Published on May 24th, 2013 | by Guest

Buying the best wireless router

This is the age when everything revolves around the internet and it is extremely unbearable to imagine life without it. The internet has become one of the most important things in our lives. With the internet it is really easy to find out everything you need and want to know and you can do all this from the comfort of your living room. A wireless router provides your entire home with an internet connection.

You want the best for your loved ones so you will provide them the best internet connectivity for their needs. If they don’t use the internet enough, it doesn’t have to be the fastest connection. However, if they are 24/7 on the internet and transferring large amounts of data, then it is probably best if the connection is as fast as it can be. Here are some things you can keep in mind while buying a wireless router for your home.

One of the things you can check is the range of the wireless router. It would be great if you can find a router with a range that is bigger than the size of your house or apartment so as to be sure that you have good signal for your entire home. Keep in mind that walls can weaken the signal strength of the router.

Now, when it comes to using the internet, there are two kinds of routers. Dual band and single band. Routers send and receive data on two frequencies, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Single band uses 2.4 GHz and dual band uses both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. If you use the internet for everyday browsing and you have a small number of devices attached to the internet, single band is enough for you. But, if you use the internet for more stuff, like sending large files like music and video, then the better solution is a dual band router. It has faster connectivity, stronger signal and allows more devices to be connected to it. You can send files with single band as well, but you’ll have to wait longer for files to be sent in case a lot of devices are connected. Dual band is a better solution with better performance and that makes it more expensive than single band routers.

Before buying a wireless router for yourself and your family, you need to find out how the internet is used in your home, how much it is used and for what.

Today, there are many routers with good performance and specifications and only details can tell which one is the best. In my opinion, the two best ones are Asus RT-N66U and D-Link DIR 857. It is up to you to decide which one is better.
Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight Double 450 Mbps N Router

The Dark Knight is wireless router. But like its name says, it is black in color and doesn’t look like a router at all. It is more like a plain box due to its simple design, with detachable antennas in the back. This router is dual band, meaning it works on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency, offering 450 Mbps, which is pretty impressive. It is a quite fast router, as it can send a 500 MB file in 20 seconds. At 100 feet distance it still has very good speed, about 150 Mbps at 5 GHz and 45 Mbps at 2.4 GHz. The maximum range on both bands is about 300 feet, which is more than enough for connectivity in an ordinary home. USB ports on the back of the router are suited for printers and USB devices, so you can also turn the router into a printer server.

D-Link DIR 857 HD Media Router 3000

D-Link DIR 857 is a three stream N version wireless router, which is capable of link rates of up to 450 Mbps on 2.4 and 5 GHz. DIR 857 is also black in colour, but your fingerprints stay if you touch its surface, which means you’ll have to clean it often. This router offers an interesting feature and that is a guest network, which can be on both bands, and this network is a new one isolated network from the existing one. General performance is very good. At 100 feet distance it has 172 Mbps on 5 GHz and 30 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, which is enough for casual surfing on the internet.

A guest post by:

Phillip, a tech enthusiast, dedicates his time to test different devices. He made websites to help others with his knowledge. One of his sites is Best Wireless Router.

Tags: asus, band, buying, connectivity, DLink, netgear, router, wireless