Technology 802.11n or should I wait till the 802.11ac spec is final before buying a router?

[a1pv74all]

---

Members don't see this ad.

.I am thinking of putting Wifi in our house, and I figure if I am going to do that then I should set it up the fastest I could get it..
. .
.Lots of wireless routers out there, so I started doing some research and found that 802.11n is currently the latest, but 802.11ac will be much faster..
. .
.For the 802.11n routers, I think the WD My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Router might be the best bet, since it was ..designed specifically to accelerate movies, video and gaming, which I want..
. .
.http://wdc.com/en/company/pressroom/releases/?release=6baee492-de33-45ba-985e-81097f2b8d3f...
. .
.Here is where I am confused, the 802.11ac standard won’t be issued till early 2013, yet I am seeing 802.11ac products.. on the market claiming they are 802.11ac – even though they can’t be ‘Wi-Fi CERTIFIED’ since the 11ac standard isn’t finalized yet..
. .
.I would love 802.11ac now, but some of the reviews of these first 802.11ac product mention that they are based on a first draft of the 802.11ac spec, and might have some performance issues with products that are based on the final 802.11ac spec.
. .
.Even though the WD 802.11n router is great, I feel it is best to wait on 802.11ac, since I have waited this long, another 6 month shouldn’t kill me..
. .
.Am I crazy for wanting to wait till early next year to buy an 802.11ac router, or should I get the WD N900 now?.

 

[Stroganoff]

I know the pain. I waited years before buying my first router. Just bought a $200 Asus router a few months ago. RT-N66U "Dark Knight" dual-band N: 450 Mbps on both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands. It's pretty awesome. I'm still curious how 802.11ac will perform, since it seems like all the speed increases are really geared towards the 5 GHz spectrum, which doesn't penetrate as well as 2.4 GHz. It may be fast, but who knows if it can go through walls and floors to cover an entire house.

It may be over another year before 802.11ac draft hardware is released, so go ahead and buy a good N router now. It can always be retired and used for something else in the future (such as traveling to hotels and stuff -- I'm using an old Linksys G router at every hotel I go to).

WD hard drive/router interesting concept. Price looks pretty high though.

 

[justaregularmed]

Just get wireless N. I mean its faster then 100basetx, so why bother? Do you have a bunch of 1000baset stuff to hook up?

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

As far as speed goes, unless you are planning to transfer huge files frequently over your wan there is no need for anything more than a 20$ router. It doesn't affect each computers gaming or streaming performance as the packets sent through the internet containing that data are miniscule compared to sending a big file from computer to computer. I have four computers streaming 1080p youtube with a bottom of the line router, I still get 10-30ms ping to local servers from each as well. If you have a slow isp there are cheaper ways to control bandwidth access.

You would do better to take that cash and upgrade your internet if you can, or invest in a repeater to make sure your entire area has a good signal (which does affect latency and download speed).
An upgraded graphics card or monitor would be a better purchase too if you have cash to blow.

Since you don't already have a wireless network I'm guessing you don't have a need for extreme file transferring speed and I would recommend http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127288
If you are planning on setting up a dedicated server, then go nuts and wait for the new standard.