In a variety of tests spread out around a three-story home, the CT8 was able to outperform all but our upgrade pick, including some kits costing considerably more, and it was relatively painless to set up. That translates into extra connections for wired devices like streaming boxes, TVs, and game consoles. The best mesh WiFi routers offer a solid, unified WiFi network no matter where you are. If our pick is out of stock or its price is more than $30 higher, you should consider the TP-Link Archer AX20 instead. The CT8 base unit and satellite look identical, so that could be an issue if you ever move them to another location. TP-Link could add WPA3 as a feature in a future firmware update. Like most of the routers we tested, the AX50 has five Ethernet ports: a WAN internet port for connecting your cable modem or fiber terminal, as well as four network ports for wired devices. Metaphorically, Joel has been a wire cutter for decades: Testing wireless home networking has been a part of his life for the past 20-plus years through all versions of Wi-Fi, back to the wireless phone extension he tacked onto the back of his Apple PowerBook. We determined our recommendation using the 10 criteria below, drawn from research and extensive testing. The best mesh routers can give your home better, stronger wireless internet coverage than any solo router or Wi-Fi extender could hope to manage. A great router should provide many years of reliable service, and buying one with more recent technology can future-proof it for longer. Before joining Wirecutter in 2018, Joel Santo Domingo tested and wrote about PCs, networking, and personal tech for PCMag.com, Lifewire, HotHardware, and PC Magazine for more than 17 years. If you don’t give your networks different names (SSIDs), in practice all your devices end up piling onto one 5 GHz band, and you experience slower speeds, delays, and even dropped connections when several of them are online and busy at the same time. The purpose of our testing was not to choose a router that was slightly faster than another; it was to see which routers could deliver consistently strong performance without encountering major issues in real-world conditions. Linksys Velop AX4200 (MX12600) We repeated each test set six times and averaged the results to smooth out spikes. Even one device with a poor connection can bring the quality of the entire network down. Testing mesh kits this way—with a mix of easy and difficult spots to reach—ensures that we find the ones that work best throughout your house, rather than just looking good in the easy spots. You can trust our veteran journalists, scientists, and experts to find the best stuff The best mesh WiFi routers offer a solid, unified WiFi network no matter where you are. This effect shows up best when you’re comparing a strong tri-band kit like the Asus ZenWiFi AC (CT8) set or D-Link COVR-2202 with a kit such as the TP-Link Deco X20: The tri-band CT8 was rock steady in the green throughout our test suite, while the dual-band Deco X20 started to falter after the 80th percentile. Check out this list, and bring home the best WiFi mesh router for you. The RE220 is universally compatible to any router, but also can function as part of a seamless mesh system when paired with the Archer A7 router. The XT8 is almost a twin of our pick the CT8, but it includes a couple of extras for users who need a more powerful mesh network to work with all that bandwidth. Writer. And make no mistake, the Asus RT-AX88U is pricey, about double the cost of the TP-Link Archer AX50. It was a bit slower on our long-range tests, it has a slower USB 2.0 port instead of USB 3.0, and it omits advanced settings such as link aggregation, more robust parental controls, and the built-in security suite that the AX50 has. 10 Best Parental Control Routers - December 2020 Results are Based on. Now that working from home is just as important as gaming and streaming, defeating Wi-Fi dead zones is more important than ever. But its long-distance throughput, at our garage testing site 50 feet away, was quite a bit slower than that of our pick and runner-up, which is why we recommend the A7 only for smaller living spaces. The CT8 mesh units aren’t the largest in our roundup, but they’re close. For this round, we dropped some of the poorest-performing kits from our previous rounds of testing (such as the D-Link COVR-C1203, Linksys Velop dual-band kit, and Zyxel Multy U kits). If you place the mesh node in your den or home office, you can connect your laptop or desktop PC to it for better speeds. Like our top pick, the AX20 broadcasts a speedy Wi-Fi 6 network with good throughput, better-than-average range, and solid responsiveness (low latency), but it drops a few niceties to reach a lower price. TP-Link is one of the best router companies in the world and has been leading the industry in technological development and technological innovation. Smart connect (aka bandsteering) works great for laptops and phones: The device in your hands will automatically switch between 5 GHz (short range, but faster) and 2.4 GHz (long range, but slower) as needed throughout the day, using the same network name (SSID, see below). You can check the AX50’s settings in both an internal website and TP-Link’s Tether smartphone app. Buying the best cable modem/router combo is a great way to get all of the features of a cable modem and a wireless router in one simple and affordable package, and if you’re still renting your cable modem from your ISP it can save you even more money.. With many cable providers easily charging up to $168/year to provide you