AC Router doubts

S

srikanthuk

Contributor
Ok i am sure i am going to sound silly asking this question here.

Finally decided to get down to changing my home router to something good. I was looking at the various AC Routers in the market and got really confused. I saw the specs of various routers saying ACXXX. It says that in 5Ghz it is capable of transferring at at certain mbps speed and another speed at 2.4Ghz. but all routers seem to have different speeds. Some of the routers say dual band or tri band.

Now what should i look at when i am selecting the router? My desktop has a AC wifi which the specs say 867mpbs dual band. My mobile also seems to have Wifi AC.

Can someone be kind enough to explain the technicalities....

Thanks in advance
 
Dual-band technology is fairly common when you start looking for modern 802.11ac routers. Modern 802.11ac Wi-Fi uses the faster and less-cluttered 5 GHz spectrum. Older Wi-Fi technologies like 802.11n and earlier use the slower and more-cluttered 2.4 GHz spectrum.

When you get a router with simultaneous dual-band technology, it can broadcast a 5 GHz signal and a 2.4 GHz signal. Devices that support modern 5 GHz Wi-Fi will connect to the faster one, while any older devices you have lying around will connect to the older, slower, but more compatible 2.4 GHz signal. Essentially, the router can host two different Wi-Fi networks at once.

This allows you to upgrade to 5 GHz Wi-Fi for the devices that support it without losing compatibility with older devices. If you had a single-band router, you’d have to choose between older 2.4 GHz Wi-FI and modern 5 GHz Wi-Fi. A simultaneous dual-band router gets you both.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/220509/ht...and-router-and-will-it-make-your-wi-fi-faster
 
Ironically, first and foremost, look at the LAN speed. There is no point getting 867 Mbps when you are limited to 100 Mbps over LAN.

Then look at the antenna's and range. External antennas are usually good vs internal.

I look at whether it has third party firmware support as well.
 
Ahhh ok. I thought maybe a device could connect to both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz band and get a combined speed. Because most of the listing says combined speed of upto 1900mbps and all. So from what i understand if the router says 800mpbs in 5ghz then my ac capable device can theoretically get upto 800mpbs only.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
Ironically, first and foremost, look at the LAN speed. There is no point getting 867 Mbps when you are limited to 100 Mbps over LAN.

Then look at the antenna's and range. External antennas are usually good vs internal.

I look at whether it has third party firmware support as well.
Click to expand...

By LAN speed you mean the LAN ports or the WAN port. That was another thing that confused me. I was looking at gigabit capable routers so i presumed even the WAN port must be capable of gigabit speeds.

Yup looking at devices with external antennas. What will give better range, mounting the router at cieling height or on a table?

Wouldn't a third party router remove the warranty?
 
srikanthuk said:
By LAN speed you mean the LAN ports or the WAN port. That was another thing that confused me. I was looking at gigabit capable routers so i presumed even the WAN port must be capable of gigabit speeds.

Yup looking at devices with external antennas. What will give better range, mounting the router at cieling height or on a table?

Wouldn't a third party router remove the warranty?
Click to expand...

Both if you have a high speed connection > 100 Mbps. Usually if the LAN ports are gigabit, the WAN port is too.

At a height, the range will be better.

3rd party firmware is preferred by some of us. Though the stock firmware on most is pretty OK, say TP Link.
 
srikanthuk said:
Also how are netgear devices nowadays? Qualitywise
Click to expand...
pretty decent. any 5G router will have gigabit unless you go for local small brand manufactured shite! so ignore that gigabit detail from vivek.krishnan

i use the nighthawk r7000 - can recommend the same to you - you can go higher based on your budget.
 
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