It isn’t the cheapest router around, but the Asus RT-AX82U is more than competitive. It’s a brilliant all-rounder at a very tempting price. Don't forget to evaluate how many communication bands the router has. Single-band routers can get congested easily if too many devices are on the network, but dual-band routers help manage internet traffic well and ensure better speeds for all devices. One of the good things about the Velop is that, during setup, it uses Bluetooth to find the node you're configuring. This makes the process a little easier because you can plug everything in and then just perform the configuration from your phone while sitting near the device.

Most wireless routers still come with at least four Ethernet ports, though, so you can connect PCs, TVs and games consoles to the internet using those if you wish. How does a Wi-Fi router work?

Most Wi-Fi mesh systems look nothing like a traditional setup with a router and range extender. The router and nodes use internal antennas and are almost always tastefully designed so you can place them out in the open rather than in a closet or under a desk. (Don't expect to find a lot of flashing LED indicators—these systems are designed to blend in with your home's décor.) They usually have at least one LAN port for connecting to devices like TVs and gaming consoles, but USB connectivity is a rare feature at this point. (Credit: Netgear)

Each mesh device then produces a visible network that you can connect to. But the advantage is that the network will have the same name across all the devices. This means that you don't need to add several different networks to your phone or laptop. It's designed to be a transparent and simple process for users. How we test mesh network routers Networking can be an absolute nightmare for most of us. Even those with strong technical interest can find the process pretty tedious. For many years it was possible to buy a simple Wi-Fi repeater that boosted signals in certain areas, but they were terribly unreliable. Also included is Netgear Armor which promises to secure your devices from some of the internet's more shady characters. You normally have to pay top dollar to secure exceptional wireless performance, but the Asus RT-AX82U proves the exception to the rule. While it isn’t quite a match for more exotic hardware, it gets pretty close and offers a keen balance of price and performance.

Eero Pro 6E

Are you in the market for one of the best wireless routers and don’t mind a quirky design? If a 90s-inspired sci-fi design sounds like it will fit right in your home, then the TP-Link Archer C5400 v2 might be the best secure router for you. You’ll need to consider adding Wi-Fi access points if you need to provide wireless access in your office. Also, the USB port is only used for powering a small device and provides no connection support for network-sharing devices like a printer or a shared storage drive. The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 is a three-piece mesh system that employs the latest Wi-Fi 6E technology to access the relatively uncrowded 6GHz radio band. This wildly expensive system delivered very fast throughput speeds in our performance tests, and it offers excellent signal range. It’s loaded with high-end components and is easy to configure. Who It’s For For the purposes of this guide a product will be deemed a success if it can hit the top speed of the broadband. However products that don't achieve that throughput aren't failures, especially when they focus on other important factors like price, device size and specialist features. Connecting with Wi-Fi 6E devices on the 6-GHz band has been zippy and stable, matching the best 6E systems I have tested, but Wi-Fi 7 performance was mixed. My Google Pixel 8 ( 7/10, WIRED Review) frequently disconnected from the Eero Max 7 and failed to match the 6-GHz speeds of the OnePlus 11. I also noted some random disconnections and buffering on several devices, problems that reduced after the latest firmware update but have not yet been entirely eliminated.

The pricing looks higher with these systems because, in most cases, you're paying for at least two devices, the router and a router node that forms the mesh. Most systems, in fact, come with two nodes, so you're buying three devices in total. If you break it down per device, you'll most often find that they cost only a little more than you'd pay for a similarly powered router and range extender solution. That's especially true now that we're seeing prices coming down on mesh systems, even the newer models compatible with Wi-Fi 6. Router manufacturers advertise some very fast transfer speeds, but these are theoretical maximums: you’ll never get close to them in real life. Wireless router speeds have come on a lot in recent times and nowhere is this clearer than in the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500, which is hands down the fastest standalone router we’ve ever tested. Like most mesh networks D-Link thinks the best way to make changes to settings is through a smartphone app. This does work fine, although the initial setup is slightly more long-winded than it really needs to be. In 2003, Linksys was forced to open-source the firmware of its WRT54G router series (the best-selling routers of all time) after people on the Linux kernel mailing list discovered that it used GPL Linux code. [5] In 2008, Cisco was sued in Free Software Foundation, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc due to similar issues with Linksys routers. Since then, various open-source projects have built on this foundation, including OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato.Wireless routers typically feature one or more network interface controllers supporting Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet ports integrated into the main system on a chip (SoC) around which the router is built. An Ethernet switch as described in IEEE 802.1Q may interconnect multiple ports. Some routers implement link aggregation through which two or more ports may be used together improving throughput and redundancy. [1] Rated speeds reach 4.8Gbits/sec over 5GHz and 1.1Gbits/sec over 2.4GHz and the router performed very speedily in our network testing at close range, although it did fall off at longer distances. A wireless router, also known as a Wi-Fi hub, is a small, plastic electronic device supplied by your internet service provider that allows you to connect to the internet. It connects to your home broadband line and sends an internet signal from your home connection to your internet-connected devices. We don’t see many tri-band Wi-Fi 6 routers, simply because dual-band is usually enough for this latest technology to deliver strong, fast results to all parts of your home. But there are still reasons why you might want a tri-band – if you have lots of computers using your network simultaneously or you want to dedicate one connection to your gaming PC, for instance, and don’t want to share the bandwidth with other members of your household. If you have a few areas of your home that struggle to get a decent Wi-Fi signal, then a booster could be an ideal solution. This is especially common for houses on multiple floors.