How to Choose the Best Router for Home WiFi Connectivity?
Thinking about buying a new router for your house? Great! But, do you know what the router should have. Are you familiar with the different router specifications? Well, if so, this post might not serve you any better. However, in case you are a new buyer, we recommend you go through each point given below. You will know how to choose the best router for your home WiFi network.
Each point mentioned below talks about the key specifications of a router. Therefore, you should understand each point with a deeper understanding. This is to ensure that you don’t choose the wrong router. Let’s help you get the best router without wasting any more time.
What to Look for in a Router While Buying?
Connectivity
You need to connect a router to different wireless and wired devices. Hence, it is important to know whether the chosen router supports multiple device compatibility. You must check the number of ports available to link devices that do not support wireless connections. Furthermore, it should have ports suitable for multiple devices. There should be enough ports even if they stay unused.
Bandwidth
It becomes a major concern when you have multiple users. Because, when users grow, you need more bandwidth for your host router. If it is not there for your router, the users might have to compromise. Even the chosen router will seem slow at processing data transmission if it has lower bandwidth. Make sure you get a device that supports higher bandwidth.
Wireless Technology
WiFi technology has become pretty advanced over the ages. At the latest, you should get WiFi 6. It offers smoother and faster data transmission. You don’t have to suffer from slow speed even when multiple users are active on the network. Even if you access the router login page during HD movies streaming, there won’t be a fuss. WiFi 6 technology is backward-compatible to ensure your old devices can use it.
Security
We must say that without proper security, your router is open to cyber threats. Hence, you must choose a router that has at least WPA or WPA2 technology. These help you password protect your router. Different routers have firewall software to keep viruses and malware at bay. Furthermore, make sure your router has a MAC address filtering feature. Thus, you get to add specific devices to your network list.
Updates
Does your chosen router support automatic updates? No? Well, in that case, you will have to update your router manually. That is going to be a longer process. If you wish to stay away from such a hassle, you should choose a router that has an auto-update feature. Furthermore, the updates should run in the background. It won’t hamper your access to the router and its other functions. Make sure you access the login page by using the 192.168.1.1 IP to check for updated and auto-updates.
Guest Networks
If you don’t wish to share your network and space, guest networks are beneficial. These act as an additional layer to keep unauthorized yet allowed users on your network. For instance, you can give guest network access to your relatives. It allows you to enjoy your privacy. Furthermore, you can simply deactivate your guest network once the guests are gone.
QoS Controls
Also known as Quality of Service (QoS) controls, it helps you control the data transmission on your router. Apart from controlling upstream and downstream data, you can decide what can be shared. Moreover, you can decide the bandwidth for different users so that each can enjoy and have the best user experience. You should ensure that your chosen router has this feature that allows better network monitoring.
Conclusion
All the characteristics mentioned above are going to help choose the best routers. You might have to compromise one or two features if your budget is low. However, we suggest you buy a router having the latest technology and connectivity. Install it to make your current WiFi signals strong.
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