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I'm planning to purchase an USB Wifi adapter to connect to my wifi which uses 802.11n mode. Can I connect a 802.11ac Wifi adapter to this network or do I need to find specifically a 802.11n USB adapter ?

WizLiz
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    Most (maybe even all) AC hardware is backwards compatible with N, G and B, but you'll want to verify the specs of the adapter you decide to buy. – heavyd Jan 09 '15 at 20:06
  • It will work fine; AC hardware is backward-compatible with older hardware. You just won't get the speed benefits of AC unless you upgrade your router. – tlng05 Jan 09 '15 at 20:07
  • You should verify what is and what isn't possible based on the exact feature specifications of the device your interested in. You didn't provide this information so we can only provide a generic answer which isn't very helpful. – Ramhound Jan 09 '15 at 20:10
  • Related: [802.11ac mixed with 802.11g devices- will this cause slowdowns?](http://superuser.com/questions/614298/802-11ac-mixed-with-802-11g-devices-will-this-cause-slowdowns) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Jan 09 '15 at 20:14

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Generally, WiFi is as compatible as possible. Meaning you can connect to older networks with newer devices and use older devices in newer networks. (There are performance implications to using 11b devices in newer networks though.) Also, you need to consider encryption. WPA2 is mandatory with 11n and probably with 11ac, too. The only alternative is going entirely unencrypted, which is, of course, a considerable security risk.

That being said, there’s also the fact that WiFi can use both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz band today. 11ac is limited to the 5 GHz band. So what you really need to look for is an adapter that does both. Although I haven’t heard of adapters only supporting 5 GHz, it doesn’t hurt to check.

Daniel B
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  • Are you sure 802.11ac is only limited to 5Ghz because I am almost certain the router I have is a dual-band 802.11ac router and I can configure both bands to only accept 802.11ac devices – Ramhound Jan 09 '15 at 20:12
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    @Ramhound Yes, absolutely. The 2.4 GHz band cannot accommodate 80 MHz channels. – Daniel B Jan 09 '15 at 20:14
  • I will have to verify what my router can actually do then. – Ramhound Jan 09 '15 at 20:14