Upgraded from 802.11n to 802.11ac

JimmiG

Platinum Member
Feb 24, 2005
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I rent my apartment, so I can't drill through the walls to run Ethernet cables. So Wi-Fi (or possibly power-line adapters) is my only choice. It's an apartment complex, so getting stable Wi-Fi has always been a little tricky (before 5 GHz .n it was hopeless).

I've been quite happy with my Linksys E4200 paired with a Linksys USB-adapter, but with faster Internet speeds it's starting to become a bottleneck. So I picked up the Asus EA-AC87 and Asus PCE-AC68 PCI-E adapter.

I've done some testing using Windows file transfers, pulling files from my laptop, both with it wired directly into the AC87 (Gigabit Ethernet) and over Wi-Fi (Intel AC 7260 AC-adapter).

My desktop computer can only use Wi-Fi as it's in another part of the apartment, with two walls between it and the router/AP.

Linksys E4200:
Laptop via Gigabit Ethernet: ~20MB/s
Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi (5 GHz): ~9 - 10Mb/s

Asus EA-AC87
Laptop via Gigabit Ethernet: 50 - 60MB/s
Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi (5 GHz .ac): ~22MB/s

Pretty impressive real-world speeds. Clearly the Wi-Fi speed will no longer bottleneck my 250Mb/s Internet connection. However if I were to upgrade to 1Gb/s Internet, it wouldn't be enough. This is also fast enough to consider (wired) NAS, which wasn't really practical before. Also the Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi speed is fast enough to be practical now.
 

Ertaz

Senior member
Jul 26, 2004
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Hey man, thanks for taking the time to post this. It's always nice to see real world performance data. If you don't mind me asking, who is your ISP with those speeds?
 

JimmiG

Platinum Member
Feb 24, 2005
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Hey man, thanks for taking the time to post this. It's always nice to see real world performance data. If you don't mind me asking, who is your ISP with those speeds?

I'm using Bahnhof 250/10 Mb/s for about $42/mo. However the speed tests were done locally. Actual Internet speeds are of course closer to the advertised speed:


Is your laptop, etc. also 802-11ac?

Yep, the laptop has got the Intel AC-7260 adapter and was using 5 GHz ac as well. Just as with 802.11n, Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi transfer with the 802.11ac requires the devices to share the available bandwidth (unless they're in different directions from the AP and Beamforming is used).
 

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
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I'm using Bahnhof 250/10 Mb/s for about $42/mo. However the speed tests were done locally. Actual Internet speeds are of course closer to the advertised speed:




Yep, the laptop has got the Intel AC-7260 adapter and was using 5 GHz ac as well. Just as with 802.11n, Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi transfer with the 802.11ac requires the devices to share the available bandwidth (unless they're in different directions from the AP and Beamforming is used).
You Swedes and your beautiful country and super fast internet! Yeah, I'm jealous :)
 

azazel1024

Senior member
Jan 6, 2014
901
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Must be a decent distance from the router. I can get those kinds of speeds through a wall and a good bit of distance. 5 meters and line of sight to my router and I can easily get 400Mbps from my router to my laptop with an Intel 7260ac in it.