Upgrade to new 802.11ac standard

So I'm looking for a new router. Upgrading from an older 802.11g, and looking forward to a nice 802.11N, but now I'm hearing about the newer 802.11ac standard, and I want it. Problem is that even the newest macbook pro is not supporting that. I have an older macbook pro from 2009 that I love and see no good reason to upgrade from. What I'm wanting to know is if I would eventually be able to upgrade my hardware, along with any necessary firmware/software, in order to bring me up to the ac standard, or would I really need to buy a new mac? The latter isn't happening any time soon, but if I could do the former, I'd by the 802.11.ac router now, in readiness for an upgrade.
Oh, and I'm running Lion (10.7.4).
Thanks for any information.

That's too bad. Oh well, I know now to just get the n. Thanks for the reply.

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Can my mid 2011 macbook air be upgraded to wifi 802.11ac?

Can my mid 2011 macbook air be upgraded to wifi 802.11ac? I am considering replacing my 802.11n router with the 802.11ac time capsule. Will this effect my download speed on my 802.11n macbook air (mid 2011)? can it be upgraded?

No, you cannot change the Wi-Fi hardware in your Mac. The Time Capsule is still worth it due to its ability to make backups of your Mac via Time Machine.

VWLC does not support 802.11ac standard?

On data sheet page, on wireless standards i cannot see 802.11ac to be supported.
why? it is not supported or is just an error on the data sheet.

802.11ac support is tied to the access point and the compatibility with code version on the WLC/vWLC. SO as long as you have 802.11ac access points and the proper supported WLC/vWLC code, 802.11ac will be available.
-Scott

Upgrade Airport Extreme 802.11ac

I have Airport Extreme 802.11n and use it with Macbook, iMac 2013, iPad2, ATV and soon iPhone 6. If I upgrade to Airport Extreme 802.11ac, will it work with all of my devices? Will I get significantly improved performance? Is it worth upgrading? Thanks

1. Yes.
2. Only if those devices specifically support 802.11ac; while it'll work with slower devices, those won't use the increased speed.
3. Probably not.
(112833)

New 802.11ac 5ghz channels

I can't seem to set 5 Ghz channel. Every time I hit update it resets back to Automatic.
In the UK.
Anyone else confirm this please?

Figured it out. If I use the app the channel saves. If I use the utility in windows it's always automatic.

802.11ac upgrade for a 2010 iMac

Hi, does anybody know what is a good accessory/spare parts reseller for an 2010 27in iMac? My computer works beautifully, especially after a DIY fusion drive and I don't intend to replace it just yet but there are two things I'd like to explore for it:
1 - a way to upgrade the airport card in it to suppor the newer 802.11ac protocol. even if I cannot upgrade to ac, I need to confirm what good resellers are out there to purchase the n replacement since the card it currently has seems to be failing more and more. All works good, except streaming music from iTunes to AirPort Express speakers, which I do aaaaaaall the time.
2 - see if there's a bluray drive that fits into the computer. I have no issues with the super-drive it has, but I'd like to play bluray movies as well.
Thanks in advance to you all!
Jorge...

Have a look here http://www.quickertek.com/products/QCard2.html
and here http://www.quickertek.com/products/ACNano.html
This should answer your question .

I have a new MBRP. On wired ethernet it can be used as a wireless hotspot. Since 802.11ac gets better range I'd like to use it with 802.11ac as a hotspot for my older 802.11g/ndevices. Can I do that ?

I know that if I use wired ethernet then the MBRP can be a wirelss hotspot for other devices. Since the MBRP supports 802.11ac and I have a new 802.11ac wireless router it gets much better range than my older 802.11/n devices. There are places in teh house where the MBRP connects to the wireless but where older 802.11g/n devices lare out of range. In those rooms I'd like to use my MBRP connected to the network wirelessly using 802.11ac as a hotspot for the nearby 802.11 g/n devices. Anyone know if that can be done and how to do it ?

Turn on Internet Sharing in Sharing preferences. Share the Ethernet connection to wireless.

