Things to Consider When Buying a Router

Getting a good router for our house is the key step for us to have a smooth connection, whether we are connected via Wi-Fi or by cable

In the market, we can find a good number of routers that we can probably use at home, but before choosing one or the other we should think about what type of internet connection we have, whether it is fiber optic, coaxial or xDSL. Depending on the type of connection, we must buy a neutral router or an xDSL router with a built-in ADSL2 + or VDSL2 modem.

Let’s analyze the main characteristics that a router should have:

1. Gigabit Ethernet ports, for the WAN and for the LAN

The current routers due to the speeds provided by the internet greater than 100Mbps should have Gigabit Ethernet ports, but although the connection does not exceed 30Mbps, these ports are recommended to transfer files to our local network at high speed since if we have a NAS server It is absolutely necessary to have a Gigabit network.

2. Simultaneous dual-band with Wi-Fi AC

If we want to get the most out of our connection, it should have a dual simultaneous band with Wi-Fi AC. This double band allows us to connect to both the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band. Currently, you can get equipment with these characteristics at a good price.

Most devices that we connect to our routers, such as smartphones or tablets, incorporate two antennas in MIMO 2T2R configuration so that although our router has four antennas for each frequency band, we will not notice the connection speed on our devices too much.

3. If we want to get the most out of the USB port of the router that is 3.0

The limitation on routers with USB 3.0 ports generally comes from the router processor that is unable to interpret so much data. If we want to get the most out of the USB ports it should be 3.0 and we should also make sure that the router has a capable processor, for example, one with a dual-core at 800MHz speed.

If we do not opt for a router with a dual-core processor, we will not get the most out of USB 3.0, so we could save some money with a lower-end device.

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