Basic Wireless Router Buyer's Guide as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
764 words · ~3 min read
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This is either a sneeze, a word you use when you want to confuse the sales rep
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at the local Best Buy, or it's all the different kinds of wireless you can get
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for your devices. Probably that last one. Let's start with this. Wireless
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standards are mostly backwards compatible. So, while you might have a
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laptop with wireless and 300 megabit and a smartphone like the HTC1 with wireless
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AC, your AC router or your N router will work with both devices. So, if you don't
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feel like watching the rest of this video, just go buy a router with good
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reviews on Amazon.com and you'll be fine. If you do want to learn more,
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first up is speedgrade standards. These start with
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802.11 and a suffix. Often a speed
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number is thrown in by the manufacturer, and you might see something about
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concurrent dual band, which amounts to a theoretical doubling of the speed
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normally associated with that standard. However, you will only realize that
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performance benefit with devices that also support concurrent dual band. These
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speed numbers don't really represent what you'll see in the real world,
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though. Wireless is subject to protocol overhead and performance reductions
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caused by distance, obstacles, and interference. In fact, sometimes
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reducing these factors can do more for performance than buying better gear at
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all. Now, with that said, a dualband router can help even if you're not able
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to use concurrent dual band. Because if you have 5 GHz capable devices, 5 GHz
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signals are less susceptible to interference from cordless phones,
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microwave ovens, etc. So, while maximum range is actually slightly reduced at 5
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GHz, signal integrity can be better.
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Third party firmware compatibility is another big selling point. DDWRT is an
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example of a firmware that can unlock additional, sometimes enterprise or
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prograde features on your router. Check if your router is compatible on their
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website before buying if you want to tinker with it. Some router
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manufacturers, however, will avoid your warranty for flashing unofficial
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firmwares. So, watch out for that. QoS or quality of service systems such as
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WD's automated FastTrack Plus or Lynxys's manually configured options can
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allow you to prioritize certain PCs, applications, or even types of network
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traffic such as video streaming, voice clients, or gaming over others, which
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can be very handy for multi-PC households. Many routers also have USB
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ports, so you can add a hard drive to them for centralized file storage or PC
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backups. It's no substitute for a real NAS, but it's better than nothing a lot
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of the time. And don't forget about the
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wired connections on your router. Honestly, this should be what you're
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using for anything that isn't a tablet, smartphone, or ultrabook. Find a way to
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get gigabit, even if it means spending a couple more bucks. Unless your PC is
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very old, it will support gigabit, which is 10 times faster than 1000 for
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transferring files in the real world and usually many times faster than wireless
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because of that interference malarkey I was talking about before. Last step,
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well, this is just the first step. Again, after you decide what features you need, go to a trusted retailer
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website and read user reviews. We personally love the EA4500 from Lynxys
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and we're moving to an EA6500 soon for wireless AC support. But everyone's
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experience may be a bit different and even from a trusted company, I usually
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won't buy a router unless I hear a few solid testimonials. Speaking of
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testimonials, here's one for audible.com. Go to audible.com/techquicking. Get a free
3:20
audio book for signing up. Yay. I was so offended by The Hobbit movie, I thought
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it might be beneficial to go through a cleanse and read through The Hobbit book
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again by J.R. Tolken. The unabbridged version on Audible is only 11 hours
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long, which is about how long that one scene with the dwarves and the
3:35
dishwashing and the singing seemed to last. No, but seriously, the movie
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wasn't that bad, but it certainly wasn't the book. Head over to
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audible.com/techwicki to get your free audiobook now. And unlike my Twilight
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recommendation a couple weeks back, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this one. Don't
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forget to like this video, leave a comment about it for the Techquickie
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team under the video, and as always guys, don't forget to subscribe to
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Techquickie.