D-Link's First 802.11ac Wireless Router Hits Shelves

It's been quite awhile since a new wireless networking standard has appeared on the mainstream home router scene, but that stretch is coming to an end with the arrival of devices supporting 802.11ac. Today, D-Link joins the club with its Cloud Router 5700 (DIR-865L), which is at online retailers for $189.99.

The 5700 boasts total theoretical speeds of 1750Mbps, thanks to some fancy Wi-Fi footwork: the 5GHz 802.11ac signal maxes at 1300Mbps, and the Wirelss-N signal provides 450Mbps. You won't see these speeds at home, of course, but it's safe to bet that the router will blow away the Wireless-N gadget sitting on your desk or wall right now. Heavy network users will welcome the improved performance. And because it sticks to the 5GHz range, you'll encounter less congestion than you might with devices that use both 5GHz and 2.4GHz ranges.

Other noteworthy features on 5700 include four Gigabit Ethernet ports, SPI and WPA2 security, and support for IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protcol. With a name like Cloud Router 5700, it's not surprising that the router has D-Link's mydlink Cloud Services. One is remote monitoring of Internet activity. Another lets you connect a USB drive to the router and share any media on it with your connected devices, including iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.