Although we don’t change it as much as with other devices, a good router is crucial if we want to have a connection that matches what we are paying our operator. You may be more familiar with the criteria that tell you if a Smart TV or a smartphone is good or not, but choosing your router well also has its crumb .
To give you a hand in this, below we are going to tell you what criteria you should follow when choosing a new router and what you should look for to decide if it is good or not.
WiFi is key a good router
Either for convenience or for the number of devices we have in our connected home, the wireless connection has become the most used by the majority of average users.
In this way, it is practically necessary to have at least the WiFi 6 standard as compatible in our router (or make the leap to WiFi 6E that enables the 6GHz band to have even more speed). With each evolution of the WiFi standard we have more real speed, more coverage or less latency.
To help its propagation, we should also consider the number of antennas that our WiFi router has, since a good dispersion of the wireless signal at its source can come in handy to avoid later need for amplifiers, WiFi Mesh, or any other formula to expand Wi-Fi range. As a minimum we should consider a router that has at least two antennas .
Ethernet and USB ports
The LAN and WAN ports should be at least Gigabit Ethernet as a minimum , although it would be highly recommended that some of these ports be 2.5G Multigigabit Ethernet, in order not to have any kind of bottleneck. The latest and high-end models have 2 ports of the latter type, one for the LAN and one for the WAN. If you find a good purchase option for a model with 10G ports, well, great, but for domestic use it would have come a long way.
Although we don’t usually use the USB ports much, it is important that it be 3.0 in a router to share files over the local network or the Internet, as well as that the router’s processor is powerful. In this way we will ensure good reading and writing speeds in these transfers.
Router firmware matters too
Manufacturer updates have a lifetime, so in your case your model may have become obsolete and its firmware has not been updated for a while due to abandonment by its creators.
If your router is old and has not been updated for a while, it would be advisable to change it to a new one.
Actual speeds achieved
The router can act as a bottleneck and be the first limitation that will prevent you from achieving the theoretical speed that you have contracted with your operator. So it is key that you check the real speed you get over WiFi and cable.
If the results do not look like the speed you have contracted, you will basically be throwing money away by not being able to have a router that will give you the contracted speed. You can use programs like Jperf or iPerf3 to analyze what your router model can or cannot do and know if it is time to renew it and you need to buy a new one that provides you with greater speed.
