Western Digital My Net AC1300 review: A fast 802.11ac router from a surprising source - stainbrookmork1972

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Easy to set up
Superior performance as an 802.11ac router
Lacks civilized router features, including WDS, VPN, and cloud services

Cons

DLNA, ftp, and iTunes servers
Slow carrying out as a 802.11n router on the 2.4GHz dance band
Selfsame slow reading a single gigantic data file from USB hard drive out

Our Finding of fact

Westerly Member's My AC1300 is real strong on the 5GHz band; less so happening the 2.4GHz band. While it lacks a couple of advanced router features, just about consumers won't miss them.

Western Digital entered the networking market in 2012 with an 802.11n router. The company has now delivered not lonesome its 1st 802.11ac Draft 2.0 router—the My Net AC1300—but also its first 802.11ac bridgework, the My Net AC Bridge over (you can read that review hither). Indeed what does a company that builds entrepot devices acknowledge about scheming wireless networking computer hardware? Enough to deliver a light spanking to the best WI-Fi router we've tested, the Asus RT-AC66U—leastways happening the 5GHz band.

The My Net AC1300 delivered great carrying out as an 802.11ac router, besting the Asus RT-AC66U and the Linksys EA6500 in two of three test locations.

But merely outperforming the RT-AC66U on a brace of benchmarks isn't sufficiency to rap Asus's router out of our incomparable-of-the-best ranking: Western Digital's router is rapid enough on the 5GHz frequency band, but it offers fewer features and services than the Asus product does. It too delivered considerably lower 802.11n performance on the 2.4GHz lo.

Western Extremity's router was much less impressive operating as an 802.11n router on the 2.4GHz band.

We distrust that the AC1300's bad 802.11n performance is due to WD's decision to use intimate antennas in a horizontally oriented enclosure (it has no victuals for fence in mounting). Asus remains one of the few router manufacturers to employ extraneous dipole antenna antennas that the user crapper position for maximum browse and performance, and its router can stay horizontal on a stand or hang vertically on a wall. But then, WD's router doesn't call some attention to itself, while Asus's screams "I'm a router!" We think performance trumps decor, but you might feel differently.

The AC1300 is easy to order and doesn't require an installation disc; you only log in to the router to see a graphical user interface with seven large icons arranged across the top. The interface doesn't look as silky as the one that Cisco provides with its EA6500 802.11ac router, but information technology is intuitive enough to figure impossible without your needing to resort hotel to a user manual of arms.

The AC1300's user interface isn't fancy, but it is arranged out logically; the router is easy to curing up, as well.

The router comes with WPA2 security preconfigured, with easy-to-remember passwords assigned to both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios (ours came from the factory with the password "19PinkTuna" assigned to both). You can, of course, change the factory-appointed SSIDs and passwords to whatever you ilk. The unit also supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup, which enables you to connect node devices by pushy buttons. You can operate on guest networks along both frequency bands, but these are injured by nonremittal and do not have preconfigured security.

Thanks to dual USB 2.0 ports, you stern attach some a USB printing machine and a USB storage device to the AC1300 and share attached devices all over the network. In addition to the emblematic UPnP server, WD also provides DLNA, iTunes, and FTP servers. The Asus RT-AC66U, however, delivers each of those features plus a Obechi server, an integrated BitTorrent client, and a VPN eliminate-through with for secure outback network access. And unlike Asus (with the RT-AC66U) surgery Cisco (with the Linksys EA6500), Western Digital offers no overcast-based features that enable you to access your network or your meshing-attached storage remotely.

If you think up you'll use a USB semihard drive for network-involved storage, the Asus RT-AC66U is the router to buy—it's significantly faster than anything other we've tested.

The AC1300 is also weak in parental controls, although we're non big advocates of much engineering in the first put together; we consider that the better strategy is to talk to your kids about the seamy side of the Net, and past sustain the family PC in a well-traveled way. If you don't think that strategy is adequate, you can program the AC1300 to auction block Internet approach (on a per-node base). You can also limit the count of hours that to each one device can entree the Internet (with disparate schedules for weekends and weekdays), and you can block specific URLs (although you're limited to just eight). If you have a equipotent interest in parental controls, you'll Be happier with a paid third-party service—such as OpenDNS—that will curate the Web for you.

We benchmarked the AC1300 alongside some the Asus RT-AC66U (our consultation-point router) and Coregonus artedi's Linksys EA6500 router. The WD twist lagged the Asus importantly on the 2.4GHz band (we paired the routers with the Intel Eventual-N Centrino 6300 adapter integrated into an AVADirect gaming laptop), simply its performance was on a par therewith of the Linksys device. When we measured 802.11ac performance happening the 5GHz band using the Linksys WUMC710 802.11ac bridgework, however, the AC1300 pulled out wins in the least triplet of our exam locations (at distances of 9, 35, and 65 feet, respectively). The AC1300 performed even better when we paired it with WD's own 802.11ac bridge (the RT-AC66U as wel did improved with this bridge—peculiarly at a abundant distance).

When we upturned our attention to performance with network-attached storage (we joined a 500GB Western Digital My Passport drive to the router) and hardwired the client, the AC1300 fell significantly can the Asus and Linksys routers when version a only large file out from the movement; it took indorsement place, though, when penning that identical large file, as well as when reading and writing a batch of small files to and from the attached USB drive. The Asus router dominated the field in all quaternity of these benchmarks.

Western Whole number is a fledgling to wireless networking, but the company has made an impressive enamour. Although the Asus RT-AC66U remains our top pick in this category, WD's My Net AC1300 is a strong contender—especially for masses with less experience stage setting up a wireless network.