Expensive routers. Worth it?

[Ninjamilez]

So, sometimes you're given a free internet router by your ISP when you sign up for one of their tariffs or have been with them for a while. For example, BT sent me a Home Hub 5 when I signed up for fibre optic internet last year.

Would I see any difference in wired and/or wireless performance in terms of connection stability, or even throughput and speed if I bought a better router?

I understand the difference between wireless standards, such as A, B/G/N, AC etc. The Home Hub 5 is already wireless AC capable.

 

[Rayven2]

Hey,

It's pretty hard to say, however if you plan on just browsing the internet and being a regular user I wouldn't worry too much about it.

In saying that, some routers can have additional features, settings, configuration options and additional security. As for speed tho if your current router supports up to lets say 100 megabits per/sec and your speeds are below that you'll be fine, so I doubt your ISP will give you a bottlenecked router.

Another issue is sometimes the ISP companies can become real 'bi$tchy' for lack of a better term about what kind of router you use, so you have to deal with that as well. Hope that helps.

 

[Ninjamilez]

Hey,

It's pretty hard to say, however if you plan on just browsing the internet and being a regular user I wouldn't worry too much about it.

In saying that, some routers can have additional features, settings, configuration options and additional security. As for speed tho if your current router supports up to lets say 100 megabits per/sec and your speeds are below that you'll be fine, so I doubt your ISP will give you a bottlenecked router.

Another issue is sometimes the ISP companies can become real 'bi$tchy' for lack of a better term about what kind of router you use, so you have to deal with that as well. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info.

Online gaming and streaming media are my main uses. I was thinking that a better router would probably provide better latency for gaming more than anything. If any improvement could be seen, It'd probably only improve by a couple of ms at most.

I reckon I'll just stick with the HH5 for now, then. What you're saying about additional features, security etc. matches with what I've been reading elsewhere.

 

[bobsilver]

Well the assumptions above are not entirely true. If latency is important then looking at a routers ability to handle multiple tasks at the same time becomes very important. Also if the router is sharing its cpu among routing, wireless functions and other things that puts further strain on it and affects performance, namely latency.

This is why you are seeing dual core 1ghz and better processors in the latest crop higher end of routers. Units like the Netgear Nighthawk series use 1ghz dual core or better. Plus they also have in some models additional cpu's that power the radios to remove the burden of the main cpu and handling these tasks too (Netgear R7500, R8000).

So there is more to this then you would think.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[Ninjamilez]

Well the assumptions above are not entirely true. If latency is important then looking at a routers ability to handle multiple tasks at the same time becomes very important. Also if the router is sharing its cpu among routing, wireless functions and other things that puts further strain on it and affects performance, namely latency.

This is why you are seeing dual core 1ghz and better processors in the latest crop higher end of routers. Units like the Netgear Nighthawk series use 1ghz dual core or better. Plus they also have in some models additional cpu's that power the radios to remove the burden of the main cpu and handling these tasks too (Netgear R7500, R8000).

So there is more to this then you would think.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

Thanks for the informative post, Bob.

I will be needing a router that easily handles multiple wired and wireless tasks simultaneously due to other users in the house.

I'll definitely look into those Netgear routers. They sound like exactly the thing that I'm looking for.