Does the 702W support 802.11AC

Does the new Cisco 702W AP support 802.11AC standard?? and also like we have site survey image for 3600-I AP, does the 702W also have a site survey image, or I can site-survey jsut with any autonomous firmware on it.
thanks

Hi lovleen.arora
from looking at the cisco documentation for the cisco 702w it does not support 802.11ac
but maximum of 802.11n
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/702W/quick/guide/ap702Wgetstart.html#pgfId-51225
hopefully this helps

2013 MBA with 802.11ac won't choose 5GHz even when faster

I have a 2013 MBA and new (802.11ac) Airport Extreme. With the base station in dual mode (2.4 and 5.2 networks sharing same SSID), the MBA refuses to connect to the 5GhZ network most of the time, even when very close to basestation. This is annoying for wireless Time Machine backups and other high-throughput use cases (files copies to/from network are another). Without moving computer, when I set basestation to use diff name for 5GHz network and then manually select it, transfer speeds go from ~12MB/sec to >40MB/sec (impressive!).
Using iStumbler, I see that the 2.4GHz network indeed shows "better" signal levels, BUT IN THE REAL WORLD the 5GHz link is MUCH faster. What's up with that?
I'd like to go back to dual-mode just for elegance and simplicity. Plus, it seems like a bug.
My question is: Can I force the MBA to always link to 5GHz network, or at least its propensity to pick it despite 2.4GHz link (falsely) appearing to be better?
Thanks!

I actually install large wireless networks professionally, so maybe I can help clear up a few misconceptions.
To the original poster, there really isn't a way at this point to force the MBA to select the 5.0GHz network, but this really isn't a "bug" of the MBA. It's really a missing feature from the AirPort.
Your assumptions on how the client device works are correct. They select the band based on the signal strength (basically Signal to Noise Ratio [SNR]). This is actually a function of the NIC itself and is based in the hardware. Since the vast majority of client NIC cards are manufactured by a couple of companies, it will probably take them a while to change the operation, and for marketing reasons, I don't know if they want to at this point.
The vast majority of people that I encounter every day don't understand that there's more to wireless performance than signal strength. They look at the corner of their device and say, "I have 4 bars, look at how great my network is. Yeah, it's a little slow, but that's just how wireless is". Companies that sell consumer wireless access points are able to say "Cover your house with a single device". I really think that the lack of consumer awareness is what causes trouble for those of us (like the original poster) that understand that there's more to it than that. Even OS-X falls into this marketing bubble. Why do I have to hold down Alt and click on the wireless icon to actually see performance data? In my opinion, the icon should be the Transmit Rate as a number and I hold Alt to see the RSSI when I need to troubleshoot, but that would scare most people. For these marketing reasons, I don't think that you will find client devices selecting 5.0GHz by default until 802.11ac really gains in popularity.
The other option, which wouldn't require a tremendous amount of work on Apple's part is a feature that many enterprise wireless manufacturers refer to as "Band Steering". Basically, the AP (AirPort Base Station) will ask the client for its capabilities. Once it knows that the client is 5GHz capable, it pushes the client over to that frequency and there isn't anything that the client can do about it. If I knew how, I would be requesting that feature as an advanced option of the AirPort product line. That way, those of us that really care about wireless performance are able to get it without having to hack through and broadcast a 2.4GHz network that will basically be unusable in the coming years since the new wireless standard is 5.0GHz only.

802.11ac wifi speeds with the BCM4360 chip and broadcom-wl driver

Hello,
First, some preliminary information:
I'm currently in need of a wireless adapter for my desktop computer. I recently got an Asus RT66U router, so I'm looking for a wireless adapter that supports the 802.11ac standard. The best candidate I've come across is the Asus PCE-AC68, and PCIe based adapter that uses Broadcom's BCM4360 chip, the same wifi chip used in the Late 2013 retina Macbook Pro. It is worth noting that every available 802.11ac compatible PCIe based wireless adapter seemingly uses this chip (I've heard of people having success with 802.11ac speeds using Qualcomm Atheros based wifi adapters and the ath10k driver, but there are no Atheros-based PCIe wireless adapters on the market, as far as I can tell).
The Broadcom BCM4360 chip is not supported by the b43 driver, and I believe it also isn't supported by the brcmsmac driver, since it isn't listed here.
This leaves me with the proprietary broadcom-wl driver, which is listed as supporting the BCM4360.
What I'm interested in learning is how a wireless adapter based on the BCM4360 will perform using the broadcom-wl driver--I don't want to buy a wifi adapter that won't work at its full capacity, after all.
I have found user reports here and here from April 2014 stating that the driver runs BCM4360 based adapters in 802.11a/b/g mode and doesn't allow 802.11n and 802.11ac connections to be made. On the other hand, this user (in a post from June) states that he managed to get ac speeds in Arch simply by changing his router settings. Unfortunately, he doesn't detail what changes he made.
I'm hopeful that the driver was simply updated between April and June and that now BCM4360-based wifi adapters can run at 802.11ac speeds, but as it's closed source, I can't check the commits, and have not been able to find any discussion more recent than what I linked above.
Has anyone had success getting 802.11ac speeds with BCM4360-based wifi adapters and the broadcom-wl driver?
Last edited by aliwho (2014-07-18 22:02:40)

