My wireless router is about 15 years old and when I tried to sign in to my email this morning, it wasn’t working. I rebooted it (power off, wait, power on) and it eventually started working again. But I think I probably should be looking for a new one. But when I looked at Best Buy, I found routers ranging from under $50 to over $500. What’s going on here. And what do you recommend for ease of installation? We have a cable modem and it is connected to the router and I want to repeat that. It is all hidden in a mess of wires under a desk and I just want it to be easy.
I can’t answer the technical questions, but I upgraded from a 10-year old router I got from Target for like $50 to an Archer C5, which I bought about a year ago. The increase in range and stability was dramatic. For example, I had a dead spot in my backyard where I wanted to listen to Pandora on an iPhone, and the old router didn’t work well. The new one gives me a strong signal in that area, and probably 20 yards beyond it.
I see they are selling for about $80 now. Completely and totally worth the money.
One of the most obvious new features is dual band routers. Being able to communicate via 5GHz instead of just 2.5GHz. 5GHz gives faster throughput but shorter range (they fall back to 2.5 GHz when necessary). Also newer routers have vastly better wireless capabilities. Better security as well as easier setup. And these features are in all of them, not just the real expensive ones. I would definitely upgrade a 15 year old one.
You really need to upgrade your router regardless of whether it’s working or not. The speed and security issues are significant.
Some differences between routers:
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Home vs. business. The latter are built better with more features and better support. (Routers are routinely found to have amazing security holes that require firmware updates.)
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Basic router vs. router/cable modem combo, plus other features like having VoIP (Internet phone).
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Extra Ethernet ports. It’s amazing how going from 4 to 8 ports, say, increases the price. I need 8 (at least), you might not.
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Other features in general. Can it be used as a wireless access point (i.e., route to a master router with 2nd network hassles), etc.?
One big question is: Are you renting the cable modem from your provider? If so, it will probably be a very good idea to replace it and save money in the long run. So a combo modem/router would a especially nice idea.
Yes, I am renting the modem from the cable company. But I had their tech rep on the phone for a half hour before we finally concluded it was the router and he did not suggest renting one from them. Maybe I will call back and ask.
If you are interested in we concluded it was the router, I finally turned on a very old computer (it was a Y2K purchase in 1999) that was wired in and it could connect. In the meantime, the tech guy had reset the modem, so the case was pretty conclusive.
Danger danger, Will Robinson, renting modems and routers is a huge waste of money. You can buy a modem AND a router for what, maybe $100-150, and use them for years. I bet you’re paying that much per year to rent them.
A decent dual band AC1900 router will be a mighty step up. I went from an old (but good in the day) Linksys WRT54G to a WRT1900AC and wifi range went up a huge amount. I didn’t really do much reviewing before I bought that router, mine went out one morning when I was expecting family with wifi addicted kids, so I just went to Wally World and bought what looked familiar.
Now there are ACXXXX routers up to AC3200, I think it’s just newer wifi protocols - I only have a couple of devices that even use 5GHz wifi.
Take a look here, they rate various routers. The #1 router on the AC1900 list has a massively favorable rating on Amazon FWIW. The router I bought is #7 on the list and I think it’s great.
Hari Seldon: You may have misunderstood my comment on renting. This is something you generally do not want to do.
FWIW, I bought a Netgear N600 (WND3700) dual-band router six years ago and it’s still going strong. There are faster ones available but I haven’t felt compelled to upgrade. (TV and game console are hardwired anyway.)
The WireCutter always has good recommendations.
^^That link^^ was for replacing the rental modem. This one is for the router.