If you have been fooling around stores electronics lately, you may have noticed that new wireless routers report that they work on the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. But what is this template and do you need it?
Whenever you are interested in buying a new one wireless router, πιθανά θα έχετε παρατηρήσει ότι όλα αναφέρουν ότι μπορούν να μοιράζουν wifi σύμφωνα με το “802.11(κάτι)”. Χωρίς να χρειάζεται να μπείτε πολύ βαθιά σε τεχνικές λεπτομέρειες, αυτό που θα πρέπει να ξέρετε είναι ότι πρέπει να δώσετε προσοχή στα γράμματα που ακολουθούν αυτόν τον αριθμό, που ουσιαστικά σημαίνουν τόσο την τεχνολογική ηλικία των routers όσο και τη μέγιστη ταχύτητα που μπορούν να επικοινωνούν διαβιβάζοντας ή λαμβάνοντας wifi σήμα με τις άλλες ασύρματες συσκευές.
802.11 (something) on the wireless routers is the standard used by all wifi device manufacturers to be able to communicate with each other, regardless of brand, model, country of manufacture, etc. The letters after the number are something like a version. Today we are only talking about 802.11n, and 802.11ac. If you have a five-year wireless router, it is most likely to support 802.11b and 802.11g (with g being the newest).
But now that the template supported by a router indicates its age, there is another serious reason to be interested in its full name. Each template can transfer data at a specified maximum speed. For example 802.11g works on 54Mbits / s, 802.11n works on 450Mbits / s (or about 56 megabytes per second) and 802.11ac on 1300Mbits / s. The graph below will visualize these figures so you can easily understand the technological divide that separates the last three models.
Of course these speeds are the theoretical maximum point achieved with carefully controlled settings in the lab, but they're still fairly indicative of whether you'll be listening to music and playing games wirelessly over the internet without any of your home users noticing a slowdown.
It is also important to note that unlike 802.11n, 802.11ac can only transmit over the 5Ghz radio spectrum. Although the 2,4 GHz band has far more devices than 5Ghz (such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets, cordless phones, garage door remote controllers, baby monitors and many more), it suffers from increased interference, the longer wavelength of 5GHz allows it to penetrate the walls over long distances without great signal loss.
This means that if your router is on another floor or after a series of partitions from your wireless devices, the 5GHz solution may be the best choice.
An easy way to suspect that a wireless router supports the 802.11ac standard is to read the model name carefully. Currently, all routers that support 802.11ac have an "ac" hidden somewhere in their name (such as the Asus RT-AC3200, D-Link AC3200, TP-Link AC750, etc.).
At the moment, the essence of buying a 802.11ac router is to have the latest wireless devices that can read its signal. For example, iPhone 6 and 6s are equipped to handle an 802.11ac signal
So if you are wondering if you should buy an extra wireless router with 802.11ac then you should consider the following details: If you have devices that accept the corresponding standard, if you have noticed "hangs" and momentary delays in your wireless signal, if you manage large data packets wirelessly, if you do not have full coverage throughout your home. The above reasons may prompt you to change your router. Otherwise change it only if it breaks down and you have to get a new one. If it does not break, stay at 802.11n, which does a fine job for the average speeds in Greece.
Updated January 6 to add a correction from our reader Thodori Togkalidi. We quote as follows:
Thodoris Togkalidis The article is very useful and interesting, but I want to make a correction: The central frequency of 5GHz has exactly half the wavelength of the frequency of 2,4GHz (as the frequency increases, the wavelength decreases). So the phrase "the longer wavelength of 5GHz allows it to penetrate walls over long distances without much signal loss." is not correct, as the wavelength is halved. It is correctly stated that the long wavelength penetrates the walls more easily than the short wavelength (which is why the mobile phone signal does not "hurt" in basements), but what you obviously want to say here is that "the largest range of spectrum with a carrier central frequency that of 5GHz transfers more information per unit of time, i.e. more Megabits per second). That is, likening the carrier wave to an airplane and the information - the bits, that is - to passengers, what changes in the "ac" version of the routers is that the airplane grows, so more passengers are transferred per unit of time. The price of the shorter wavelength of the central frequency will be that the signal of such routers (ac version) will be cut off by the walls and will not penetrate them more easily, but this does not concern us as we all want the signal to stay on our ceiling and not to go to the neighbor emoticon smile The good thing is that the interference with other wireless devices (such as wireless telephones) will be less frequent than none.
