Read more: Give the gift of a better, faster router for the holidays. The newest version of Wi-Fi is simply called "Wi-Fi 6," which is much easier for consumers to make sense of than its technical name, " If your eyes glazed over a bit just now, I've got some good news for you.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, the nonprofit trade organization that holds the Wi-Fi trademark, finally realized that Wi-Fi nomenclature had gotten too confusing for consumers. With a new version of Wi-Fi called So now, current-gen In a nutshell, it's faster and better at connecting lots of devices and users to a single access point all at once. That means it'll probably make the biggest impact in public places like airports, stadiums and shared offices, but it also represents a marked improvement for busy homes with lots of family members and smart home gadgets competing for bandwidth.
New routers that support the standard are already starting to pop up on store shelves, but don't rush out to buy one just yet.
While Wi-Fi 6 is backward-compatible, the new features that make it better and faster than Wi-Fi 5 only work with devices that have Wi-Fi 6 radios of their own. And apart from a handful of gadgets -- namely the iPhone 11 lineup and Samsung's Galaxy S10 and Note 10 -- there simply aren't very many of those devices on the market yet.
For brevity's sake, I'll save you the specifics beyond that -- but if you're curious, check out my full Wi-Fi 6 explainer for a better understanding of how it works, why it's better than Wi-Fi 5, and when it might make more sense to make the upgrade. Along with each manufacturer's internal naming schemes, most of today's routers will typically also come with designations like "AC" or "AC I say "rough" because those numbers after the "AC" or "AX" part indicate the sum total of the maximum theoretical transfer rates across each of the router's bands.
That's not useless info as you're comparison shopping, but it's more than a bit misleading, since that sum total will almost always be significantly higher than the fastest speeds you'll experience as a user. Your actual speed per device will be a lot lower. Keep in mind that it doesn't matter how fast your router is -- if you're pulling data from the cloud, then you'll only be able to do so as fast as the plan from your internet service provider allows.
If you're paying for download speeds of, say, Mbps, then that's as fast as your router will go when you're browsing the web or streaming video. That's a significant limitation these days. In our own top speed tests, we're seeing a growing number of routers that can comfortably hit speeds of 1 gigabit per second or faster -- but with the average fixed broadband speed in the US currently sitting at just over Mbps or less, if your ISP throttles your connection , few of us can hope to surf the web as fast as that anytime soon.
That isn't to say that fast routers aren't worthwhile. For instance, you'll still be able to hit those top speeds during local transfers -- when you're using the router to pull files from one computer to another on your local network. Your ISP speeds don't matter at all for transfers like that, because you're not sending or receiving data beyond your local home network. Beyond that, upgrading to a faster, more powerful router can help you get the most out of your home's internet connection, especially when you're connecting at range.
To that end, be sure to keep an eye on our latest reviews as you shop around to get a good sense of the specific routers that might be the best fit for your home.
We're constantly testing new models and updating our best lists with new test data. New routers that support Wi-Fi 6 like the Ubiquiti AmpliFi Alien are available now -- but for most, it isn't a priority upgrade just yet. Wi-Fi 6 is the newest, fastest version of Wi-Fi, and it's the main reason we're starting to see so many new routers capable of hitting gigabit speeds with ease.
You can read more about the way the speedy new standard works in my full Wi-Fi 6 explainer , but the quick gist is that it lets your router send more information more efficiently to multiple devices at once. There are all sorts of new routers available this year that support Wi-Fi 6, including ones that cost a lot less than you'd expect -- but there are still relatively few Wi-Fi 6 client devices outside of early flagships like the iPhone 11 or iPhone SE and the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold.
Wi-Fi 6 is backward-compatible, mind you, so a new Wi-Fi 6 router still work with your existing, older-gen Wi-Fi devices.
It just won't do anything to speed them up, because those older devices don't support the new features that make Wi-Fi 6 faster than before. Eventually, we're going to start seeing Wi-Fi 6 support in things like media streamers, tablets, smart home gadgets and other common client devices. As you fill your home with devices like those, a Wi-Fi 6 router will become a more meaningful upgrade and, again, it'll help if ISP speeds can play catch-up in the next few years, too.
For now, though, it's more of a future-proofing extra than a must-have. On top of that, it won't be long before we start to see routers that support Wi-Fi 6E , a new designation for Wi-Fi 6 routers equipped to tap into new, exclusive bandwidth in the 6GHz band recently opened up for unlicensed use by an FCC vote.
