What will replace the WN2500RP with 802.11ac functionality, without being a repeater?

[MamaBear2016]

I'm a Comcast customer in the Denver area, have my own TM822G being used as a modem only, and just upgraded my own router from a RT-N66U to a WRT 1900ACS.

I don't know the differences between some of these things, but suspect I may be using the wrong adapters in the bedrooms, for years now. A few years ago when I wanted to switch to 5GHz, I bought a NETGEAR WN2500RP DUAL BAND WIFI ADAPTER for one bedroom, and a TP LINK DUAL BAND WIFI ADAPTER TL-WA890EA for the other bedroom. I didn't intend for these to be repeaters and am not sure if the repeater parts of them can even be turned off, but I've been using them purely for receiving wifi from the router in the middle of the house, and ethernet cabling it from these adapters into blu rays and the Hopper box, for using the wifi network to get Netflix and Hulu Plus. But come to think of it, I do see smaller signals at times, with apparently extended names like ...5G_5GEXT and even ...5G_2GEXT, which band I'm not even on - the 2.4Ghz router radio is turned OFF. So repeaters?

But assuming I really don't WANT repeaters and cant shut off the repeaters in these, I'm thinking of getting a couple of new boxes that don't have repeaters, but can still do these things for us, AND would have 802.11ac functionality as well, for example helping the WRT 1900ACS with beamforming.

So what kind of adapter boxes should I be looking for now, to replace these two with 802.11ac functionality, without being repeaters, and what exactly are such adapters CALLED? Would they just be "wireless access points" that can receive my wifi router signal and put it, via ethernet, into blu ray player and Hopper? Or what?

What will replace the WN2500RP with 802.11ac functionality, without being a repeater?

The NETGEAR Dual Band 802.11ac Wireless Access Point (WAC104-100NAS) on Amazon looks nice, and affordable, but will that do what I need and not be a repeater?

[netwrks · Accepted solution]

The WAC104 is described as an Access Point, which means, once configured, you Ethernet connect from a port on the WAC104 back to your base router.  That will expand your wireless in your environment. You can also configure the WN2500RP as an Access Point. manual - Page 16. Any Access point that is added should use different wireless channels (2.4ghz non-overlapping 1,6,or11) and upper channels for 5ghz). Never leave wireless channels at auto. The LAN ports on the AP's can be used to connect other devices on your network. If you run out of ports on your base router (WRT 1900ACS), you can pick an unmanaged gig switch (5-8 port) for cheap. 

[netwrks · Accepted solution]

The WAC104 is described as an Access Point, which means, once configured, you Ethernet connect from a port on the WAC104 back to your base router.  That will expand your wireless in your environment. You can also configure the WN2500RP as an Access Point. manual - Page 16. Any Access point that is added should use different wireless channels (2.4ghz non-overlapping 1,6,or11) and upper channels for 5ghz). Never leave wireless channels at auto. The LAN ports on the AP's can be used to connect other devices on your network. If you run out of ports on your base router (WRT 1900ACS), you can pick an unmanaged gig switch (5-8 port) for cheap. 

[MamaBear2016]

Thanks! We don't need much - just to connect via wifi to the bedrooms and go into the blu rays in both, and the Hopper in one of these bedrooms. Not sure how to do that thing with using different channels, though. Gotta figure that out. I think everything is on auto now. ( the WN2500RP is working, but of course it's not likely configured as an access point, and not being 802.11ac, it doesn't talk back to the router?

Looking  at the manual for the WN2500RP, I see:

For product available in the USA market, only channel 1~11 can be operated. Selection of other channels is not
possible.

Not sure if that's just the channels it TRANSMITS on, but my router is transmitting successfully to this unit on channel 151.

[MamaBear2016]

Actually, the original TP LINK DUAL BAND WIFI ADAPTER TL-WA890EA appears to be doing just what we need, just NOT with 802.11ac.

In the intro, it says:

1.1 Product Overview
The N600 Universal Dual Band WiFi Entertainment Adapter with 4 Ports TL-WA890EA can bring
all of your home or office’s Internet-enabled devices into the world of wireless.
By connecting them to TL-WA890EA, the entertainment devices in your home that previously
required running Ethernet cables around furniture, through walls and doorways can now be
connected to your network wirelessly, without the risk of degrading performance. With N600 dual
band wireless speeds and four LAN ports, TL-WA890EA provides your devices with ample
bandwidth for smooth HD video and music streaming and online gaming. What’s more, the N600
Universal Dual Band WiFi Entertainment Adapter with 4 Ports TL-WA890EA is universally
compatible with all Internet-enabled devices, so if it has an Ethernet port, you can make it wireless
in a flash.
1.2 Main Features
 Gives wired-only devices (such as Smart TVs, Games Consoles, Blu-ray players, etc.) access
to an existing Wi-Fi network
 Dual band performance, 300Mbps wireless speed over 5GHz or 2.4GHz
 Universally compatible - works with any device with an Ethernet port
 Works seamlessly with all 802.11a/b/g/n devices
 Easy wireless security encryption at a push of the WPS button
 CD-less installation

So it doesn't appear to be acting as a repeater or anything - JUST acting as an "Adapter", to bring the wifi to some ethernet ports that hook to our blu ray player in the bedroom, and Hopper ( if it was in that bedroom ) to bring internet to them.

So all I need is a simple inexpensive version of this box, that also does 802.11ac. But what is it called?