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1375 Review
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Review on πŸ“Ά Enhanced HD Acceleration: WD My Net AC1300 HD Dual Band Router with Wireless AC WiFi by Kenny Marozas

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Recommended for apartments, easy setup, reliable connection

Update after several months of daily use: WD My Net AC1300 performed very well. We haven't experienced any crashes caused by the router and I would say the latest firmware is very stable. If you are having problems with your router, be sure to check for a firmware update. (If you've never done this before: Enter the IP address from the manual into a web browser and use the standard login found on the bottom of the router itself. Go to "Settings" and search for a button to check for a firmware update.) In terms of speed, the router isn't really maxed out yet. Our older laptops can't use Wi-Fi ac and only one smartphone actually uses it. Therefore, the hardware using the network, rather than the network itself, impedes file transfer speeds. However, next to the router, my laptop can reach the speed of our internet connection. For most users, this is all they can really rely on. May I recommend the WD My Net AC1300? I think it all depends on where you want to use it. If you live in a large house or want a strong WiFi signal in your backyard or garage, there are probably better routers out there for you. Routers with directional antennas generally provide better coverage of larger areas than routers with built-in antennas. Directional antennas can also be retrofitted if necessary, which is often cheaper than installing a WLAN repeater or access point. If you live in a small house or apartment and don't want your Wi-Fi signal to go too far, the WD My Net AC1300 is definitely a great solution. This is still one of the cheapest Wi-Fi AC routers out there. It also has two USB ports that allow you to connect a printer or hard drive and share them over the network. Original Review September 2013: This was the cheapest dual USB AC WiFi router I could find. It works well in my setup because it only needs to cover the flat. This router does not have the range of some other WiFi AC routers. Get one from Asus if you have a big house or want to cover a large area. I didn't want my network to stretch too far outside of our home so this is perfect for me. Setup was very easy. My laptop (running Vista) actually configured most things automatically when I plugged it into my router. After that I connected to the router via the browser and changed some settings. I would recommend updating the router firmware immediately. My device came with older firmware and after the update I noticed that the performance improved a bit. You can also set up a guest network, switch channels, etc. A pleasant surprise was how easy it was to connect a printer and an external hard drive. I connected the printer (Brother multifunction device) via an ethernet connection and it was automatically recognized and I was able to print from my laptop straight away. I had all the Brother software preinstalled on my laptop. I also have the Brother app on my tablet and I can print from my tablet over the network with no problem. The drive just needs to be plugged into a USB port and the router allows you to set up password protection if you don't want anyone on the network to be able to access the data stored on the drive. I connected a 2.5" WD 500GB hard drive and it worked without any problems. The connection speed was normal. Depending on my location, it usually took about 1 minute to transfer a 1GB file from the hard drive to my laptop (my laptop is outdated and can't use WiFi speed) New laptops, especially those equipped with WiFi AC, should have significantly faster speeds I have a WiFi AC router to secure our network in the future. So I disabled WiFi AC via router settings, now it only broadcasts WiFi g signal in 5GHz range.

Pros
  • New to my collection
Cons
  • is embarrassing