Whatever router you have from your internet provider can do an adequate enough job and adding one of the best Wi-Fi extenders will extend its reach. But, getting a top-notch router will reduce clutter since you can skip the extender, future-proof your network, and, most importantly, vastly improve your connection. After all, with everything we do online these days, a strong and reliable signal is crucial, and the top wireless routers will inevitably give you the best results when it comes to connecting to the outside world.
You end up with a faster, more seamless, and more consistent signal in your area of coverage. No matter if you rely on that internet connection for your business, for playing online games or co-op games with friends, or for bingeing the best Netflix shows , now is the time to upgrade to the best wireless router you can. From excellent mesh Wi-Fi routers to newer Wi-Fi 6 routers , here are our top picks. Google kicks things up a notch in its Google Wifi line with its latest installment.
The best router has given us takes the Google Wifi, gives it the capabilities of Google Home and wraps it all up in an even sleeker and more appealing package.
Read the full review: Google Nest Wifi. Asus has been rolling out some amazing Wi-Fi 6 routers recently, and it has been releasing them for just about every need and budget. While it is among the more expensive options out there and limits you to two mesh routers, the Asus ZenWifi AX offers blazing fast speeds as well as plenty of flexibility in its setup — such as the option to set up one or two networks using the 2.
Have younger gamers at home? It also provides good parental controls like content filters to block unsuitable material, with pre-set profiles for children of different ages. And, considering Wi-Fi 6 is the future in connectivity, this router is a win for Asus and an ace for gamers. Tri-band routers broadcast three signals, which currently means two on the 5-GHz band and one on 2.
Each of these bands is essentially a chunk of frequency. The 2. The 5-GHz band has 45 channels, but they aren't limited to 20 MHz; they can also be bonded together to create MHz or MHz channels, which allows them to transmit more data. The 6-GHz band supports 60 channels and they can be as wide as MHz. The main difference is that 2. It's like jumping from a single-track road 2. Each of the protocols is backward compatible.
Any router you choose nowadays is likely to be at least dual-band, but you may want to check how the bands are handled. It was common to have the bands appear separately, so when searching for Wi-Fi on your device you might see two options like Wi-Fi 2.
Modern routers such as Google's Nest Wifi engage in band steering, where they automatically pick the band, and you only see a single Wi-Fi network. This is simpler and will work well for most people, but it can cause issues when setting up smart home devices that can only connect to one band, as they often also require the device setting up usually your smartphone to be on the same band. Some devices require a wired connection to your router. Even when it's not needed, an Ethernet cable is always going to offer more stable connections that are much faster than Wi-Fi.
If you can, you should try to use a wired connection for devices like PCs, TVs, and consoles so you can leverage the fastest speeds out of your router. Either way, you'll need a free Ethernet port, so make sure you check that your router or mesh system has enough of them. Several high-end mesh systems, such as Nest Wifi or Eero, only have a single Ethernet port on the main router and none on the nodes. If your chosen router doesn't have enough ports, you can get a network switch.
These devices are relatively cheap and give you a few extra Ethernet ports. It's vital to secure your Wi-Fi router , because all traffic in and out of your house goes through it, and every device connects to it. It offers reasonably strong encryption but is not without vulnerabilities, which is why it was followed by WPA3 in For example, opportunistic wireless encryption OWE provides a separate decryption key for every device that connects to the router, so even if another device on the network is monitoring traffic known as sniffing it can't decrypt that data.
WPA3 also makes it much tougher for hackers to crack passwords, as they can't use offline dictionary attacks anymore where they rapidly guess lots of possible passwords. You can find Wi-Fi 5 routers with WPA3 support, and some manufacturers are rolling it out onto older devices via firmware updates.
It is also backward compatible. No security standard is perfect, so you should make sure your router has automatic updates turned on and always install the latest security updates on any devices you own. Another feature to look for is a guest network, so you can hook guests up with Wi-Fi without giving them access to the rest of your network and all your connected devices.
While older routers tend to have basic settings you can only access by entering the IP address into your browser and logging in, many new routers and mesh systems offer apps you can access on your phone. It's worth taking a look at the interface to make sure it has all the features you want. We suggest reading our reviews and user reviews to get a feel for how well it works and to identify any potential problems.
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