Netgear Intros ''World's First'' 802.11ac Wi-Fi Router
Netgear is releasing a new 802.11ac router in May, starting at $199.99.
Netgear has released what it calls an "industry first" with its new R6300 Wi-Fi router. So far it's the first 802.11ac dual band Gigabit Wi-Fi router enabling 5th generation Wi-Fi (5G WiFi) at Gigabit speeds. Naturally you'll need a compatible network adapter to reach those speeds, but legacy W-Fi devices will still be able to connect thanks to its support for the older 802.11 a/b/g/n specification.
"The Netgear R6300 Wi-Fi Router, powered by Broadcom’s 5G WiFi IEEE 802.11ac chips, is up to three times faster than today’s 802.11n routers," the company said on Thursday. "With an elegant new design that fits perfectly in consumers’ living spaces, the router increases the coverage area for HD streaming in the home. The Netgear R6300 WiFi Router has speeds of up to 1300 Mbps on 5 GHz and 450 Mbps on 2.4GHz enabling consumers 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."
In addition to the speedier Internet access, Netgear's new router provides two USB ports for sharing storage and printers on the network. There's also guest network access, live parental controls, automatic Wi-Fi security, and DNLA support. The latter feature will stream content to any DLNA compatible device in the house including the latest Smart TVs, Blu-ray players, media players, game consoles, handheld devices, tablets and more.
Some of the technical specs include five 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology (1 WAN, 4 LAN), 128 MB of flash memory and 128 MB of RAM, Advanced Quality of Service, support for IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack prevention, Wi-Fi Boost with high-powered radio amplifiers and more. IEEE 802.11 b/g/n signals will reside on the 2.4 GHz channel whereas the zippier IEEE 802.11 a/n/ac will reside on the 5 GHz channel.
As previously mentioned, the router is capable of sharing a connected printer via ReadySHARE. An additional Netgear Genie app for iOS and Android devices allows users to print directly to that "personal cloud" printer. The Genie app -- which also comes in Windows and Mac flavors -- also provides the ability to find photos, video or music files anywhere on the network and play them on a DLNA media player. Overall the Netgear Genie app enables home users to control, monitor, repair, and manage their home networks easily through a simple, elegant dashboard.
"802.11ac is the next-generation of WiFi connectivity and is set to revolutionize the way we consume content wirelessly by delivering Internet speeds up to three times faster than consumers are used to experiencing," said David Henry, vice president of product management, retail products at Netgear. "Netgear’s leadership in the industry, and collaboration with Broadcom to introduce the first 802.11ac router, will future proof your network by ensuring your home is capable of supporting new faster 802.11ac devices as they begin to roll out this year."
The Netgear R6300 WiFi Router will be available in May starting at $199.99.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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razor512 Hopefully someone can test the range and see if it actually performs as advertised and not like the current crop of routers that advertise n900 speeds but only do like 80mbit in a base case scenarioReply
eg look at the reviews on http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-charts/view
and look at their reviews of the n900 routers, you will see that none of them offer anything closed to advertised performance, n900 is beaten by 100mbit ethernet in almost all cases. -
TeraMedia For a one-time cost of ~$200, I'll get up to 3x faster internet speeds? And here TWC wanted to charge me $19.95 / month...Reply
Just being picky, but come on David Henry. The only people who are going to experience faster internet speeds are the ones who are connected with FiOS at 100mbit or better. For the rest of us, WiFi probably isn't the bottleneck.
I'd like to see how this thing performs with:
- neighbors with 802.11a or 5 GHz-band 802.11n
- multiple devices (such as the TVs, laptops and other devices they mention... all active at the same time)
- physical barriers, such as floors and walls -
razor512 Would be interested in seeing how it handles a congested wifi environment.Reply
Modern routers seem to use a interference policy which drops the connection from 40MHz to 20MHz when other wifi networks are detected.
In my area, there are 22 wifi networks with signals strong enough for me to connect to and about 70 total that come up if you leave inssider running for about 2 minutes
Because of the neighbor crap policy, i am stuck using a modern N router for wired connections and an older N router for wifi because the older one will actually use the full 300 mbit rate which offers around 60+ mbit/s real world performance. -
trumpeter1994 This would happen shortly after i buy a brand new Netgear wireless n router...........Reply -
inerax ReplyThe Netgear R6300 WiFi Router has speeds of up to 1300 Mbps on 5 GHz and 450 Mbps on 2.4GHz enabling consumers 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."
Most people do not have internet connections that can get anywhere close to this speed.
I have 30mbps internet.... This would not help me download from the web any faster.
noobs. -
funguseater I believe they are talking about transfering ALREADY downloaded content between devices in your house (NAS I'm thinkin) 1300Mbps on my home network would be amazing. This sounds perfect for my media/game servers and the LAN.Reply -
memadmax I will be willing to buy it if it had a little bit more RAM and external antennas, or a connector for some.Reply