with a cable modem, it’s easy to see how buying your own can … Whether you’re dealing with slow speeds or Wi-Fi dead zones, a new router can significantly improve your internet experience. Wirecutter tests and reviews the best tech, appliances, gear, and more. A range extender will generally create a second network name (SSID) when you set it up, and you’ll need to change networks on your phone or other devices manually when you switch from the standalone main router to the extender in your home. High latency, or lag, can make an otherwise speedy connection seem to drag, especially when the network is busy. Joel Santo Domingo is a senior staff writer covering networking and storage at Wirecutter. The UDM also has the single gigabit WAN port and four gigabit LAN ports that most home-level routers use. Like the other Eero kits here, online security and parental controls require a $30-120 per year subscription. WPA3 is the newest WPA security standard, but lack of WPA3 isn’t a dealbreaker yet, since devices with WPA3 security are still rare. Orbi Tri-band WiFi 6 Add-on Satellite, 4.2Gbps. Whether you … You might be experiencing symptoms such as dropped connections outside your home, the need to turn off your media streaming box when you want to play an online game, or worse yet, slow surfing even while you’re sitting just a few rooms away from your router. In contrast, the TP-Link Archer AX6000 was excellent at long distance, topping the charts at 160 Mbps, but it was merely adequate at close distances (185 Mbps versus 643 Mbps for the Asus RT-AX88U). From The Wirecutter: The best Wi-Fi router (for most people, anyway) The extra $120 upgrade may make sense for a small slice of people, but we aren’t recommending any of the even more expensive Wi-Fi 6 mesh kits. The RBK50 is one of the first successful mesh kits, but we think our current picks have surpassed it. The Synology RT2600ac was our runner-up in the previous guide, and it also proved itself competitive this time. A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks, Serious flaws leave WPA3 vulnerable to hacks that steal Wi-Fi passwords, What is WPA3? The test procedure actually downloaded a 1 MB file over and over as fast as it could. The better-performing mesh kits, including the tri-band Asus ZenWifi CT8, our pick, were able to handle each situation adroitly and provided over 400 Mbps at close range and over 100 Mbps in the other situations. Its tested performance in 2019 was similar to the TP-Link Deco M4 and Deco M9 Plus: middling. Our tests found that a single router works as well as an expensive mesh kit in some cases, even in a 2,300-square-foot home. The best Wi-Fi 6 routers deliver all of that. This is a tough test, but we think a good network should respond reliably all the time. Don’t just connect everything to your router’s 5 GHz radio “because it’s faster.” Yes, 5 GHz is faster than 2.4 GHz—at short range, at least. The company confirmed to us that the hardware was “almost identical” but that “the available firmware features on each model may vary.”. We passed all of them over for one reason or another. This arrangement is a much simpler option than mesh, as you don’t have to worry about building materials like stucco blocking a wireless signal between the router and the access points. An error in one of those resources can block the entire page from displaying in your browser, slowing your experience. D-Link COVR-C1203 A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks, Ars Technica, March 4, 2017, Dan Goodin, Serious flaws leave WPA3 vulnerable to hacks that steal Wi-Fi passwords, Ars Technica, April 11, 2019, Eric Geier, What is WPA3? The Synology mesh routers are still a good combination, if you’re into tuning your network for problem devices. When we subjected all our routers to a busy network to test delays and lag, the Archer A7 landed solidly in the middle of the pack. Only a couple of stragglers (the TP-Link Archer AX10 and D-Link DIR-X1560) fell far behind at 100 Mbps. When you take raw speed out of the equation, our main pick and upgrade pick are much closer than you’d think in other tests. If you’re an even more technical sort and have a (possibly humongous) home with some truly troublesome coverage zones, you might wonder how a UDM/BeaconHD mess setup compares with a more traditional multiple-access-point setup such as Ubiquiti’s UAP line of devices. However, some 2.4 GHz smart devices like cameras and smart bulbs have issues with connecting to networks that have one network name. Another option are mesh extenders, which like mesh-networking kits, automatically hand you off from router to extender and back, using the same network name; that makes the mesh experience a little more seamless. Prior to writing for a living, Joel was an IT tech and system administrator for small, medium-size, and large companies. But before you toss everything out and get a mesh kit, you should try moving your router to a central location—in smaller houses a single router can actually be more effective than mesh networking. Some other mesh kits use proprietary nodes, with different components inside (Google Nest Wifi and Netgear Orbi’s simpler nodes come to mind), which means that expanding the network is often cheaper than with the CT8. For most people, the AX50’s better performance at long range, its better handling of the busiest networks, and its additional advanced features are worth the little bit extra. The best mesh networks ensure good connections between devices, the base unit, and any satellites, reducing the situations where a poorly connected device can slow