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Buy Current (5th) Gen AEBS?

V

Val-kyrie

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 13, 2005
2,107
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There is currently a deal at J&R on the current 5th gen AEBS for $155 with Free Shipping (listed at techbargains.com). I have considered waiting for the upcoming AEBS with the 802.11AC spec, but I have many devices, including my iPhone 4, which use only the 2.4GHz band of G or N and it appears that the new AC band is limited to 5GHz. If the new AC is limited to 5GHz, this would also eliminate the possibility of using my old WRT-54G Linksys router to extend my wireless network to older devices. My current internet doesn't even exceed the capabilities of 802.11G and can't be upgraded past the capabilities of 802.11N.

So, three questions:
(1) Is the new 802.11AC really limited to 5GHz?
(2) $155 for a new, current gen AEBS is a very good price, but do you think pricing will go lower with the introduction of an 802.11AC AEBS?
(3) Is anyone else considering purchasing an AEBS 802.11N before the release of an 802.11AC model for the purpose of backwards compatibility?

(No, I don't think Apple cares about backwards compatibility; hence question 1. Apple will just tell you to upgrade all of your devices, including the iPhone, if your devices use 2.4GHz and the AC spec is 5GHz only.)
 
I'll expand on h00ligan's recommendation.

Two reasons you might consider buying now:
  1. You have several wireless clients that need to talk to each other at high speeds (such as a LAN gaming party).
  2. You are constructing an :apple:tv-based entertainment system and need the AEBS's built-in Bonjour proxy.
Otherwise, it's probably safe to wait.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I was asking because it is not an urgent priority, but I would like to upgrade in the future, but I really need 2.4GHz for my devices.

I do hope Apple creates a dual-network dual-band device.
 
h00ligan said:
Legacy iPhone and iPad only work on 2.4. Even though they are n. iirc.
Click to expand...

You are correct. That is why I was/am considering purchasing an AEBS before it gets updated to 802.11AC. I am not so convinced Apple will sell a dual-band device that includes 2.4GHz. I could envision Apple selling a dual-band device, however, that is only 5GHz but is labeled 'dual-band' because it supports N (5GHz only) and AC (5GHz only).
 
I highly doubt that the future Airport Extreme - when it supports 802.11ac - will drop support for the 2.4GHz bands. It will likely be a dual-band router, supporting 802.11b/g/n on 2.4GHz and 802.11a/n/ac on 5GHz.

It will likely be marginally faster on 2.4GHz, as recent updates have improved the antennas and broadcast power even on 2.4GHz - but you won't see the big jump until you have 802.11ac devices (or one 802.11ac device talking to an ethernet device, etc.).
 
I may be completely off base but wasn't that new standard just announced? I think it's going to be a long time befor it ships.
 
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