did excel in some locations.
I do, however, wonder how the Netgear R6300 (the only other 802.11ac router on the market now) with the Broadcom chipset will perform.
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