Not getting the range, speed or reliability you want from your wireless router? Well, you’re not alone.
One of the most frequent complaints coming into our inboxes at PC Authority is about how routers aren’t doing the job they’re supposed to; they’re slow, unreliable or just plain incompatible with existing kit.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s time to upgrade. The 802.11n standard has finally been settled and, after a few years of turmoil, the router market is finally back on track.
Where in previous tests ADSL users have lost out, there’s now a wide selection of 802.11n routers catering for both ADSL and cable broadband.
The technology keeps getting better, too. Routers that operate not only on the crowded 2.4GHz band (along with your microwave, baby monitor and cordless phone), but also on the cleaner, interference-clear 5GHz band, are becoming cheaper and more common.
Most routers now offer useful features such as USB sockets, which let you share storage across the network. Plus, range and speed is improving all the time.
For these reasons we’ve concentrated on each manufacturer’s flagship models and, where possible, selected dual-band routers and ADSL models. But there’s life in the good old single-band router yet, as you’ll discover by reading on.