Is your Internet connection kind of pokey? Have you just bought your first laptop or other wireless device and need a way to get online? There are many ways of getting your devices online but the best way to do it is with a home wireless access point. There are many options to choose from but what you want to buy should be based on what your devices can support and how much you are willing to spend.
Notice I keep saying devices and not computer(s). The reason for this is because wireless access points can be used for more than connecting your computer and laptop to the Internet. You can use it to connect your wireless TV, share a printer with other networked computers in your home, media streaming device (such as the Roku and Apple TV), gaming systems and more.
You need to determine what are the standards that your devices at home use. Is it 802.11b (Fair),
802.11g (Good), 802.11n (Better), and 802.11ac (Best). An easy way to determine in Windows what your computer has it to open the Control Panel > Device Manager and expand the Network Adapter section. Double click on the network adapter to open properties and click the Advanced tab. You'll see a screen similar to mine on the right, I've circled the areas where you can see the standards. For my computer, it supports three standards - 802.11b/g/n. On a Mac computer, press the Option key and click on the wifi icon in the menu bar. It will show you a little more detailed information about your wifi connection, the information listed next to "PHY Mode" is what you are looking for. For other devices, refer to your documentation or the company website to determine the standards it uses. It is probably safe to say most devices are at least 802.11b/g. Even if your computer has a lower standard rating there are ways of "upgrading" by buying a network adapter card.
You will need to determine what is it you are going to do on the Internet and how much money you are willing to spend. Obviously the better the performance, features, speed, etc. the more it is going to cost. Let's look at three options from the least expensive to the most expensive. The basic function of each is pretty much the same no matter the cost. They get you online either wirelessly or wired and have some web browser-based configuration page to make setup easy.
If you are just going to be casually surfing, checking bank accounts, email, Facebook, maybe some
minor game play, or a little bit of movie streaming, then a router like an 802.11g would be just fine. Check out the Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router. Has four Ethernet ports on the back to hardwire devices that either do not have wireless capability or you would rather have it benefit from the quicker wired speed. It isn't anything fancy but will get the job done. It can be found online for under a $70 on Amazon, at the time of this post.
If you are into streaming video (movies, tv series, etc) heavily, like to play World of Warcraft like a boss, then I would recommend the Netgear R6300. This is the router I own. I stream to at several devices in my home (four computers, three tablets, four Roku boxes, three Android cell phones, and one PlayStation 4. I also needed the ability to stream at a decent rate when not at home on whatever devices I can stream through. Whether it is a cell phone or Chromecast the ability to stream without slowness or buffering was important. The Netgear R6300 is one of the near top of the line products, I do believe there are several that are even better BUT for what I wanted and need it to do, it has worked perfectly. This one costs under $140 on Amazon, at the time of this post.
Both of the above routers and the majority of other routers include built-in firewalls, to prevent people on the Internet from gaining access to your computer. Most also incorporate a small number (usually four) of network ports to directly connect a device that either doesn't have wireless ability OR you want to hard wire for better speeds. These ports are generally always faster than wireless because unlike wireless a hard wired (directly connected) device does not have to share the bandwidth (speed) with other connected devices. The WGR614 has four 10/100 ports and the R6300 has four 10/100/1000 ports - yes that is a gigabit connection! Another note, like wireless, the computer has to have hardware that supports gigabit Ethernet, if it doesn't then it will only run at 100 Mbps. Again, most computers have the ability to upgrade their Ethernet cards, even if yours is built into the motherboard a gigabit network adapter card could be purchased and installed.
If you are one of those people who need to have the biggest, best, fastest thing out there. Then might I interest you to the Asus AC2400 RT-AC87U Dual-band Wireless router. This router boasts a whopping 2333 Mbps in bandwidth speed - making it one of the fastest home wireless router on the market and it is shaped rather nicely, compared to the typical rectangle shape of other routers. It also claims to have the ability to help prevent malware and viruses from infecting your computer. Check out this c|net review if you want to learn more about it! It does not come cheap though! At the time of this post, it could be bought on Amazon for $238.00!
Notice I keep saying devices and not computer(s). The reason for this is because wireless access points can be used for more than connecting your computer and laptop to the Internet. You can use it to connect your wireless TV, share a printer with other networked computers in your home, media streaming device (such as the Roku and Apple TV), gaming systems and more.
You need to determine what are the standards that your devices at home use. Is it 802.11b (Fair),
802.11g (Good), 802.11n (Better), and 802.11ac (Best). An easy way to determine in Windows what your computer has it to open the Control Panel > Device Manager and expand the Network Adapter section. Double click on the network adapter to open properties and click the Advanced tab. You'll see a screen similar to mine on the right, I've circled the areas where you can see the standards. For my computer, it supports three standards - 802.11b/g/n. On a Mac computer, press the Option key and click on the wifi icon in the menu bar. It will show you a little more detailed information about your wifi connection, the information listed next to "PHY Mode" is what you are looking for. For other devices, refer to your documentation or the company website to determine the standards it uses. It is probably safe to say most devices are at least 802.11b/g. Even if your computer has a lower standard rating there are ways of "upgrading" by buying a network adapter card. You will need to determine what is it you are going to do on the Internet and how much money you are willing to spend. Obviously the better the performance, features, speed, etc. the more it is going to cost. Let's look at three options from the least expensive to the most expensive. The basic function of each is pretty much the same no matter the cost. They get you online either wirelessly or wired and have some web browser-based configuration page to make setup easy.
 |
| Netgear WGR614 |
minor game play, or a little bit of movie streaming, then a router like an 802.11g would be just fine. Check out the Netgear WGR614 Cable/DSL Wireless Router. Has four Ethernet ports on the back to hardwire devices that either do not have wireless capability or you would rather have it benefit from the quicker wired speed. It isn't anything fancy but will get the job done. It can be found online for under a $70 on Amazon, at the time of this post.
 |
| Netgear R6300 |
Both of the above routers and the majority of other routers include built-in firewalls, to prevent people on the Internet from gaining access to your computer. Most also incorporate a small number (usually four) of network ports to directly connect a device that either doesn't have wireless ability OR you want to hard wire for better speeds. These ports are generally always faster than wireless because unlike wireless a hard wired (directly connected) device does not have to share the bandwidth (speed) with other connected devices. The WGR614 has four 10/100 ports and the R6300 has four 10/100/1000 ports - yes that is a gigabit connection! Another note, like wireless, the computer has to have hardware that supports gigabit Ethernet, if it doesn't then it will only run at 100 Mbps. Again, most computers have the ability to upgrade their Ethernet cards, even if yours is built into the motherboard a gigabit network adapter card could be purchased and installed.
 |
| Asus AC2400 |
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