router for my house

[blablacentral]

getting a router for my house and was wondering what to look for in a router or are they all pretty much the same

what specs/features/frequency/whatever am i looking for. all i want it for is the largest strongest wifi signal throught the house the rooms on the other end need signal from the modem on my side of the house.

 

[techgeek]

What is you advertised intermet upload and download speed?

Do you transfer a lot of data between computers / devices on your network?

Do you have any streaming apps and streaming devices? For instance Netflix on a Smart TV.

Do you do backups of your computers across the network?

Do have centralized storage on your network?

What is your budget?

The answers to these questions will help us understand your usage model and we should be able to suggest something.

In general there is no reason to not get a 802.11ac capable router. That is unless you don't plan on getting 802.11ac adapters to match. Even then, the router will work just fine with whatever wireless adapters you have, just not at the full capabilities / speed of your router.

 

[blablacentral]

What is you advertised intermet upload and download speed? 50 down 10 up

Do you transfer a lot of data between computers / devices on your network? no

Do you have any streaming apps and streaming devices? For instance Netflix on a Smart tv? yes

Do you do backups of your computers across the network? no

Do have centralized storage on your network? no

What is your budget? as much as needed to get what i need but not overkill



i do want to be able to hook up a printer to it for the house the current modem/router combo from comcast wont link to it and the wifi signal is crap.

 

[bill001g]

You are likely going to be limited by your ISP before you are limited by the routers. You will likely be able to get by with a dual band 802.11n router. Most likely 300+300 or 600m. The 450m speed is dependant on have 450 on the nic card and it is not a common feature.

You could consider 802.11ac routers but you need 802.11ac nics in your end devices and likely it makes no difference since the 802.11n routers are faster than your internet anyway.

Pretty much 802.11ac is mainly beneficial to people who transfer a lot of data INSIDE their house.

The coverage and signal level of routers is much more dependent on how your house is built than any small difference between routers. It is impossible to really predict. Pretty much as long as you stay with the better name router they will all have the same coverage. Almost all router transmit at the maximum legal power allowed by the government so they have very similar coverages.

 

[techgeek]

You should be fine with a 802.11n router which is what I have with the exact same advertised speeds. Since you answered no to many of the questions that a 'yes' would have justified getting the fastest possible router in your budget allowed, you have many choices.

It is unlikely that you have any .ac compatible adapters (unless you have a newish laptop). However that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't get an .ac router. You can get a reasonably priced .ac compatible router which gives you dual band and .n compatibility and gives you the benefit of .ac if you upgrade your computers down the road.

As for brand preference opinions will be anecdotal. I like ASUS, Linksys, and Netgear, and I've had bad experiences with DLink. Someone else will tell you something different.

As for coverage, bill001g is a little off. It is true that there are regulations that govern how much power can be transmitted. However power is not the only factor which dictates how well a router works in any particular environment. Antenna design and configuration has as much or more to do with the distance at which a router will work. Of course the router is only half the equation, your wireless adapters will be the other half. Another contributing factor is where the router is located. I have found that moving a router even a couple feet can have a drastic effect on how well coverage is at the extremes of their range. This basically come down to the materials used in your house that are between the router and wireless adapter. Newer .n and all .ac routers are designed with MIMO in mind which improve throughput at longer distances. This comes back to antenna configuration.

Also a general rule of thumb. lower frequencies penetrate through structures better. So 2.4GHz will usually perform better than 5GHz when passing through walls / floors / ceilings / etc. However on the flipside, 2.4Ghz is pretty crowded, especially if you live in a apartment or closely packed neighborhood. So co-channel interference can be troublesome in the 2.4GHz band.

I personally like something with external antennas (though the router I have now doesn't), but these are more expensive. Let us know which country you are in so we can give some specific make / model numbers that will fit your needs.