This is not the most powerful Wi-Fi router for home, but for its price category it is not bad and worthy to be in our rating. In addition to wired connection, it supports modem connection via USB port, catches LTE, 3G/4G networks. Three 100 Megabit LAN ports are usually enough for an average family, the total bandwidth of the Wi-Fi subnet is 300 Mbps. Having built-in MIMO 2×2 support allows for up to 3 high-speed air connections at the same time.
Top 10 Wi-Fi routers for home use
The technical revolution of the XXI century rushed into our homes in passing. With the advent of high-speed Internet the number of all kinds of equipment, requiring network access, began to increase rapidly. From televisions and set-top boxes to smartphones and computers, the average family today may have up to 10 gadgets that require the Internet to work properly.
A device called a router among professionals makes this possible, but it has another, shorter name – router.
And although this name is usually prefixed with Wi-Fi, routers, even the simplest ones intended for home use, offer both wireless and wired connection of devices. There are a huge number of models of such boxes on the market today, with or without external antennae amplifiers, when signal amplifiers are hidden inside. It is no wonder that many people find it difficult to choose a home router – after all, those models, which two to three years ago were considered the best, today are no longer mentioned in various ratings, and there is no way to buy them due to the cessation of production.
The main criteria for choosing a router for home use
Like any electronic device, a router has a processor, operational and non-volatile memory, which stores specialized software. The main task of any router is to distribute the incoming stream of binary information from the outside to many users, and in a reciprocal direction. With many gadgets exchanging data with the outside world, this task becomes non-trivial, because incoming traffic must be distributed more or less evenly among all users.
Cheap NoName devices do not cope so well, there are failures and hang-ups, which, of course, is not good. But products from well-known manufacturers do not, as a rule, suffer from such diseases.
But to choose the best router for your home in 2020, you need to know what to pay attention to first when choosing a device.
The type of connection used by your Internet provider
ADSL routers that use a telephone line to transmit Internet traffic do not provide acceptable speeds. But if your area of residence does not have other Internet service providers (usually in rural areas), this is one possible solution. An alternative is to use routers with built-in LTE modem or the possibility of using an external modem connected via USB connector. In the latter case, you need to make sure that the equipment is compatible. But even here, you can not count on high speed. The best solution is to transmit traffic over a wired Ethernet line. Many providers provide signal delivery to the house/entrance via fiber optic, installing intermediate equipment to enable the router to connect in the standard way, via the RJ-45 connector.
Number of devices connected via cable
Before buying, calculate how many gadgets can be connected to the network by cable. It is believed that such a connection is faster and more reliable than a wireless one. The standard for home routers is four such ports, but there can be fewer or more.
Common myths about wireless WiFi routers
- More antennas does not mean a stronger signal
- A signal that supposedly passes through walls "easily" is just a trick.
- A good wireless signal doesn't mean high network speeds, it also depends on the hardware and software performance of the WiFi router.
- Don't just look at the Wi-Fi speed, which the salesperson always praises, check the WAN and LAN port speeds.
So, what to look for when buying a wireless Wi-Fi router, here are some tips for you.
Speed
The speed of a wireless Wi-Fi router depends on three features. You should check all three of these features:
WAN port speed: The Wan port is the input port of the wireless router the network is connected to, it limits the maximum speed of your router directly, if your WAN port has an upper speed limit of only 50Mb, no matter how good your broadband Internet access is, the network will be limited to those 50Mb.
LAN Port Speed: LAN ports are for wired network connections, at home they are usually used for TVs and computers. Like Wan port speed, Lan port speed directly determines the speed limit of the device to which it is connected, so we highly recommend buying Wi-Fi routers with higher Wan/Lan port speeds, especially those with Wan port speeds.
Wireless WIFI speed: This is the speed that sellers and manufacturers always tell you. The maximum network speed of a single 2.4G antenna is about 150 Mbps, and the maximum network speed of a 5G antenna is about 433 Mbps. So, the speed of all the antennas is the overall Wi-Fi signal speed of your router. That's why we tell you that more antennas doesn't mean a stronger signal.
When choosing a WiFi router, we recommend that you consider all these 3 features, while most sellers only tell you about the wireless Wi-Fi speed, and the Wan/Lan port speed may be too low to match the wireless Wi-Fi speed. So before you buy something, make sure the sellers are not fooling you.
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