How to Choose a Home Router?

In fact, as a home WiFi router, most of the products on the market can fully meet personal needs, the price is transparent, and the quality is not much different. Therefore, the priority when buying a home router is not the brand and price, but its practicality. There is not a best one, only more suitable! But, what functions does a home router need to have?

1. Home WiFi router is easy to set up

Old-fashioned home WiFi routers are complicated to set up. After connecting, you need to set up various parameters, such as line type, broadband size, SSID number, Internet account number, password, etc. Most people hire worker to set or call an acquaintance to help as they don't understand these parameters.

Currently, the home routers are different than old ones, the settings are simple that everything is automatically identified. After connecting, you just enter the Internet account and password, then set the WIFI name and password. This is a fool-like operation, which is very important to consumers.

2. Home WiFi router can be controlled by APP

When someone at home is downloading movies, watching videos, or playing games, the network will be stuck. Users upstairs and downstairs share the same channel, the network will be intermittent during peak periods. Moreover, the indicator on the home router is always on, which will affect sleep at night. The power of the home router is too low, so how to amplify the power?

All of the above are minor issues. Most of the current routers for home use can be controlled by APP. After buying, you only need to download the APP specified by the manufacturer on the mobile phone to easily control the router at home, such as broadband allocation, indicator lights off regularly, signal adjustment, automatic channel adjustment, password change, disconnection of a computer or mobile phone, etc., all can be selected according to personal needs. In other words, consumers can choose routers for some practical functions of APP.

3. Select the gigabit port for the speed of the WAN port and LAN port of the home WiFi router

WAN input port is a network port which is connected to the broadband modem, from the mouth into the home network router, the router using the maximum impact on network speed. For example, if the broadband is 200M, and the WAN port of the home router is a 100M WAN port, then the Internet speed will be limited to 100M.

LAN port is a network cable output port, which is generally used to connect computers, TVs and other equipment, which affects the network speed of computers and TVs. For example, if the broadband is 200M, the WAN port is 1000M, and the LAN port is 100M, then if you connect the computer and TV with a network cable, they will still have a speed of 100M. That means you pay the 200M’ cost but enjoy 100M’ treatment. Nowadays, the network speed is gradually increasing, and we are highly recommended that you'd better buy a gigabit interface.

4. Don't blindly pursue those fancy features when buying a home WiFi router

Some wireless network manufacturers introduce that their products are "through-the-wall routing", which sounds very charming, but after buying them home, customs find that the network quality with the "through-the-wall" function turned on is not as good as not using the "through-the-wall" function. The strength of the wireless signal is determined by the transmit power of the wireless router. There is a clear text stipulating that the transmit power of a single antenna cannot be greater than 100mw, and the transmit power of an expensive router cannot be greater than this value. (Some routers can manually increase the transmit power by flashing third-party firmware)

The gain antennas of conventional home routers are mostly 3dBi, 5dBi or 7dBi, but its value is not decided by dBi. The reason is that the larger the value, the longer the transmission distance, but the smaller the vertical coverage angle. Since the router's coverage of the home is not so good, the antenna of the home router is generally around 5dBi.

There is also a saying of a home router: the more antennas, the better the signal. This statement is not accurate. The more antennas the wireless router has, the stronger the signal, which can lead people into a misunderstanding.

5. To choose a dual-band home WiFi router

The essence of WI-FI is an electromagnetic wave that is invisible to human beings，and the devices around us will affect it. If there are too many wireless devices in the home, it will occupy the channel and cause channel congestion. Most devices use the 2.4GHz frequency band. If there are too many devices using 2.4GHz, then you need to buy a dual-band router that supports 5GHz. When we are closer to the home router, we use the 5G frequency band, which has less interference and smoother signals and can greatly increase our connection speed.

6. Don't buy a home WiFi router with firmware upgrading functions

Some brands of home WiFi routers come with firmware upgrade functions, which are specially produced for router "enthusiasts" and are not suitable for most people. The firmware upgrade process of this kind of home router may cause the device to be unusable. Because the wireless network manufacturer has not done a lot of testing in the firmware upgrade, the upgrade failure occurs from time to time. Once the network cannot be accessed, you need to return to the last time. The firmware parameters are complicated to operate and can cause equipment damage.

7. The home WiFi router with USB interface

This is according to individual needs. A home router with a USB interface can be connected to an external hard drive. The advantage is that after the downloaded video resources are copied to the USB flash drive, they can be plugged into the router. The mobile phone and PAD can access Samba to read the resources, such as watching movies, reading novels, file sharing, etc.