How to buy a wireless router

A wireless router is a networking device which acts likes a router and also like an access point. As a router, this device manages data between internet cable and any device of your network. As an access point, it makes sure that this data should be sent as radio signals rather than ethernet cable only.

In order to get your wifi router in a working position, you just need to plug an ethernet cable into your router and done. Now any wifi-enabled devices such as your laptop, smartphone or Tablet can connect to this router and internet. Apart from providing the internet, a wifi router can also do different things such as network storage, media distributions and making calls over the internet etc.

Now the question is, how to get a router that is good for your needs. If you look in the market, there are A LOT of options. To make your task a little easier, here are some of the tricks you can use.

The first question you should ask yourself is that do you even need a wifi router? If you have a wired connection Or if you have a single desktop computer to manage, then there’s no need for a wifi router. A simple router would do the job.

But if you have a large set of gadgets like a gaming console, a smartphone, or a tablet, then a wireless router is a must to a seamless networking experience.

New WiFi standards

There are many WiFi standards like 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n and the latest one, 802.11ac. These aren’t just numbers, they all have different standards. The 802.11ac standard can deliver speed up to 5.3Gbps, provided that your internet provider support that much speed.

But one thing you should keep in my mind that to achieve that much speed the device you’re using, such as your smartphone, should also support AC standard. If they don’t support AC, then you won’t get that much speed. But if you buy a latest wireless router, you’re basically future-proofing a home network because you won’t need to replace it even after 5-6 years.

Dual-band vs Tri-Band router

These are the two most common types of routers available in the market. In Dual-band router, lower 2.4GHz band is used to handle less intensive task such as internet browsing, email checking etc, while 5GHz band, which is the second one, is used to do much heavier tasks such as 4K video streaming or online gaming etc.

Tri-band routers have all the things that Dual-band routers have plus a spare 5GHz band to handle some extra devices if they are. As you can see, the real strength of a tri-band router lies in its ability to handle much more devices than a tri-band router.

Some other things

At last, there are some other things you should note in a wifi router such as QoS, DD-WRT and what type of USB-ports it supports. QoS is an abbreviation of Quality of Service. In basic terms, it describes how your router handles traffic. Let’s imagine, you’re playing an online game while some other user in your network is streaming HD videos. Doing both of these tasks simultaneously can take a lot of time. If this is the case then you can prioritize which task should be given preference.