How to choose a router
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- With so many options available today, how do you chose which one to go with when purchasing a new router? Do you go with Single band, or dual band? What about Tri-band or mesh? Do the ammount of antennas matter? Should I get a gateway or a standalone? What questions should I ask the sales rep? The process can be nerve racking and we would like to help. This article will give you questions you should ask yourself when you are looking to purchase a new device.
- Am I looking for a gateway or a stand-alone router? Gateways combined a modem and router into one device, but they are limited typically being either for DSL or Cable services. If your ISP is not DSL or cable you can ignore gateways all together. Gateways are convenient because you only need to buy one device, however a draw back is that if it fails you have no access to the internet at all, where as with a modem and router setup if your router fails you can still at least get internet from the modem to one computer, so you won’t be completely down. Another drawback, especially with cable ISPs is you are limited in features. If you like to have full control over your network device and settings a gateway may not be the best choice for you.
- What is the speed package you are paying for? Knowing the download speed you are paying for can help eliminate entire lines of products. For instance, if you have or plan on having a speed package above 100 Mbps then you would want to avoid any router with fast ethernet 10/100 ports. This is because the speed on these ports is limited to a maximum of 100 Mbps. If you know you will never go above 100 Mbps then looking at devices with fast ethernet will save you money.
- How many devices will you be connecting? This is so important because, you want to make sure you get a router that is capable of handling the load being put on it. The more devices the faster a processor you want the router to have. 5 or so devices and single-core processor will be fine. 10 or more and you will want at least a dual-core processor on your new router
- How many bands do I need? Do you want a Single, Dual or even a Tri-band router? To answer this you need to understand the difference, single-band routers are 2.4GHz only. Dual and Tri-band router typically are 5GHz, with the difference being that tri-band splits the channel options into two separate bands. So now you need to know the devices connecting to the router are they capable of connecting to a 5GHz network or can they only communicate on 2.4GHz? If only 2.4GHz then its likely you will only need a single-band router. If they can communicate connect to 5GHz then we would defiantly recommend a dual or tri-band router.
- Does the ammount of Antennas matter? Yes, in most instances it does. Generally speaking you increase the network bandwidth with each new antenna added. This is because each antenna increases the number of streams your devices can connect to and communicate with. Speeds are affected by both the number of antennas of the router and the number of antennas on the client devices. The more antennas available the more streams you can connect to and your throughput is increased as a result.
- What Features do I need? This is actually subjective, but you should look at a router’s features to insure you are getting everything you want in a new router. Things such as Beamforming, MU-MIMO are great to have but only if you have client devices capable of using these features, if not then purchasing a router with these features can be a waste of money. You have to look at what features are important to you and base your router selection off of that.
- Over all these 6 questions will help you in your quest to find a new router. If you have questions about a router we recommend contacting the manufacture. They are the best resource to figuring out will a product be right for you. For TP-Link reach out to us via our help line at 866-225-8139 or https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/contact-technical-support.
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@Carl Carl.. why are you deleting threads?
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Threads and replies are only deleted if a response is off topic or violates our terms of service. If a thread is posted by a user from a region outside of the US your thread is moved to the proper group. I did move a thread of yours today to the Mexico community, because that is where our system shows you are located. Mexico's community is community.tp-link.com/mx. If a thread is moved there is a note that is sent to the user describing why there post has been moved and where to find them.
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@Carl Please explain how asking for support regarding the WAN options is offtopic or violates the terms?
I notice that you guys really have a very bad reputation around the web on arbitrarily deleting threads under dubious reasons and when confronted say different reasons that do not apply to the point at hand.
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We do not delete threads arbitrarily, though we have sole and final discretion on interpitation of our community guidelines, which you can view here: Threads are deleted if a customer violates any of the terms in the guides, post dulplcate infomation or as I stated previously is off-topic. An example of off topic would be posting about a Range Extender in a post about a how to pick the right Smart Plug. As the post is not related to the thread's content the offending reply would be deleted and the user encouraged to create a new thread or post on a relevant one. This is for quality control and to keep a thread and its replies on the topic at hand. For instance this conversation is actually off topic from the subject of the thread and should be a thread of its own. We will allow this one to remain here so that you can review it but to stay on the subject of this thread which is how to choose a router I would request that further comments be directed to this thread https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/194638?page=1 I created it specifically to address this concern.
For your particular thread. The thread wasn't deleted. The only thread I found in the system created by you was moved the the correct community for Mexico. If a thread is created from a region outside of the US, that thread will be moved to the correct community, as your was. We will also send a message along with the thread that should show up in your notices. Your particular threads location is here:
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What about choosing a brand?
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Router availablity in the US is different than in the UK. The best advice for a router is the one that fits your needs. Tell me more about your network enviroment and I'll give you a suggestion.
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Your 4th bullet point above is a serious question I've been struggling with. I may not be asking it the right way or may have the configuration improperly set for my Smart Home application, but I'm really struggling with this one.
In an age where Smart Homes are occupying more-and-more home owner requirements, the amount of switches, plugs, cameras, laptops, mobile devices, etc can easily exceed the (apparent) 64-device maximum number (less if you are just talking wifi).
I keep asking for solutions to this problem and all I get is crickets.
This leads me to believe I'm missing something out there.
Even with TPLink's Deco system, there are still limits of 150-devices. Last time I checked, a private network like 192.168.1.x covers from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254....I would think the standard would be supported.
I don't buy the notion that "it'll be too much traffic for the network to handle..." .
Come-on guys, I really don't think all these light switches absorb that much data; even when I say "Alexa, shut-off the light". The biggest hogs I might consider would be the 8 HARDWIRED cameras throughout the house. They are not utilizing the wireless array and this data is kept local (for the most part).
What am I doing wrong?...I'm sincerely asking....
Is there no one who has been aggressive as I have been in moving forward with this innovated feature, or am I the pioneer to a problem that was not considered in the original design.
Please, no more crickets. :)
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I see only one thread created by you. We will look into why it was missed but its not that we were doing it intentionally, it was just missed. With the nature of a forum we cannot gaurantee that every thread will be responded to by the admins or even if it will get a timely response.
For your question yes there are maximum limitations of the hardware. a router can only handle so many devices at one time. This is a limitation of not only the wireless radios but the chipsets being used. This is why you are starting to see routers with quad-core processors. But these are typically in higher end routers. The mid and entry level devices are still running on single and dual-core setups. Even if its just low traffic devices like smart plugs or switches their effect is cumlivate. This is also why there are limits on devices on a wireless band. It can handle only so much. The more devices that demand high end bandwidth the lower the total number of devices that a router will allow.
A class-c private subnet is capable of a maximum 254 IPs. Typcially though the DCHP pool is only 100 addresses. But that is just numerical math, it does not mean a device is capable of providing quality access to 254 different devices. There are limits and it almost always comes down to hardware.
The hard truth of it is that no one ever intended home enviroments to had hunderds of devices. Now as technolgy advances and homes get smarter yes the routers will evolve to support more connected devices but you may simply be ahead of the times and need to wait for the technology to catch up.
One option is to think about business class switches and APs. Adding a busines class switch an a few APs to mitgate the load on the router could help solve your problem but for just home class products we are a little ways out from a solution.
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