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The time you’ve dreaded for a long time has come when your wireless router dies. Now, it’s time to purchase a new one to maintain your cheap hosting website adequately, but you don’t know what you are looking for!

Wi-Fi technology has become highly complex, and so many factors alter reception. How many routers, building materials, and household devices emitting signals, like baby monitors and microwaves, are nearby? These are factors to consider when looking for your next wireless router.

Here’s what you should look for in your next wireless router, hopefully taking some of the pain out of finding one and negating the need to hire a pricey networking professional to determine a solution!

Determine Your Need

Yes, it’s neat to communicate wirelessly with your router. But do you work on a laptop and bounce all around your office? Do you have multiple employees that require wireless connectivity, like smartphones, tablets, and laptops? If you don’t, and all you do is sit at your desk to conduct online work, a typical wired router is all you need. If your business relies on iPads in business meetings or has a mobile staff always heading to other departments with their laptops, you should choose a wireless router.

Determine How You’ll Use It

A one-person show has quite different network needs than a large corporation does. A single-band router will do just fine for the average Wi-Fi user.

Dual-band routers like Netgear’s N750 Wireless Gigabit Router (WNDR4000) are on the other end of the spectrum. These allow you to perform tasks that require a lot of bandwidth, such as streaming high-definition video or moving massive files.

Single vs. Dual Band

Wireless communications are conducted over 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies. A 2.4 GHz router is for simpler networks, while dual-band 5 GHz can handle much more. It works great for streaming and offers a higher internal network performance.

A downside to the 5GHz is that the signal is weaker at greater distances than the 2.4 GHz.  This is something you’ll want to think about. Another factor to consider is that some devices work with one band or the other, not both. You’ll want to check the gadgets hooking up to the network before deciding.

About Mbps

Routers are offered at 300 Mbps, 450 Mbps, or 900 Mbps. This is how fast the router is. 300 Mbps was the standard once upon a time and signifies that if the router is placed in a room under the best conditions and full signal strength, the router produces speeds of 300 Mbps. Right now, 450 Mbps and 900 Mbps are also offered.

It should be noted you will likely never obtain speeds as fast as this. Many factors lead to this: channel overlap, interference, and many factors beyond your control. Also, this speed will not affect how fast you browse the Web! It only affects how fast tasks are performed within your internal network, like file sharing or streaming video.

802.11n

This is the standard in wireless networking. You should most definitely acquire an 802.11n. They offer the “mixed mode” feature, allowing non-802.11n devices to connect.

802.11ac

This is the next “standard” in development. As such, the Wi-Fi Alliance, charged with assuring networking products don’t end up in customers’ hands unless they do what they are supposed to, has yet to certify 802.11ac routers. It could take a year or more for the 802.11ac routers to offer any improvement over 802.11n.

Security

Typically, new routers support WPA2, the highest security level. You want to make sure your router supports this.

Wireless Router Setup And Maintenance

It would be best to look into what it takes to set up the router. If you don’t know how to do it, you want an easy one. Numerous routers on the market offer setup that is as simple as answering a few questions on-screen. Other routers require extensive networking knowledge to get them up and running.

Does this information make you feel better about choosing a router?