WD My Net AC1300 Pro Reviews

Given the similarity of designs, the first crop of draft 802.11ac routers have tended to be more alike than different. Among the three AC1750 routers tested or retested with our new wireless test process, the WD My Net AC1300 clearly performs more like the Linksys EA6500 than the ASUS RT-AC66U. Of the three, the ASUS has the edge in both wired routing and wireless performance, and sits in the #1 position in the Router Ranker for AC1750 class routers. Between the Linksys EA6500 and the My Net AC1300, the Linksys does a bit better for wired routing throughput, but ranks behind the WD for both wireless throughput and wireless range. Where the WD shines however, is in value. Both Linksys and ASUS are keeping their offerings up closer to $200, while you can pick up the My Net AC1300 for closer to $150. With lower price, comparable performance and easy-to-use remote access to files stored on a hosted USB drive via WD 2go, the WD My Net AC1300 could be the router for you if you're looking for a top-end draft 802.11ac router.

Western Digital's My AC1300 is very strong on the 5GHz band; less so on the 2.4GHz band. While it lacks a few advanced router features, most consumers won't miss them.

Western Digital's MyNet AC1300 $182.56 at Amazon is the company's first pre-draft 802.11ac router. Western Digital only recently got into the wireless router market with its debut router, the MyNet N900$169.99 at Walmart.com this past summer. While the MyNet N900 is a surprisingly good first effort, the AC1300, when tested in 11ac mode, gave some of the lowest throughput we've seen among the current crop of 11ac routers; lost its Internet connection a couple times; and did not provide the QoS streaming improvements we saw with the N900. On the plus side, the AC1300 provides excellent throughput at 5GHz in 802.11n and offers the same uncomplicated setup and attractive interface of the N900. Still, on the merits of 11ac alone, there are better pre-draft 11ac routers. Western Digital's own MyNet N900 is a more impressive router in general.