What Is The Best Wifi Router For Mac
Setting up a Wi-Fi router can be tremendously intimidating to the layperson. Hell, I worked in IT, and I find setting these things up intimidating. But what really makes the AirPort Extreme special is the software that Apple includes on the Mac and makes available for free download for the PC.
Improve Your Home WiFi with a New Best Wireless Router Life is hard without a strong WiFi connection. We live in the day and age of mobile, internet-connected devices that depend on fast and reliable internet access to function as intended. Understandably, older WiFi standards haven’t been designed with our current needs in mind, so it’s only natural that wireless routers that support nothing but them are now essentially obsolete. If you’re still using a WiFi router that comes from the time before smart home devices and the Internet of Things, you should definitely consider upgrading to a modern WiFi router that can provide flawless internet access to many different connected devices at once. The goal of this guide is to demystify WiFi technology and introduce several best WiFi routers so you don’t have to spend hours reading boring product descriptions and compering specifications. Visual studio. Step 1: Understand WiFi Standards Wireless local area networks are governed by the IEEE 802.11 standard. The first version of this standard was released in 1997, and there have been several revisions since then.
The latest revision of the 802.11 standard is called 802.11ac, and it has multi-station throughput of at least 1 gigabit per second and single-link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (500 Mbit/s). Earlier revisions of the 802.11 standard include 802.11n, which added multiple-input multiple-output antennas (MIMO), and 802.11g, which operates at a maximum physical layer bit rate of 54 Mbit/s, just to name two of the most commonly used revisions of the 802.11 standard.
Of course, there’s no reason to worry about what kind of features individual WiFi standards offer. As a user, all you want is to ensure that your wireless devices and your wireless router both support the same standard.
Or to be more precise, you want to ensure that your wireless router isn’t the limiting factor. So, even if you don’t own any wireless device that uses the latest 802.11ac standard, it still makes sense to purchase a router that supports it. Step 2: Estimate How Much WiFi Coverage You Need You can be sure that you’ll need a lot more powerful wireless router if you live in a large house than someone who lives in a cramped apartment. In fact, even the best wireless routers on the market might not be able to cover your entire home with reliable wireless internet access. Thick brick walls are a common source of WiFi issues, and so is electromagnetic interference from various household appliances. Even your neighbors’ WiFi networks may interfere with your own network can cause slowdowns and signal drops. All best wireless routers should support both the 2.4 GHz band, which provides coverage at a longer range but transmits data at slower speeds, as well as the 5 GHz band, which provides less coverage but transmits data at faster speeds.
A wireless router capable of transmitting on the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz band at the same time allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds, which is a welcome plus and definitely a must-have feature. Step 3: Consider Alternatives If you’re not satisfied with the performance of your existing wireless network, buying a new wireless router isn’t the only possible solution. For example, some people buy a new router just because one room in their house doesn’t have internet access. In that situation, a WiFi extender would likely work just fine and cost a lot less than a new wireless router. Essentially, a WiFi extender is a relatively compact device that plugs into an electrical outlet, preferably one that’s located somewhere in the middle between the existing wireless router and the room that’s not covered by the signal the router transmits. The WiFi extender then connects to the existing WiFi network and acts as an amplifier, capturing a WiFi signal from the router with one antenna and transmitting it with another one.