down the others. However, the competition has surpassed it in price and performance on our tests. We’ve tested the latest Wi-Fi routers to find the best ones—from budget options to top of the line—to make your wireless network faster and more responsive. While it placed near the bottom on our close-distance throughput tests, it was still faster than the Archer A7 standalone router we used for comparison at the closest distance. A 2×2 laptop wouldn’t get any more throughput from a 4×4 router than it would from a 2×2 router, though it would still get twice as much as a 1×1 laptop. D-Link COVR-2202-US Since it is a newer technology, they’re more expensive than most routers but they also come with some great … The UniFi software on the UDM (or a controlling PC with the app) lets you administer the UAP access points. Here are the top-of-the line models we're keeping an eye on. We compared WiFi routers from TP-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Synology, Asus, and D-Link to find The Best Wi-Fi Routers 2021 for the best performance for a fair price. The raison d'être of a mesh network is to provide good Wi-Fi performance all over the house, not just near the base unit. D-Link doesn’t sell individual COVR-2200 nodes, so the kit has limited expandiability, beyond buying multiple kits. Most of the features that the AX20 sacrifices to undercut the AX50 on price are upgrades whose absence won’t affect most people. We spoke with networking experts and Wi-Fi geeks to get to the root of what matters. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. However, as a three-pack of identical Wi-Fi 6 routers, it’s one of the most expensive mesh kits we’ve tested so far, almost double the price of the Asus ZenWiFi CT8, our pick. Tri-band routers have an extra 5 GHz band in addition to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands of a dual-band router. How do I read more articles from the author who wrote Best Wireless Router Wirecutter? That’s enough to keep your most demanding gear—streaming boxes, TVs, and game consoles—hardwired if you keep your router near your entertainment center. For the most part, that’s a no-go. What We Liked: One of the best things about this mesh router is its customizability. And some gotchas to watch out for in this Wi-Fi security upgrade, Network World, November 2, 2018, Dong Ngo, Asus ZenWiFi AX Review: The Best AiMesh System to Date, Dong Knows Tech, February 4, 2020. The mix of these tests and devices let us evaluate each router’s speed (throughput), range, and ability to multitask (latency or lag). By running multiple web browsing tests while other laptops are streaming video and large files, we test the worst-case scenario for a mesh-networking kit. Modem router combos conveniently combine an internet modem and Wi-Fi router into an all-in-one device, thus making it a WiFi networking essential. If Ethernet is an option in your home, you should use wired access points rather than mesh. A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kinda sucks, Wi-Fi gets quicker with 802.11ax, but buying early might offer few advantages. If you want to see more articles from the writer of Best Wireless Router Wirecutter, just scroll to the end of our site then click on “More from author” section. If you’ve read multiple mesh reviews, our choice of a Wi-Fi 5 (aka 802.11ac) mesh kit as our pick might come as a surprise when many manufacturers and reviewers seem to be pushing beleaguered homeowners toward Wi-Fi 6. In any case, if you want the best router to get the most out of Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, you should be ready to spend a few hundred dollars. This is usually true for wired networking, but it doesn’t work well for Wi-Fi. In our testing, the Nest Wifi kit excelled at the single-client throughput tests but lagged the Eero Pro + 2 Beacons when all six laptops were using the network at the same time. The Best Wireless Routers for 2020 These days your Wi-Fi router not only connects you to the Internet, but often your job, too. At longer distances or on very busy networks, it’s noticeably slower than our more expensive picks. More expensive home routers exist, but the next step up from here is practically a commercial-grade router, and in that realm you get features that most people would never touch (and might need an IT degree to understand). Neither kit was a top pick. (Use your router’s mixed-mode setting—AES and TKIP—only if you have older devices that don’t support WPA2.). If your router is more than a couple of years old and is struggling in more places than not, a new router or a mesh-networking kit will improve your Wi-Fi’s range, stability, and speed all over your home. In addition to being one of the most expensive mesh kits here, the Orbi RBK752 failed one of our 4K streaming tests while the network was crowded. Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax): The 802.11ax protocol, also known as Wi-Fi 6, will replace the current 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) protocol in over the next year or two the same way 802.11ac replaced 802.11n nearly a decade ago. We’d only suggest it if you have a gigabit (1,000 Mbps, or close to it) internet service plan. For nearly $100 more than the CT8, the speed improvements won’t be worth it for most people in most homes. The Linksys MR7350 and Netgear RAX40 are moderately priced Wi-Fi 6 routers. 