802.11ac should I wait till the spec is final before buying an 11ac router?

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.

Here is where I am confused, the 802.11ac standard won’t be issued till early 2013, yet I am seeing 802.11ac products like the Buffalo AirStation and NETGEAR R6300 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.

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

From what I read, the ‘Wi-Fi CERTIFIED’ certification makes sure that the devices will be fully compatible and function correctly with other 11ac products. The Buffalo and Netgear don’t have the Wi-Fi Certification.

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?

All computers/phones etc that you want to connect at the faster speed must also support "ac".

cpu. said:

All computers/phones etc that you want to connect at the faster speed must also support "ac".

Click to expand...

You also have to decide what you want to do with "WiFi" in your house. Juts sharing your 3G/ADSL will work with old 802.11a/b/g since we are talking of speeds less than 10Mbps. Streaming video around your house will require 802.11n though. So it is better to first check what your CURRENT needs are. Also AC devices will be expen$ive till they become mass produces (and untill they are standard in laptops, tablets and cell phones).

So get what you need (802.11n should last you a couple of years) and then upgrade when AC is cheaper / widely available and supported.

cpu. said:

All computers/phones etc that you want to connect at the faster speed must also support "ac".

Click to expand...

Agree with above poster.

'ac' is not going to do much for you if the devices connecting to it don't have ac either. If your phone can connect at 54mbps, that's all it's going to connect at.

I've found that streaming HD videos @720p requires about 150mbps, and @1080p requires about 300mbps. Also, don't even bother streaming HD if there's more than one wall between your router and your connecting device.

I comfortably stream 1080p on a Gigabit cable though

I was also debating this lately for the same reason.....getting a new place therefore I wanted to do everything wireless. I landed up not going the ac route as its too steap of a price and not worth it right now, so I landed up getting the Asus RT-n56u router from esquire. Can do both 2.4ghz and 5ghz at the same time, so its perfect for streaming HD content and if the fiance is on her ipad updating all its contents then she would be streaming the 2.4ghz band while I stream the 5ghz band for HD. So best bet right now.....get something that can do both channels at same time and still keep top speed on each channel separately.

Thank you!

jasweb said:

You also have to decide what you want to do with "WiFi" in your house. Juts sharing your 3G/ADSL will work with old 802.11a/b/g since we are talking of speeds less than 10Mbps. Streaming video around your house will require 802.11n though. So it is better to first check what your CURRENT needs are. Also AC devices will be expen$ive till they become mass produces (and untill they are standard in laptops, tablets and cell phones).

So get what you need (802.11n should last you a couple of years) and then upgrade when AC is cheaper / widely available and supported.

Click to expand...

Family of 5; 3 laptops, 3 iPods, ps3, xbox, 2 iphones, ya know... Good feedback. I was wondering, Is 802.11N really much slow than 11ac? How much slower?