Podcast #571: 802.11ac - Wireless you can believe in

Most of us have wireless networks in our homes these days, there’s nothing like the convenience of instant Internet without wires. But we’ve also come to the painful realization that our wireless networks just can’t live up the the rigors of HD streaming, especially if we want to stream multiple videos to different TVs. But as they say with technology, if you don’t like it, just wait a while and someone will fix it. Supposedly the new wireless spec, 802.11ac, can do just that.

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802.11ac - Wireless you can believe in

Most of us have wireless networks in our homes these days, there’s nothing like the convenience of instant Internet without wires. But we’ve also come to the painful realization that our wireless networks just can’t live up the the rigors of HD streaming, especially if we want to stream multiple videos to different TVs. But as they say with technology, if you don’t like it, just wait a while and someone will fix it. Supposedly the new wireless spec, 802.11ac, can do just that.

We came across a great article at Tom’s Hardware called Gigabit Wireless? Five 802.11ac Routers, Benchmarked that does an excellent job explaining 802.11ac and even goes so far as to benchmark a few routers to see if they can stand up to the High Definition streaming test. Their general topic of investigation is exactly what we’re looking for: can 802.11ac really allow us to reliably run HD video to multiple screens without the need for wires?

Tom’s Hardware author William Van Winkle did an excellent job detailing the spec, how it differs from what we already have, and how effective it is at solving our HD streaming use case. Throughout our discussion, we’re going to share excerpts from his write-up and results with you.

• The popular 2.4 GHz spectrum is just too crowded
• The 5.0 GHz band offers more non-overlapping channels, reducing congestion
• But unfortunately the 5.0 GHz band doesn’t travel as far or through as many barriers as 2.4 GHz

Tested Routers:

• AirLive N450R
• Asus RT-AC66U
• Belkin AC1200 DB
• Buffalo AC1300/N900
• Linksys EA6566/AC1750
• Netgear R6300

The article has a lot of information to check out, including an interview on the subject with an insider from Broadcom and a ton of interesting charts and graphs showing the performance of each tested router in a bunch of different tests.  We’ll share a few of the highlights with you on the show, otherwise you’ll need to read it for yourself.

Download Episode #571