Something else you'll appreciate: An excellent mix of app-based controls and features, including a mobile boost mode, that lets you prioritize gaming traffic to your phone at the touch of a button. If you need additional range, you can add other Asus "AIMesh" devices to your home network to make it the centerpiece of a mesh.
That checks off all of the boxes that most people want from a good gaming router, and it gets you there at a price that isn't too painful for us to recommend. Even if you aren't a gamer, this is still one of the best Wi-Fi 6 routers you can buy right now.
I'll post the answer to commonly-asked router questions below -- if you have any others, feel free to reach out on Twitter rycrist , or by clicking the little envelope icon on my CNET profile page. Doing so will let you send a message straight to my inbox.
You need to be connected to your modem in order to send and receive data from the web -- your router lets you do that without need for a wire. It's basically a big, fancy antenna for your modem that lets you connect with it wirelessly, over Wi-Fi.
You can also use that local Wi-Fi network to connect with other devices at home, like printers or remote storage servers. If your home is larger, then it's probably worth spending more on a mesh system that can spread more consistent speeds from room to room. And if you're working from home, gaming online, or sharing bandwidth with multiple housemates or family members, upgrading to something like a high-speed tri-band router is probably a good investment, too.
The old-fashioned way is to plug the the thing in and connect it with your modem via Ethernet cable, then type its IP address into a browser's URL bar to begin the setup. The easier, more modern way is to use the router's app, which will typically walk you through setup in about minutes. After setup, you can also use either approach to access the router's settings or change your Wi-Fi password. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic.
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What Is a Router? That metric denotes how fast the router can move incoming data — like an internet signal — from one computer like your modem to another like your smartphone or TV. For the past few years, the fastest Wi-Fi routers on the market used a standard called " When you shop for a router, you'll usually see a speed advertised on the spec sheet.
The fastest AC routers, for example, might boast up to 5, Mbps of blazing-fast speed. If you need a new router now, you can either get an affordable AC router as a stopgap before upgrading to Wi-Fi 6E down the line or grab an early Wi-Fi 6 router now. If you can, I'd recommend waiting until when Wi-Fi 6E will be fully baked.
Having both allows you to get the best connection no matter where you are in the house. Looking for the perfect gift? Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Lifehacker and How-To Geek. IE 11 is not supported.
Any router you choose nowadays is likely to be at least dual-band, but you may want to check how the bands are handled. It was common to have the bands appear separately, so when searching for Wi-Fi on your device you might see two options like Wi-Fi 2.
Modern routers such as Google's Nest Wifi engage in band steering, where they automatically pick the band, and you only see a single Wi-Fi network.
This is simpler and will work well for most people, but it can cause issues when setting up smart home devices that can only connect to one band, as they often also require the device setting up usually your smartphone to be on the same band.
Some devices require a wired connection to your router. Even when it's not needed, an Ethernet cable is always going to offer more stable connections that are much faster than Wi-Fi. If you can, you should try to use a wired connection for devices like PCs, TVs, and consoles so you can leverage the fastest speeds out of your router. Either way, you'll need a free Ethernet port, so make sure you check that your router or mesh system has enough of them.
Several high-end mesh systems, such as Nest Wifi or Eero, only have a single Ethernet port on the main router and none on the nodes. If your chosen router doesn't have enough ports, you can get a network switch.
These devices are relatively cheap and give you a few extra Ethernet ports. It's vital to secure your Wi-Fi router , because all traffic in and out of your house goes through it, and every device connects to it. It offers reasonably strong encryption but is not without vulnerabilities, which is why it was followed by WPA3 in For example, opportunistic wireless encryption OWE provides a separate decryption key for every device that connects to the router, so even if another device on the network is monitoring traffic known as sniffing it can't decrypt that data.
WPA3 also makes it much tougher for hackers to crack passwords, as they can't use offline dictionary attacks anymore where they rapidly guess lots of possible passwords. You can find Wi-Fi 5 routers with WPA3 support, and some manufacturers are rolling it out onto older devices via firmware updates. It is also backward compatible.
No security standard is perfect, so you should make sure your router has automatic updates turned on and always install the latest security updates on any devices you own. Another feature to look for is a guest network, so you can hook guests up with Wi-Fi without giving them access to the rest of your network and all your connected devices. While older routers tend to have basic settings you can only access by entering the IP address into your browser and logging in, many new routers and mesh systems offer apps you can access on your phone.
It's worth taking a look at the interface to make sure it has all the features you want. We suggest reading our reviews and user reviews to get a feel for how well it works and to identify any potential problems. The latest mesh systems boast accessible apps that show all connected devices at a glance. You may find the option to pause the internet, create schedules, and the ability to organize devices into profiles. Many also include parental controls, so you can block different types of potentially sensitive content and block or white-list specific websites.
Some companies charge extra for these perks, so keep an eye out. Quality of service QoS is an underappreciated feature worth looking into, particularly if you have a busy household with several people using the internet. Imagine a video call for work gets choppy or disconnects because your kid starts streaming Netflix. Perhaps the movie you're watching starts to buffer when your roommate begins downloading a game update. With QoS, you can prioritize devices and sometimes services or activities.
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