How To Buy A Wireless Router - 2017 Edition

[BrewWizard]

Our 2017 guide to choosing a wireless router reflects the changing Wi-Fi landscape.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

Thank you for this! Well done!

 

[dunkin]

Thank you for the great article!

 

[dunkin]

Do you mean something other than DFS?

A qq: do we need new WIFI clients to use DFS channels?

I just found my unifi AC APs have DFS channel support recently.

 

[thiggins]

A qq: do we need new WIFI clients to use DFS channels?

Not necessarily. But only way to know for sure is to try to connect the device to a DFS channel.

 

[RMerlin]

Not necessarily. But only way to know for sure is to try to connect the device to a DFS channel.

I assume that clients don't do any kind of monitoring, and it's up to the router to detect for the presence of a radar signal?

 

[sfx2000]

Client side and DFS...

In my experience -

• Mac/iDevices - yes, and in common SSID, they'll jump up band if coverage is good...
• Windows - I've had good luck with Intel and QC-Atheros clients, Broadcom/Realtek, depends sometimes on drivers...
• Android - most of the time yes, but again, this depends on the Android implementation and drivers there... I have an old Samsung GS4 that'll camp in 2.4 in common SSID, but it will find DFS on unique SSID, but again, I think this is a driver issue, as the silicon does work...
• Linux - yes for QC-Atheros and Realtek, at least for the one's I've tried...

The caveat here is that some clients will look at 2.4GHz first, and favor that as a default in common SSID - so they might camp or get sticky in a multiple SSID realm, but this is more a driver/config item there...

 

[thiggins]

I assume that clients don't do any kind of monitoring, and it's up to the router to detect for the presence of a radar signal?

Yes. The burden of DFS monitoring and compliance is on the AP.

 

[Ultragc]

Great read. Thanks.

Question. Can we expect performance boost when use with surveillance cameras?

 

[sfx2000]

Can we expect performance boost when use with surveillance cameras?

Probably not...

 

[Peter Ecclesine]

Yes. The burden of DFS monitoring and compliance is on the AP.

I've just purchased some 11ac 5 GHz routers, including a Nighthawk X4, and am trying to find a DFS band router that uses Broadcom chipsets. It would be very helpful if your guide could show U-NII-2A or channels 100-144 support.
How do I find that out?
Thanks in advance,
petere

 

[thiggins]

What guide are you referring to? Most routers to this point have not supported DFS, at least not obviously. I will be calling out DFS support in future reviews.

 

[Peter Ecclesine]

What guide are you referring to? Most routers to this point have not supported DFS, at least not obviously. I will be calling out DFS support in future reviews.

I was referring to "how to buy a wireless router 2017 edition".
I am finding out the hard way, but am trying to characterize DFS performance against a variety of waveforms.

 

[thiggins]

I was referring to "how to buy a wireless router 2017 edition".
I am finding out the hard way, but am trying to characterize DFS performance against a variety of waveforms.

The guide generally does not get into specific product features.

 

[masterblaster]

Very good information, thank you!

Could you please add the new Google Wifi mesh router to this article and also a separate review article would be nice

 

[thiggins]

Could you please add the new Google Wifi mesh router to this article

This article does not review specific routers. It provides an overview to the different WiFi technologies.

Google WiFi review is in progress and will be a standalone review.

 

[Niko84]

Hello all, my first post here.

Thanks Tim for a great article!

I am looking around for a new Wi-Fi router (my old one died during a thunderstorm in my area) and the Netgear Orbi seems to be an interesting option. But I have a couple questions that I hope folks here can me help with: 1) can I connect the Satellite via wired Ethernet instead of using the wireless backhaul (I live in a two-story brick and mortar house where wireless propagation is a big problem)? 2) and then can I still have a single SSID? 3) would this be better option than a router + extender both also connected via wired ethernet?

On a separate thread, what about tri-radio routers? You don't mention anything about them in your article. Are they a good option?

thanks in advance for the help.

Niko

 

[thiggins]

Hi Niko84. Orbi does not support Ethernet backhaul at this time. Since the 4x4 5 GHz backhaul radio is Orbi's key differentiation from the shared-radio "three-pack" mesh routers (eero, Luma, etc.) you're wasting money if you can use Ethernet for backhaul.

In that case, try Google WiFi, which is the lease expensive of the mesh options at this point.

Now that mesh / distributed Wi-Fi is here, they are a better approach to adding more radios. Tri-radio routers were Broadcom's way to buy time when they didn't have MU-MIMO. The second 5 GHz radio helps only when you have a lot of dual-band clients. If you want to try tri-radio, go with AC3200 class. AC5400 is way too expensive and provides no practical benefit.

 

[pete y testing]

can I connect the Satellite via wired Ethernet instead of using the wireless backhaul (I live in a two-story brick and mortar house where wireless propagation is a big problem)?

if you have structured ethernet cabling in the house then you would just get wireless access points and a separate base router and there would be no need for mesh

2) and then can I still have a single SSID?

you can have a single ssid no matter what path you go down the only issue is how the client devices see and treat that single ssid

would this be better option than a router + extender both also connected via wired ethernet?

certainly better than a router and extender wia wifi

certainly not when connected by ethernet as ethernet connected access points are still by far the best way to go and have been for many years , cable connected devices will always perform better than wifi connected devices and that includes mesh

 

[Niko84]

Tim and Pete - thanks for the quick reply. Very helpful. Much appreciated.

 

[reiichiroh]

Great article. Just a tiny update: AVG's Chime hasn't disappeared but appears to be the platform of the Amped Wireless Ally router. It's labeled as the "first router built on Chime."