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. We try to avoid kits that have inscrutable setup processes or options screens, and some of our previous mesh network picks, like the Eero Pro, have emphasized simplicity and ease of use over customizability. Our latency test showed how routers handled the added stress of multiple devices accessing the network simultaneously. The best Wi-Fi routers of 2020: Nest, Asus, TP-Link and more Your Wi-Fi router is the unsung hero holding your smart home together. Again, the Asus RT-AX88U was able to speedily serve each client simultaneously, with a minimal wait between each request. Meet the Wi-Fi 6 routers that support 802.11ax. For example, the AX20 doesn’t support link aggregation (linking two LAN ports for extra speed to a single device), and it has only a USB 2.0 port, rather than a speedy USB 3.0 port, for file sharing. › Wirecutter Best Wifi Router. We don’t think $150 or so is a particularly steep price to pay for this router given that it uses the latest standards and had such consistent performance in our tests. We suggest considering either of the latter two models if you’re a networking whiz and you want to tweak your router’s radio strength, its channel selections, and the threshold where the band steering switches clients from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz. Folks on a gigabit plan (a 1,000 Mbps connection) are more likely to be able to max out their connection speeds using any of the top routers. Faster: Not only the transmission distance, but also the penetration ability, the speed of the wireless router is also the main reason we choose it. This guide covers standalone Wi-Fi routers. Band steering is essential for mesh networks, which have multiple access points and multiple bands to deal with, but the feature is important even in standalone routers, because if you aren’t using all the radios in your router, you aren’t getting all the performance you paid for. Your router won’t send you an email or automatically pop up an alert when a new firmware update is available. Thankfully, when you set them up for the first time, it doesn't matter. Dual-band kits like the Netgear Nighthawk MK62 took fairly significant hits to performance, as the 5 GHz radios in those kits have to split time between connecting local clients like the laptops and communication with the base units. As a result, a simple task—click a link, get a web page—is actually complex, and a relatively minor number of errors and slowdowns can magnify rapidly into a situation where web pages don’t load and you have to hit the refresh button. Although your network probably isn’t always that busy, it is that busy often enough—and those busy times are when you’re most likely to get annoyed, so they’re what we were modeling in our tests. We’re considering these kits for our next guide update. *At the time of publishing, the price was $341. Buying the best cable modem/router combo is a great way to get all of the features of a cable modem and a wireless router in one simple and affordable package, and if you’re still renting your cable modem from your ISP it can save you even more money.. With many cable providers easily charging up to $168/year to provide you with a cable modem, it’s easy to see how buying your own can … You’d really feel this difference in heavy use, as the UAP system delivers a smooth and reliable experience with no frustrating pauses or dropped signals. From mesh to gaming to Wi-Fi 6, these are the best we've tested. Testing for most Wi-Fi router reviews consists mostly of connecting a single device to Wi-Fi at various distances, trying to get the biggest throughput number possible, and declaring the router with the biggest number and the best range the winner, at least in terms of raw performance. TP-Link published a firmware update fairly quickly to fix this exploit for the C7 and many of the company’s other routers, but owners had to download and install it manually. While many recent reviews tout Wi-Fi 6 as the solution to all your wireless problems, our tests and research led us to continue to recommend a Wi-Fi 5 (aka 802.11ac) mesh kit as our pick. A brief recap: We had two laptops simulating a 4K video screen, one downloading large files, and three laptops browsing the web. This is usually a valid assumption for wired networking, but it doesn’t work well for Wi-Fi. If you use a network-attached storage (NAS) server, you can link two of the router’s ports together to improve bandwidth and speed; this feature, called link aggregation, helps the NAS stream more data to the network. The Archer A7 is typically less than half the price of the Archer AX50, and we think it’s the best router you can buy for less than $100. The Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8) is the right choice if you currently use or are planning on upgrading to a gigabit or faster internet connection. The TP-Link Archer AX50 is reasonably priced, yet it can handle a growing selection of laptops and smart devices while surpassing the performance of routers that cost twice as much. In general, the Archer AX20 is about $20 to $30 less expensive than the AX50. The best Wi-Fi 6 routers for 2020 By Tyler Lacoma December 4, 2020 The standard for Wi-Fi routers has been “ac” for years, indicating the latest … Saving a substantial amount of money by choosing a cheaper model means making a noticeable sacrifice in performance. Most of the mesh kits are capable of using a wired connection to any or all of their satellites, but they’re all considerably more expensive than Ubiquiti access points. But the AX20 is a decent substitute and a good value if our main pick is out of stock, and it also outperforms our budget pick, the Archer A7, on all factors. 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