Linksys LAPAC2600 Vs Netgear WAC740 Wireless AC Access Point

For many people, they need a high performance wireless network in offices to support your businesses with the emerging of mobile devices with built-in wifi adapters to connect to existing wifi network. With high density clients in your businesses, home wifi AP such as TP-link AP500 is not appropriate to accommodate business need. Linksys LAPAC2600 is one of business class wireless ac access point to meet your businesses.

What this product does

Linksys LAPAC2600 is a compact device, wall mount or ceiling mount model blending with your wall or ceiling decoration, good looking in offices environment.

4x data streams

The equipment is based on wireless AC2600 with 4 data streams technology delivering aggregated bandwidth of up to 2,530Mbps; up to 800Mbps @2.4Ghz plus up to 1,1750Mbps @5Ghz band. The previous model is LAPAC1750 which comes with 3x data stream technology (see also Negear WAC730 and Linksys LAPAC1750 wireless AC access point with 3 data streams). They are all based on traditional 80Mhz channel width data streams technology.

Linksys introduces new Linksys WRT AC3200 routers based on 3 data streams of 160Mhz channel width technology delivering total bandwidth of 3x867Mbps (2.6Gbps) @5Ghz band.

MU-MIMO

LAPAC2600 supports Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology to deliver multiple data to multiple wifi clients (with MU-MIMO compliant devices) simultaneously as contrarily to non MU-MIMO product that delivers data to multiple clients one by one. In new wave 2 wireless technology, MU-MIMO is one of its feature to boost the performance of data rate throughput in high density clients.

Linksys LAPAC2600 wireless ac2600 Access Point

New models of next generation of wireless AD routers such as TP-link Talon AD7200 and Netgear Nighthawk X10 come with this MU-MIMO feature. and new models of home wifi system Orbi by Netgear is also featuring MU-MIMO.

As a nutshell, the following lists the highlights of this product.

Highlights LAPAC2600

• Based on wireless AC2600 with MU-MIMO technology
• 4x data streams technology
• 4×4 dual band delivering total bandwidth of up to 2.53Gbps (1,750Mbps + 800Mbps)
• Single point control for clustering and captive portal
• 1x Gigabit POE port and 1x Gigabit uplink port
• Multi mode operations – WAP; WDS and wireless bridge

With POE supports, you need a POE switch to support all of the POE access point devices to connect to the switch to eliminate the hassle of providing power outlet on ceiling or on the wall. One UTP CAT5e or CAT6 cable for transmitting both data and power makes installation is easier.

Linksys Vs Netgear

Now, let’s compare Linksys LAPAC2600 with its competing product Netgear WAC740 which is the ultimate wireless ac access point product offered by Netgear. To help you compare the two products, the easiest way is to present the spec comparison in the following comparison table.

Wifi technology

Unlike Linksys LAPAC2600 which is designed based on wave 1 wireless ac technology, Netgear WAC740 is designed based on wave 2 wireless ac technology. Wave 2 standard could open the door for gigabit wifi thus supports more connected devices with MU-MIMO technology. Wave 2 is also available option of 160Mhz channel width for higher bandwidth support.

Ethernet Ports

So far, you might not find a single Ethernet port that deliver data speeds up to 2Gbps unless in some high end routers you can configure two teaming ports for two gigabit port aggregation such as Asus wireless AC5300 router and Netgear Nighthawk X8 wireless AC5400 router. But Netgear WAC740 offers 1x 2,500Mbps Ethernet POE port in addition of 1x 1,000Mbps Ethernet uplink port. With the wave 2 ac technology the availability of 2.5 Gigabit POE Ethernet port is valuable for more data rate throughput to the network, more connected wifi clients to network with high performance connection, eliminating network bottleneck and saturation.

Management

Netgear WAC740 offers better performance with wave 2 wifi technology and with multi-gigabit Ethernet port. However, you need separate hardware controller to manage the APs, you need either WC7500/7600/9500 for management controller. Linksys doesn’t need hardware controller. You may also consider Ubiquiti Unifi series – business class wireless ac access point with affordable price that allows you manage multi-site networks easily with controller software such as Ubiquiti UAP-PRO-AC.

Take a look more detail on the table, other spec differences if any between Linksys LAPAC2600 and Netgear WAC740.

Table 1 Linksys LAPAC2600 Vs Netgear WAC740

You may also consider Aruba IAP-205 for medium business that may contain up to 16 APs and with single AP to act as the primary virtual controller that will failover to another AP when this primary AP fails. Or you may also consider Cisco Meraki M32 for enterprise – a cloud managed AP with multi sites.

Summary

Linksys LAPAC2600 is business class wireless ac access point delivering aggregated bandwidth of up to 2,535Mbps dual band with 4×4 MU-MIMO technology with business class security features. Unlike Linksys, Netgear WAC740 requires hardware controller for networking management.