Black Friday Is Coming: How to Buy a Router?

Hey! The annual Black Friday shopping season has begun, and you must have a lot of favorite products to buy. Ladies should be clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics, etc. Men should be watches, perfumes, game consoles, computers, mobile phones, etc., right? I believe that your shopping cart must have been filled earlier. However, discounts are usually only available on limited products, and they will be snapped up instantly. Given this, you may need a router to offer you fast network speed.

As I introduced before, click to get How to improve network speed, you must have learned that router problems such as aging, bad performance, and even failures are the most common reasons for slow network speed. And router products are updated very quickly, if you want to add some special functions, you may also need to change one.

Whatever, check your router and network ahead of time to grab your favorite items. If need to change, it's a good time! Black Friday promotion season will give you the most discount. To choose a suitable router, you have several aspects that must be taken into consideration.

Total Time: 2 hours

Supply & Tools:

• Mobile phone, or;
• Computer

You must know your broadband before buying a router because it determines your Internet experience. Higher broadband will bring you faster internet speed. If your broadband is only 100M, your network speed won't be fast no matter what routers you use.

The use occasion should be a priority to consider as well. At present, routers can be divided into enterprise routers, cybercafé routers, home routers, etc. according to the use occasion. Different use occasions and household environments need different routers.
For instance, a small house can be basically covered by only one wireless router, while a large family unit and small business such as a duplex or a villa have a greater demand for routers and need to use packaged products or multiple wireless products to achieve full coverage. Not to mention used in large enterprises and cybercafés where you also need to focus on the router's anti-interference stability, the number of devices, and the load, otherwise it may affect the quality and status of the network. Therefore, it is best to choose according to the use occasion.

The main performance parameters of routers generally include CPU, memory, supported network protocols, transfer rate, supported devices, etc.

• CPU: The router's CPU is responsible for processing all data. The higher the main frequency, the faster the data forwarding speed of the router. You will intuitively feel whether the network is stuck or not. Generally, 300M CPU is enough for home use.
• Memory: The importance of memory is self-evident. The larger the memory, the more data can be cached, and the higher the overall efficiency of the router. Some good routers' CPU is at least 128M, and high-end models even reach 512M. If not considering the price, of course, pick the larger memory routers.
• Supported network protocols: If the router supports the latest protocols, the transfer rate of Wi-Fi will also be relatively fast. The current Wi-Fi protocol has developed to the sixth generation, which is often referred to as Wi-Fi 6. Generally, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11AC, frequency band 5GHz, maximum bandwidth 80~160MHz, maximum rate 3.5Gbps) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11AX, frequency band 2.4GHz and 5GHz, maximum bandwidth 160MHz, maximum rate 9.6Gbps) can meet daily needs. Whether choose a Wi-Fi 6 depends on a higher network experience, it also requires enough budget.
• Transfer rate: Wireless networks are lossy. A higher transfer rate is helpful to provide average speed in case of the router's signal is not ideal. That means if the router has a higher upper limit of the rate, the actual network speed will also be higher. But you must note that some manufacturers claim that their router supports gigabit speed, which is actually reserved, and it is unlikely to fully achieve in the actual running process. So don't blindly choose a route with a high transfer rate, choose a proper one.
• Supported devices: A single router only supports limited devices. A home router is generally within 20-30 units, and enterprise-level routers can reach dozens or even hundreds of units. Choose the appropriate router model according to your needs to ensure the normal and efficient running of the network while reducing costs.

A qualified router must provide a stable and fast network. You may also need to consider some other functions when purchasing a router such as whether to support a mesh network, parental control, APP control, firmware upgrade, etc. If the router supports the mesh network, it will be much easier for future network transformation. Nowadays, children are exposed to the Internet earlier, and sometimes it may be necessary to take parental control to avoid indulging in the Internet. In short, routers with some special features will push more purchases.

It is recommended that if the price is acceptable, try to choose a major brand that specializes in routers. Click to get Router Brand List. If you are not a regular user of a brand, you can change an excellent router to experience.
Top 10 well-known router brands

• Netgear
• TP-Link
• Asus
• Linksys
• Cisco
• Google Nest
• Huawei
• Xiaomi
• Zyxel
• Reyee

The above is how to choose a router. Finally, there are two points I would like to remind you of.

• Don't buy a router based on the number of antennas. Many people think that the more antennas, the better the Wi-Fi signal and the better the network speed. This is actually a misunderstanding. There is no direct relationship between internet speed and the number of antennas.
• No product is 100% perfect. Any product tends to be perfect. Similarly, the purchase of routers is not to choose expensive and more features, but to suit your own use. I hope everyone can buy a suitable router during the festival.