I am currently using the BCM4360 (rev 03) in a MacBook Pro. You are correct in that it does not work with the b43 driver. It mostly works with the proprietary wl driver. I am using the broadcom-wl AUR package. I can confirm that 802.11n works. I am connected right now at 324Mbps (3 .11n spatial streams). I have not tried 802.11ac yet. I will soon, so I will report back.
As for the caveats, it doesn't like 802.1X networks very much. To get it working using wpa_supplicant, I have to reload the wl module. Sometimes when I reload it, it comes back as wlan0 instead of wlp3s0. No idea why. Yet, when I tried it with Network Manager on an Ubuntu live environment, it worked fine. YMMV. It always works fine for me at home on a WPA2-PSK network. If I can pin down something with more consistency, I'll let you know.
For reference:
$ lspci -vnn | grep Network
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03)
According to kernel.org, BCM4360 could be either 14e4:4360 or 14e4:43a0
Last edited by jumperpunk (2014-07-30 17:09:43)

Speed Tests Results for 802.11ac Wireless Connections

Using the new Apple MacBook Air with 802.11ac wireless, I tested copying a file and a folder to both the new 802.11ac AirPort Extreme router housing a USB-connected hard disk and the less recent 802.11n Apple AirPort Extreme router housing a similar USB-connected hard disk.
The results of the tests are summarized in the table below. The movie file was ripped from a DVD movie, and the Microsoft folder is simply the Microsoft Office 2011 folder in my Applications folder containing 14,231 items.
The MacBook Air computer was located 6–8 feet away from each router with no intervening obstructions. While this was not a scientific test, it demonstrated to me that 802.11ac wireless is clearly superior to 802.11n in a real world setting. I assume that the lower relative performance of 802.11ac versus 802.11n for the large folder containing many files is due to overhead in copying and writing files from and to the hard disks. Ditto for the Gigabit Ethernet test.

Great resource for speedtesting: www.speedtest.net
Will show you ping speed, upload/download speeds for your connection. Try for each then post results.

AirPort Extreme 802.11ac boosted w/ 802.11n Express?

for the past year or so I have had a perfect set up that has worked wonderfully. It was an airport extreme hardwired to two different airport expresses. I had a perfect set up all three devices had the exact same Wi-Fi name and all three supported 802.11n. So why ruin a good thing? Well here's why…
recently we have obtained some new Apple devices such as new iPhone sixes and also new MacBook air is. All of our new devices are capable of supporting 802.11ac. So now I have decided to purchase the new airport extreme sixth generation which supports this new protocol of 802.11ac.
My question is this, if I have my main airport extreme configured the same way I used to have it, but now I have airport expresses that do not support this new 802.11ac protocol, am I doing myself a disservice? The boosters are located on our third level in the master bedroom where where most of the surfing is done with the newer 802.11ac devices.
with the brand-new sixth generation extreme located in my basement, most of the house is covered however in the furthest rooms, such as the master bedroom, I have an airport express hardwired and functioning fine. But my question is this how can I be sure that the MacBook air is that support 802.11 ac are actually staying connected to the basement brand-new sixth generation airport extreme instead of the closer proximity airport express?
I wish that my airport express is also supported the new protocol so that I can be sure that my entire house is covered by 802.11ac. There's nothing wrong with using 802.11n, but the reason I purchased the new extreme router was to take advantage of the faster and stronger signal of 802.11ac.
The airport expresses that I am running in my house are the newer white ones that looks to be the same shape as an Apple TV. These are not the ones with the FlipOut prongs that plug directly into the wall but instead they are the ones that have a regular power cord and it look like small little hockey pucks. Well, squares versions of hockey pucks that is.
this entire post was verbally dictated using my iPad air, so hopefully I have caught all of my typos or incorrect wording. But I think you can get the general just of my question here. I was hoping I would not need to use the airport expresses to boost the signal, but I think my home might be too big for one single router located centrally in my basement. I have it as Close to the ceiling as I could get it so the second floor is completely covered and most of the upper floor is covered and the entire basement is covered of course. It's just a few rooms that are above the garage and a few further rooms such as kids bedrooms and very important, the master bathroom. We all know how important that is. Thanks in advance to anybody who can help me with this issue.

