Over the past week, D-Link and Netgear have both announced 802.11ac routers with the phrase "world's first" appearing in the accompanying press release (you can read about D-Link's DIR-865L here). Hmm.
The good news is that the 802.11ac wireless standard is finally hitting the mainstream. (For the record, D-Link is touting its own router as the world's first 802.11ac router with cloud support.)
Like its 802.11ac-toting rivals, the Netgear R6300 802.11ac dual band gigabit WiFi router is compatible with the Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11ac standard which allows it to make use of the under-utilised 5GHz frequency band. This can deliver theoretical speeds of up to 1750Mbps - or three times faster than Wireless N. No doubt testing will confirm whether this is overly ambitious.
According to Netgear, R6300 owners will be able to download web content from any device in the home in "a fraction of the time" it would take on a similar 802.11n device. The R6300 802.11ac is also backwards compatible with existing wireless devices operating on earlier wireless standards.
The D-Link DIR-865L Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Cloud Router will be available later in the month. Pricing has yet to be announced.
For those who are interested, a full list of features and hardware requirements are below:
Physical Specifications
- Dimensions: 205 x 255 x 77 mm (8.07 x 10.04 x 3.03 in)
- Weight: 654g (1.44 lb)
Standards
- Two (2) USB 2.0 ports
- IEEE 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz
- IEEE 802.11 a/n/ac 5.0 GHz
- Five (5) 10/100/1000 (1 WAN and 4 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology
Warranty
- Limited 1-year warranty minimum or longer if provided by law. Plus 90-day basic customer support.
System Requirements
- Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Mac OS, UNIX, or Linux
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, Firefox 2.0, Safari 1.4, or Google Chrome 11.0 browsers or higher
- Use laptop with 3x3 450 Mbps adapter like Centrino 6300/5300, or 3x3 802.11ac adapter for maximum performance
Performance
- WiFi Boost with high-powered radio amplifiers
- Memory: 128 MB flash and 128 MB RAM
- Advanced Quality of Service (QoS)
- IPv6 Support (Internet Protocol Version 6)
Ease of Use
- NETGEAR Genie App—Personal dashboard to monitor, control & repair your home network
- Push ‘N’ Connect using Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
Security
- WiFi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2—PSK)
- Double firewall protection (SPI and NAT firewall)
- Denial-of-service (DoS) attack prevention
