AC1200? I want to upgrade my router!

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iWin4Prep

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Aug 12, 2016
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Hi all.

Looking to upgrade my router. Currently I have a Linksys E1200 router found here.


A little while back, the connection guy told me that I can upgrade my router to get better speeds. The problem is, I don't recall what he told me to update to.

I think he told me to update to AC1200 router such as this.


Although, there seems to be a "AC1900" out now.

Questions:
1) What type of router should I be looking for? AC1200??
2) Will it make any noticeable difference at all?

Thank you.
 
Solution
navalweaponsofficer
Things you need to answer
1. What WIFI card is in your Phone and Laptop and what speeds are they capable of
2. What speed is your internet service

If your wireless devices are N150 or N300 then there is no need to upgrade.
if the devices are N900 or AC then their would be some benefit in upgrading but the impact will very depending on your ISP internet speed and whether or not you are accessing internal network items.

Your router is on the cheaper end and your wireless connections may very well be faster than your wired connection to the desktop. That does not really matter that much if you are just accessing the internet and your connection speed is 100mbps or less, but if you are using the router to route other wired internal...
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Are you wanting to improve your connection speed to the internet or increase the speed at which you access devices within your internal network? how many wireless devices are you connecting simultaneously? are the devices you are connecting capable of speeds greater than N300/N900? How far do you work from your access point? What speed is your internet service? Based on the information I currently have I would say that you would likely see no difference if you upgraded your access point.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

I want to increase my connection speed to the internet.

I connect 1 desktop PC and 1 smartphone. Sometimes we will have 2 PC's and 1 smartphone.

I am not sure on the n300/n900 question.

I have one desktop directly connected to router, and one in the next room (1 bedroom apartment).

 
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No, it usually will not make a difference. AC 1200 and higher AC speeds work on dual/triple antenna's at 2.4 and 5ghz each antenna. Your device can only connect to one antenna, so usually there is no significant speed increase when upgrading from AC 1200 to AC 1900. Another problem is that in need to achieve the higher speeds, both antenna's must support the newer standard. If you PC has a wifi 802.11n card, it cannot make use of the new 802.11ac standard, so you'll have to also buy a new wifi card to make use of the new router. On other devices such as phones or wifi tv's this usually is impossible to replace.
 
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Things you need to answer
1. What WIFI card is in your Phone and Laptop and what speeds are they capable of
2. What speed is your internet service

If your wireless devices are N150 or N300 then there is no need to upgrade.
if the devices are N900 or AC then their would be some benefit in upgrading but the impact will very depending on your ISP internet speed and whether or not you are accessing internal network items.

Your router is on the cheaper end and your wireless connections may very well be faster than your wired connection to the desktop. That does not really matter that much if you are just accessing the internet and your connection speed is 100mbps or less, but if you are using the router to route other wired internal network traffic you want to upgrade the router.
 
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Solution
Thank you guys for the help.

One final question

Your device can only connect to one antenna, so usually there is no significant speed increase when upgrading from AC 1200 to AC 1900.
Click to expand...

So the E1200 router I have now is actually an AC1200 router?
 
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One would say so given the name, but once again the marketing department has outsmarted me! It is not, in fact it is a N300 device, so upgrading to a 1200ac could increase your speed (AC 1200 usually is N400 combined with 867 AC speed, so going from N300 to 867 AC is a good upgrade). BUT, as pointed out before, your device must also support the AC standard of the new router, otherwise the speed will be the same.
 
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What I currently use is : Linksys AE1200 :http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A7809174&ST=pla&dgc=ST&cid=302824&lid=5758064&acd=12309152537461010&ven1=A7809174:112781467989:901pdb6671:c&ven2=:

What I would have to buy is a Linksys AC1200 supported USB network adapter. Correct?
 
