If you have a router and want to know if it is good or not, you should check both its technical characteristics, as well as basic performance tests to see if it works well or not. It is very important to determine if our router is good or not, because the operation of the wired and wireless network in our house will depend on it, and it could affect the home automation devices we have, online games with a console or PC, and even the user experience while consuming multimedia content on the Smart TV. Next, we will indicate what aspects you should pay attention to in your current routerand determine if it is good or not.
What to look for to know if I have a good router
The first thing we must do to know if we have a good router is to know what model it is exactly to find its technical specifications. Based on these specifications, we can know if it is a very old device with the Wi-Fi 4 standard, or if it is a new model with the Wi-Fi 6 standard. Next, we indicate the 5 aspects that you should look at to know if it is good or not:
Wifi
It is essential that the router you have incorporates the Wi-Fi 6 standard, the latest and fastest standard that currently exists (with permission from WiFi 6E that enables the 6GHz band to have even more speed). This feature is very important because we will have more coverage, more real speed and we will also have a better user experience when we connect dozens of wireless clients.
The number of WiFi antennas is also very important, At least we should have two WiFi antennas, either external or internal, to achieve good wireless performance. These routers should be of the AX3000 class, this means that we will have 160MHz of channel width in 5GHz and WiFi clients such as laptops or smartphones will be able to achieve speeds of more than 1Gbps real without many problems. If we have three antennas or more, much better, but as long as they have the 160MHz channel width for these WiFi clients that only have two antennas.
Ethernet ports
It is essential that all LAN and WAN ports are minimum Gigabit Ethernetit would be highly advisable that some of these ports are 2.5G Multigigabit Ethernet, with the aim of not having any kind of bottleneck in the Internet or LAN network. If we have this type of port on the WAN, we can take advantage of speeds greater than 1Gbps, if it is for the LAN we can connect a NAS server or our PC to share files on the local network at high speed.
Higher-end models incorporate 2 2.5G Multigigabit ports, one for the LAN and one for the Internet WAN. In addition, the top of the range have 10G portsbut this would not be necessary for a home user, unless you are a very demanding user and have a NAS server at home.
Do you have USB?
If you plan to share files through the local network or the Internet, it is very important that it has a USB 3.0 port, and that the processor of the router is powerful, to achieve good read and write speeds.
Likewise, it is also essential that the firmware has Samba servers, FTP/FTPES or DLNA media server, to make the most of this USB 3.0 port of the equipment.
router firmware
How long has the router not been updated? Manufacturers often abandon old routers and don’t release new updates, other manufacturers like AVM or ASUS do provide updates for many years. If you have a router and the latest version of the firmware is from two years ago or more, your router is probably old and you have to change it for a new one that has all the features that we have explained to you.
However, it is possible that you have an old router from more than 3 years ago, but if it was top of the range at that time, it is possible that it will still serve you perfectly for your main use of the Internet connection.
WiFi and wired speed you get
Finally, the last aspect you have to look at is the actual speed you get over WiFi and cable. You can do the typical speed test to check the WiFi speed and the speed of the Internet connection (the least of them), or use the programs Jperf or iPerf3 that we use at RedesZone to do all the analyzes of WiFi routers without depending on the Internet connection.
In this way, you will be able to know if you get a good wireless and wired speed or not, something important to know if your router is good or you need to buy a new one that provides you with higher speed.
