So my second wifi router in a year has karked it (Asus RT-N56, 5Ghz band has stopped working/accepting connections). I notice that the new fangled ac routers have now dropped in price and are entering my price range. I was very happy with the way the Asus worked and don’t really need anything more so is it wise to “futureproof” (haha) myself with ac or save some moolah and stick with an “n” router.

I personally would buy one so long as it is backward compatible with the devices you currently use.

AC is starting to appear in Apple hardware now and no doubt it won’t be long until it appears on the latest Dell laptops.

If nothing else you can use something like an AC bridge that will allow you to use pretty high speeds to connect your media gear.

There is a linksys ea6500 router that is pretty good.

What’s broken on the old router?

I’ve resurrected quite a few old routers with the DD-WRT firmware

Thanks somouk.

What’s broken on the old router?

I’ve resurrected quite a few old routers with the DD-WRT firmware

Not sure, but I’ve been in touch with Asus tech guys and they think it’s hardware related. Basically can’t connect to 5Ghz band, looking at the wifi analysis I get very strong signal for a few seconds and then nothing then maybe 30 seconds later the signal comes back again, at no time will it accept any connections, pretty sure Amazon will give me money back for a replacement.

AC is starting to appear in Apple hardware now

The latest Android phones support it too; IIRC, the HTC One and the Samsung S4 both have it.

Whether it’s worth it depends what you’re doing. It’s unlikely to make your Internet connection any faster unless you’re on something super-whizzy, as the bottleneck is usually the DSL rather than the WiFi. If you tend to copy a lot of files about on your home network though, it might well be worth the punt. (I tend to switch to wired if I’m copying anything large.)

The latest Android phones support it too; IIRC, the HTC One and the Samsung S4 both have it.

Whether it’s worth it depends what you’re doing. It’s unlikely to make your Internet connection any faster unless you’re on something super-whizzy, as the bottleneck is usually the DSL rather than the WiFi. If you tend to copy a lot of files about on your home network though, it might well be worth the punt. (I tend to switch to wired if I’m copying anything large.)

Cheers. I’ve got a 30Mb Virgin connection and my current Asus gets me 30Mb to virtually anywhere in the house, like you I copy large things over a wire rather than Wifi.