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Not entirely. Ill go back to my previous questions what speed is your internet service? if it is less than 100mbps than upgrades will not make the internet faster. Also USB adapters can also be limited by bandwidth of the USB Port. most companies do not sell USB 2.0 adapters faster than N300 because the max bandwidth for USB2.0 is 480mbps USB 30. adapters can be full AC speed but if you plug it into a 2.0 port it will still be limited. if you have no USB 3.0 ports it would be best to replace your internal wireless card assuming you want AC speed.

I really need to know more about your hardware to be able to go any further. laptop complete model number, phone model, and your internet speed.
 
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Hi NavalWeaponsOfficer, I am going to now try to answer your questions to see if an upgrade to an AC1200 router is a smart idea.

The device manager, right click computer, select properties, on the left you will see device manager. click that and go to network adapters.
Click to expand...

What I see is Linksys AE1000 #8
Marvel Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Marvel Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller #2

Ill go back to my previous questions what speed is your internet service? if it is less than 100mbps than upgrades will not make the internet faster.
Click to expand...

I use RCN's 50Mb/10Mb Internet service.

I have an x64 based PC.

I will also note that I have a new computer coming in with an ASUS x-99 A II MOBO.
I have a macbook pro.

The items I'm considering are:
Linksys AC1200 router
And i'll need a USB adapter.

I do not have USB 3.0 on my current PC.



 
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There is no need to upgrade. You do not have USB 3.0 so you cannot get the benifit of AC in the lapptop and with it being a MAC changing the internal wireless card will likley become problematic.

Your current router provides you 300Mbps of WIFI bandwith your internet is providing 50 Mbps which is only 17% of your total avilable WIFI bandwith (in a perfect world, real life it is about 33%).

Your wired computers will get 100Mbps because that is all the router is capable of. However that is still plenty because your internet speed is 50Mbps or about 50% of the bandwith of the ports in the router.

If i was in your position with your usage I would not upgrade the router and just wait until it failed or i was using the router for dhcp on a network in your house.

Personaly I have about 50 items on my internal network with internet service the same speed as yours and an N900 usually used at N300 speeds router RT-N66U I the get the full speed of my service on my wireless clients. I have no intention on upgrading.
 
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I beg to differ, your motherboard does indeed have USb 3.1 slots:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99-A-II/

Also depending on which model macbook pro you have, the newer models have 802.11 AC support in them.

But, the bottom line still remainds the same, your current router manages speeds that matches your current internet connection speed, or at least it should (review of it here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383510,00.asp).
You should try to do some speedtests (http://www.speedtest.net/) to verify your router can get to these speeds.

If your router does perform as it should, the only benefit from upgrading your current router would be faster file transfer between devices on your network. The internet speed will remain the same.
 
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You may beg to differ but you are wrong regarding his current hardware configuration, he stated that he did not have any USB 3.0 ports, the last MacBook pro that had USB 2.0 was 2011 and that same model was wireless N not AC. Additionally he does not yet have the computer based on the X99 But I am assuming that the new X99 Computer will be replacing the current desktop in which case it has no bearing on the discussion as the desktop is hard wired.
 
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Well I partially agree, the current PC is unknown, but it still might have USB 3.0 ports, as some motherboards only have USB 3.0 ports connections on the back or on the motherboard itself.
About the macbook pro you can check out apple's website: http://www.apple.com/ca/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
And from 2012 the macbook pro got USB 3.0 and from 2013 AC wifi.

The desktop may be hardwired, but the point was having USB 3.0 for a wifi dongle, it still applies.

Another option would a PCI wifi card, this would not require a USB 3.0 connection as the PCI express bus has more than enough bandwidth available.
 
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I agree that 2012 had USB 3.0 and AC, but they said they had no 3.0 ports which means it has to be at the latest a 2011 which had 2.0 and N WIFI, but it could be an earlier model. it also is possible that he has 3.0 in the back but I am going take them for their word and go with no 3.0 ports yes a WIFI PCI card would work but only for the desktop which does not need it as it is hardwired. they are not running an internal network and they have much more bandwidth available than provided by the ISP. If they were running an internal network I would recommend getting a new wireless router.
 
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