If you are like me, you most likely aren’t fascinated about changing your router till you see a buffering wheel when you’re making an attempt to stream TV or your video assembly cuts out. There may be many causes of a defective connection — your supplier might be throttling your speeds, your plan could be too gradual for all units utilizing it or your router could also be within the unsuitable spot — however generally the offender is solely outdated {hardware}.
As with every other piece of kit, routers have a shelf life. They want to have the ability to sustain with the entire different units you are bringing into your house. In normal, specialists advocate swapping your router each 5 years at a minimal. Make that each two to a few years should you use plenty of good dwelling devices or should you make an everyday behavior of shopping for the newest laptops, telephones and different main Wi-Fi units.
While it may appear handy to make use of gear supplied by the supplier, renting a router is an pointless expense, typically including lots of of {dollars} a yr to the service. Additionally, present router homeowners might think about an improve to make sure they’re taking advantage of their plan. But choosing the proper router is usually a bit overwhelming. There’s a whole lot of jargon and specs concerned. How a lot pace and attain are required to cowl each inch, anyway?
There are multipoint mesh routers, ones that help Wi-Fi 7 (the latest model) and Wi-Fi 6E routers that provide entry to the ultrawide 6GHz band. The excellent news is, that we’ve performed the work and have zeroed in on 5 key fundamentals to assist decide the perfect mannequin.
You won’t want a brand new router in any respect
Before spending any cash, it is a good suggestion to just remember to get essentially the most out of your present router. Wi-Fi is finicky, and it would not take a lot to disrupt these wi-fi alerts, so in case your connection appears slower than you want, it won’t be your router’s fault.
Sometimes, a easy reboot is all of your community wants, so begin with the apparent and unplug each your router and your modem, then plug them each again in. Dave Coleman, a Wi-Fi knowledgeable, creator and director of wi-fi networking within the workplace of the CTO at Extreme Networks, the corporate that ran the Wi-Fi at Super Bowl 55, additionally recommends rebooting the Wi-Fi drivers in your telephone, laptop computer and different essential consumer units.
“It’s wonderful how that’ll remedy like 90% of the issues, as a result of the drivers are the interface between the radio and the working system, they usually can get discombobulated,” Coleman says. “I do know it sounds easy, but it surely’s the primary troubleshooting factor individuals ought to do.”
It’s additionally a good suggestion to attempt bypassing the router altogether, which you are able to do by wiring your laptop on to the modem with an Ethernet cable. Is that hardwired degree of on-line efficiency noticeably higher than what you are getting if you’re linked wirelessly at a brief distance, in the identical room because the router? That’s a transparent signal that the router is falling in need of your community’s potential.
If issues like these persist, attempt working some pace assessments in varied spots round your house utilizing just a few completely different units — each your telephone and your laptop computer, as an illustration. I just like the Ookla pace take a look at, which is quick, free, dependable and straightforward to make use of — you possibly can run it in your browser by clicking right here, or you possibly can obtain Ookla’s speed-testing app to your Android or iOS machine, and even to an Apple TV. (Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, the identical guardian firm as CNET.) Whatever units you utilize, these outcomes ought to offer you a clearer sense of whether or not the issue is tied to a selected consumer machine or location in your house, or whether or not it is a larger situation affecting the whole lot.
With the numbers providing you with a greater understanding of the established order, making some fast tweaks can provide you a pleasant pace increase. Try repositioning the router to a spot that is extra open and central inside your house, ideally in a location that is as excessive as potential. While you are at it, adjusting the angle of the antennas would possibly assist increase the sign to particular spots round the home. It’s additionally a good suggestion to blast the ports within the again and the airflow vents with a can of compressed air to interrupt via mud build-up — gunk like that may trigger your router to overheat and its efficiency to dip.
None of that labored and your web nonetheless stinks? Yeah, you most likely want a brand new router.
Is it time to improve to the subsequent technology of Wi-Fi?
Router expertise and safety are all the time enhancing, and we have seen some vital jumps prior to now few years with the arrival of Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and prior to now yr, Wi-Fi 7. Generational advances like these go away yesterday’s routers within the mud, so it is value upgrading to a router that helps them as quickly because it is smart for you to take action — even when the one you are utilizing now remains to be getting the job performed.
Outside of that, the mere indisputable fact that so many people are spending a lot extra time at dwelling as of late makes the thought of upgrading your router much more compelling.
“People are working into issues the place Mom’s making an attempt to do a Zoom name, but it surely goes south, as a result of the youngsters are upstairs streaming Netflix movies,” Coleman says. “That’s one signal that you just would possibly have to improve your Wi-Fi community.”
Upgrading to Wi-Fi 6, a more recent technology of Wi-Fi that is higher suited to dense, crowded environments the place you’ve gotten plenty of units competing for bandwidth, is unquestionably one strategy to give your community a lift. And with the latest arrival of Wi-Fi 7, now you can discover Wi-Fi 6 and 6E units for considerably lowered costs.
