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We especially like the included Trend Micro malware protection, which can block malicious sites for all devices on your network. The best wireless routers for home use are those that can support the number of devices in your home and provide a strong signal to all of your devices. In general, you should look for a router that’s fast enough to match the speed of your internet connection. For large homes, you will have a much better experience if you use one or more Wi-Fi extenders or choose a mesh Wi-Fi system instead of a traditional wireless router.
Prior to writing for a living, Joel was an IT tech and system administrator for small, medium-size, and large companies. We’ve tested eight new routers, including our new top pick, the TP-Link Archer AX55 and another good router, the Linksys Hydra 6 . So, decide whether you want the latest specifications only or good with a bit of older technologies.
Best Budget Wi-Fi Router Emphasizing Performance
It also offers basic parental controls that allow you to block websites, schedule access times, and turn off internet access with the touch of a button. It doesn’t support 160MHz channels or WPA3 encryption, but that’s not uncommon for routers in this price range, and its fast throughput makes up for it. If you’re spending the extra dough for a gigabit internet service plan, the Asus RT-AX88U is the router to make the most of the bandwidth you’re paying for. It can serve a strong, responsive Wi-Fi 6 signal to all corners of an average home, and it has more ports for wired devices such as a desktop PC, a media streaming box, a gaming console, and NAS devices. In our tests, it outperformed the pack in speed and latency, and it includes upgrades that will keep it relevant in a rapidly changing smart home. Though it does a good job operating on only basic settings, this Asus router is the one you should look at if you think our pick doesn’t allow enough customization and you want more settings and sliders to tweak your network.
Good 1800 square foot Wi-Fi range means this is a strong pick for larger homes. The critical point to remember is that as long as the router’s theoretical speeds match or surpass the speeds offered by your Xfinity package, you’ll have everything you need to get the best experience. You’ll save some money by opting for lower theoretical speeds while, in most cases, still benefiting from the best speeds possible from your ISP. The TP-Link Archer A9 lacks support for the Wi-Fi 6 standard, and the basic feature-set is a far cry from the more premium routers out there, but at this price point, these are reasonable omissions.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000
The model received four gigabit network ports, support for the AX3000 class and Mesh networking, as well as the ability to configure and manage through a mobile application. Ranging in price from about $50 to $150, these three routers share an antennaless angular design, but were poor performers overall. Neither router supports smart connect , and each has a short, one-year warranty. You can check the AX50’s settings in both an internal website and TP-Link’s Tether smartphone app. If that last sentence sounds like incoherent technobabble to you, the AX50 would be more than sufficient for your needs.
It’s also worth noting that the Archer A6 is virtually identical to the Archer C6. For whatever reason TP-Link has chosen to use unique model numbers for different sales channels, but both models offer the same features and capabilities. Keeping your kids safe from the darker corners of the internet can be a challenge, but fortunately, there are routers like Synology’s RT2600ac to give you a helping hand. The RT2600ac protects your kids from online threats right at the perimeter of your home network, so you don’t need to worry about installing parental control apps on each of their devices. All of that made it more important than ever to have a dependable router running your home's wireless network.
Who It’s For
An array of four beamforming antennas and MU-MIMO support also means your 5GHz devices won’t slow each other down. Surprisingly, it even supports the latest WPA3 wireless encryption standard, and includes a built-in OpenVPN server. With blazing fast 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 performance and up to 10Gbps of total throughput, the GT-AX11000 can handle even the busiest homes, and the eight-antenna beamforming array will easily cover a living space of up to 5,000 square feet. If that’s not enough, Asus’ AiMesh 2.0 technology will let you add additional routers into the mix to create a full mesh Wi-Fi system. The usual four Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back are also joined by a special high-speed 2.5Gbps dedicated gaming port for the ultimate in wired performance. The current WiFi standard is known as WiFi 6, which is sometimes referred to by its technical name 802.11ax.
The AX21 easily outperformed its direct competition, the TP-Link AX50, on nearly all of our tests, but it was noticeably slower than the RT-AX86U and TP-Link Archer AX6000. We recorded higher maximum game latency, the file transfer took nearly twice as long and both our wireless benchmarks and Cloudflare connection benchmarks crawled. Some of the RT-AX86U’s features are confusing to use, or at least poorly described in the documentation.
What is the best WiFi router in 2022?
The real-time security of Homecare protects the network from cyber threats and malicious content. The WPA 3 encryption standards keep the network safe from unauthorized users. Netgear combines the power of a dual-core processor clocking at 1.8 GHz and three co-processors in a Broadcom chipset.
The three-piece Eero 6 Plus Wi-Fi 6 mesh system delivered blazing throughput speeds and excellent signal range in our performance tests. As with most mesh systems, it is a snap to install and manage using a phone and a user-friendly mobile app, and it has the distinction of being the first Eero system to support 160MHz channels. Looking for Wi-Fi 6 on the cheap, along with a smattering of key features, including USB connectivity and security software support? But if all you want to do is upgrade your network with speedy Wi-Fi 6 on the cheap, look no further. This ZTE router delivered some of the fastest 5GHz throughput we've seen from an under-$100 device, and its 2.4GHz performance was not too shabby, either.
If you have older devices that use those standards, however, there's no need to worry as almost all modern routers are backwards compatible with older devices. Google’s Nest Wi-Fi is one of the things that distinguishes the Google Home ecosystem from the competition, offering a tight level of integration that most others can’t match. Not only does this mesh Wi-Fi system provide the full Google experience, but it also packs some other really nice bonus features.
This category is getting a lot of attention from vendors as it's generally easier and faster than adding a third-party wireless range extender to your network. That's a rather large swing price-wise, so before choosing a Wi-Fi 6 router try not to think about money as the primary differentiator and instead think about why you want to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6. (Our handy guide can help.) Once you know it's the right move, start by calculating the size of your coverage area and the number of clients that will be connecting to the network. In addition to PCs, tablets, gaming consoles, and phones, be sure to consider the ever-growing list of connected smart home devices, such as cameras, doorbells, locks, and smart TVs to name a few. These days, every intelligent router offers some settings and adjustments to the network through the mobile app.
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