if I have my main airport extreme configured the same way I used to have it, but now I have airport expresses that do not support this new 802.11ac protocol, am I doing myself a disservice?
Yes and no.
Yes, if you want "ac" capable devices in a remote location near the AirPort Expresses to connect at "ac" levels......because they won't.
No, if you need the extra range provided by the Express, and don't mind that the "ac" devices connect at slower "n" speeds through the AirPort Express.
But my question is this how can I be sure that the MacBook air is that support 802.11 ac are actually staying connected to the basement brand-new sixth generation airport extreme instead of the closer proximity airport express?
You can't, if all the AirPorts are producing a signal with the same wireless network name......since the MacBook Air will connect to the wireless access point with the strongest signal.....not the AirPort with the fastest signal.
IF....you assigned a different name to the wireless network that the Express devices were creating....then....you could "point" the MacBook Air at the basement AirPort network created by the AirPort Extreme 802.11ac down there.....but chances are, the MacBook Air will never connect at "ac" levels since they are carried on the 5 GHz band, which is much weaker than the 2.4 GHz signals.
In other words, 5 GHz "ac" signals are pretty much "same room" or "line-of-sight" signals. 5 GHz just won't penetrate walls and other obstructions nearly as well as slower, but much stronger 2.4 GHz signals.
The bottom line.....if you want the MacBook Air to connect at "ac" level speeds in the remote location, you will need another AirPort Extreme 802.11ac product in place of at least one AirPort Express, maybe both.

Airport Extreme 802.11ac loses all settings with each power cycle

Pretty much as the title says, each time the brand new 802.11ac Airport Extreme with firmware 7.7.1 is powered on, I have to re-enter all my network data: SSID, unit name, passwords, static IP.
Other than that, it works fine. But it's a hassle if the power is disconnected in which case I face the blinking amber light until I reconfigure it.
Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Unfortunately, the AirPort Extreme is defective, and will need to be replaced.

Airport Extreme 802.11ac configuration issue

Hello all,
I'm hoping someone can help me configure my new Airport Extreme. I have a new Haswell Macbook Air and I thought they would just use 802.11ac automatically. My problem is the Macbook Air is showing as connected with 802.11n, so I can't benefit from faster TM backups for example.
I've updated the router and the computer to the latest firmware/software versions.
Any tips would be much appriciated!

The MCS Index value is telling me that the connection between the MBA & the Extreme is only using two spatial streams. I would expect that the MBA can support three or even four streams connections with the new 802.11ac Extreme. Not sure why yours is not. At this point it is hard to tell if the issue is with the MBA or the Extreme ... or both.
For example, my 2012 MacBook Pro is currently connected to my 4th generation 802.11n AirPort Extreme with MCS value of 23. That would be a three stream connection and I am currently getting 450 Mbps for the Transmit Rate.
I would suggest, if possible, taking both to your local Apple Store to have them checked out.

Upgrading to New Airport Extreme 802.11ac

Good day All, today I purchased a new Airport Extreme 802.11ac which I will use to replace my 5th generation Airport Extreme.
I have saved the configuration file from my old Airport Extreme, can I simply import this same configuration file into my new extreme 802.11ac?
Thanks

Hey GreyWullf,
Thanks for the question. Yes, you can! Check out the following resource:
AirPort Utility 6.x: Import settings
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5081
If you saved a settings file from a base station or an AirPort Time Capsule, or if you were given one by a network administrator, you can import the settings to the base station or the AirPort Time Capsule.
1. Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Select the base station you want to set up, then click Edit.
2. Choose File > Import Configuration File, locate the settings file, then click Open.
3. Make changes to any of the settings in AirPort Utility.
4. Click Update to make the new settings active.
To save a settings file, choose File > Export Configuration File.
Thanks,
Matt M.

Upgrade to new 802.11ac standard

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