The Asus ZenWiFi AX is one among our prime mesh router suggestions.
Do you want a mesh router?
We are inclined to fixate on speeds after we discuss routers, however the reality is that there are actually solely two Wi-Fi speeds that matter most often: “quick sufficient” and “not quick sufficient.” After all, having a blazing-fast connection in the identical room because the router is nice, but it surely means little if you cannot get a robust sign when throughout a late-night Netflix binge in your bed room on the opposite aspect of the home. That’s very true as of late, with plenty of individuals nonetheless staying dwelling and relying on their dwelling networks greater than ever earlier than.
That’s why, for many individuals, essentially the most significant transfer you may make for that dwelling community is to improve from a stand-alone, single-point router to an expandable mesh system that makes use of a number of units to unfold a reliably speedy sign all through your home. Mesh programs sometimes will not hit prime speeds which are fairly as excessive as a single-point router, however they make up for it by delivering Wi-Fi that is “quick sufficient” to all corners of your house.
Mesh routers have been round for a number of years now, but it surely’s solely within the final yr or two that we have seen first rate choices out there for lower than $300. Now, in 2025, you’ve got bought loads of programs to select from, with costs starting from entry-level fashions that price as little as $150 or much less to top-of-the-line programs that price as a lot as $1,000.
For my cash, one of the best technique for that spectrum of mesh choices is to goal for the center floor. Tri-band design, which provides in a second 5GHz band to function a devoted backhaul channel for transmissions between the principle router and its satellites, has been the most important difference-maker in my assessments, and it is value paying a little bit further for it.
Speed scores are mainly bull
I’ve written about this earlier than, but it surely bears repeating, The pace scores you may see on the packaging and scrolling via router listings are near meaningless.
I’m speaking about figures like “AC1200” and “AX6000.” The letters there inform you what model of Wi-Fi the router helps — “AC” for Wi-Fi 5, or 802.11ac and “AX” for Wi-Fi 6, often known as 802.11ax. The numbers present a tough sense of the mixed prime obtain speeds of every of the router’s bands — sometimes 2.4 and 5GHz, and maybe a second 5GHz band if we’re speaking a couple of triband router, or 6GHz with Wi-Fi 6E routers.
The downside is that you possibly can solely connect with a kind of bands at a time. When you add their prime speeds collectively, the result’s a extremely inflated determine that does not symbolize the speeds you may expertise. If it is a triband mesh router that makes use of that third band as a devoted connection between the router and its extenders, then that band’s speeds do not instantly apply to your machine connections.
To make issues worse, these prime speeds on the field are theoretical maximums derived from lab-based producer assessments that do not take real-world components like distance, bodily obstructions, interference or community congestion into consideration. Even at shut vary, your precise connection will probably be lots slower.
None of that stops producers from utilizing these pace scores to explain how briskly their merchandise are. For occasion, that hypothetical AX6000 router would possibly declare to help speeds of as much as 6,000 megabits per second — which is nonsense. A router is simply as quick as its quickest band. Don’t be fooled.
Your router cannot work miracles
One final level: It’s essential to know that your router would not generate pace or bandwidth — it takes no matter bandwidth you are paying for out of your web service supplier and sends it out into your house in order that wi-fi units can join. If that incoming bandwidth is proscribed to start with, there’s actually not a lot your router can do about it.
Eventually, enhancements to issues like satellite tv for pc web and continued Fifth Generation and fiber deployments ought to assist bridge the bandwidth hole in elements of the nation that lack entry to excessive speeds. Until that occurs, paying further for an upgraded router might be overkill.
“I want there was a solution to say, ‘Yeah, you would improve your router, and that’ll remedy your bandwidth downside on the ISP,'” Coleman says. “But the reply shouldn’t be actually.”
In a “small pipe” scenario like that, Coleman’s advice is to concentrate on conserving your bandwidth — particularly within the scenario he described earlier, the place Mom’s work calls are dropping as a result of children’ Netflix habits. His suggestion: Look for a router with good parental management settings.
“If you are a guardian, you are able to do time settings and firewall settings to limit entry of sure sorts of purposes, in addition to sure instances when sure people might use it,” Coleman says. “My children are grown now, however I used to do it again within the day!”
Before shopping for a brand new router, it’s best to be certain that any of your pace points are literally being brought on by {hardware} limitations. Try rebooting your router and clearing every other points earlier than spending cash on an improve.
You can have one of the best router on the earth, however on the finish of the day, your web speeds are nonetheless going to be restricted by the plan you pay for. Don’t put money into the cutting-edge gear should you’re not going to pay your web service supplier to benefit from that top pace connection.
