![]() ![]() ![]() (Check out our Wi-Fi 6 explainer for more in-depth information first.) There are still plenty of capable Wi-Fi 5 routers out there that will handle light to moderate networking needs, but if you want the latest technology and the performance it brings, you’ll want to go with a Wi-Fi 6 router. When choosing a router, you’ll have to decide whether you want a Wi-Fi 6 router, a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) router, or a Wi-Fi mesh system. All these buying guides contain our best and latest reviews in each category with every player completing PC Labs' wireless router testing suite. If you're looking for the fastest possible pipe with which to enjoy video gaming, then check out our gaming routers guide. If you're still looking to make a purchase, check out our wireless router buying guide (link above) or, if you're looking for something a little cheaper, try our budget routers roundup. Our advice below assumes that you've already found the right router for your home. Follow these basic steps to properly configure your router and optimize your wireless network. Just because you've plugged in everything and all the blinking lights have turned green doesn't mean your network's performance and its security are as good as they could be. Wi-Fi router installation utilities have become easier to use over the years, but getting the best out of your new router usually means delving a little deeper than the standard installation routine will go. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.If you need to stay on one band, tell your phone to ‘forget’ the other, and connect back to that manually later when you need to. So if you’re watching a film on your phone and move away from the router, it might switch from 5GHz to 2.4GHz without warning, and you’ll only know when the film starts buffering and stuttering. That’s not always a good thing, though: most devices will pick the stronger network, regardless of what’s better for what you’re doing. Older devices might not be able to connect to the newer 5GHz band at all, while others will flip seamlessly between them. Will my phone and tablet switch automatically between the bands? So if you’ve got the grandchildren round and they’re playing a game, you could make sure they only connect to the 5GHz band so that you can get on with your browsing without them hogging all the bandwidth while they kill zombies. The only reason you might want to have separate passwords is so that you can make sure other people are on the band most suitable for what they’re doing. So long as you’ve got a strong password for your network, you can use the same one for the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band. There’s no need from a security point of view to give the two bands a separate password. What about security? Should I give the different bands a different password? The 5GHz bandwidth is less likely to suffer from interference. However, the 5GHz band won’t reach as far: if you want to watch the iPlayer at the bottom of the garden, you’re probably going to be restricted to the slower 2.4GHz band as the 5GHz has a shorter range.Īnother downside of 2.4GHz is that it’s a crowded: not only will many of your neighbours be sharing it, a lot of other wireless devices are on that frequency too, such as cordless phones and baby monitors. What are the downsides?Īs mentioned above, the 2.4GHz band is slower: it’s less able to handle the high throughput of streaming video. If you’re just browsing the web, you’ll be fine on the older 2.4GHz band because browsing uses less data. That’s because it can transmit much higher amounts of data, and so your movie or game won’t suffer from excessive buffering (when the picture or game slows down or stops as it waits for the video to catch up) or drop out. If you’re watching the iPlayer or other streaming service such as Netflix on your tablet, or playing games on a console, you’ll have a much better experience doing so on the 5GHz band. Without getting too bogged down in the various wireless networking standards, broadly, the two bands are those two frequencies, with the lower-frequency 2.4GHz offering a longer reach, and the more modern and higher frequency 5GHz being able to move more data around faster. But what's the difference? What does it mean? Most routers these days are dual-band, offering both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wi-fi networking. ![]()
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