The best part about the nodes in Orbi is that the satellite unit can be plugged directly into a wall outlet which makes it far easier to install them anywhere in your house compared to other mesh Wi-Fi routers. Even better, its priced a bit lower than its competition as well. The Orbi not only looks good but offers excellent performance, and it’s pretty easy to set up as well. Netgear offers its own Wi-Fi mesh system. Oh, and its design is definitely a conversation starter of its own. provided its placed at an optimum location. A single router is good enough to cover an area of around 5,000 sq. But for that price, you are getting a router with tri-band technology, 4×4 MU-MIMO, 4x Gigabit LAN ports, support for WiFi 6, and more. At almost $300, it is among the most expensive single routers you can find in the market. If you want the ultimate single Wi-Fi router with the best possible performance, get the Asus AC5300. You can find routers with a similar spec sheet and features for far less than $60 that this router commands, but its the most reliable of the bunch. You can hook up an external hard disk to the router and make it act like a NAS as well. This dual-band router even features 4 Gigabit ports along with a USB 3.0 port.
If you want a router that ticks all of the recommendations made by Apple without breaking your bank, have a look at the ASUS ACRH13. While Apple does not recommend which router you should buy for obvious reasons, we definitely can! Check out some of the routers that you should consider buying depending on your needs. The latter consists of two or three (or even more) routers/nodes that you place in different locations across your house/office for maximum coverage. However, if you want to cover multiple floors or a vast area with poor router placement, you should look into a mesh Wi-Fi system. Single Wi-Fi routers are great if you want to cover a relatively small area or just a single floor and can place your router right in the middle for optimum coverage. Apple only offered single AirPort routers, though mesh Wi-Fi systems have become increasingly popular in recent years.
Mesh or Single Routerĭepending on the area that you are trying to cover, it is important to decide if you need a mesh Wi-Fi system or a single router will do the job. Almost all routers have support for this security standard so this should not be a cause for concern. Thus, Apple recommends buying a router with WPA2 Personal support. WPA2 Personal (AES) encryption is currently the strongest security form available for a Wi-Fi router. While budget routers may lack this feature, any mid-range to high-end router comes with MIMO support. Apart from your router, your MacBook or iOS device should also have MIMO support for faster transmission speeds and better network connectivity. This will ensure optimum transfer speeds even when multiple devices are connected to a router. MIMO Supportįor faster throughput speeds, you should buy a router with MIMO support. This ensures that even if your latest iPhone connects to the router over Wi-Fi ac, your older devices connected to the router over Wi-Fi n are still able to access the internet.Īgain, this feature has become commonplace in almost all routers available in the market today.
This would ensure that your Wi-Fi router is able to transmit data over both frequencies at the same time. Dual-band SupportĪpple recommends you to buy a router with dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz support. Newer iPhones come with support for higher transfer speeds over Wi-Fi ac. Apple added Wi-Fi ac support to the iPhone lineup with the iPhone 6. It is important to note that apart from your router, your iOS device should also have Wi-Fi ac support. Almost all budget to high-end routers supports Wi-Fi ac, with some extremely high-end ones even coming with Wi-Fi ad support. Compared to the existing Wi-Fi n standard supported by most home routers, Wi-Fi ac offers faster transfer speeds albeit it is not as good as penetrating through walls as Wi-Fi n. While there are newer and faster Wi-Fi standards like 802.11 ad already available, Wi-Fi ac is yet to become a commonplace among households. 802.11 ac compatibilityĪpple says that you should look for a router with 802.11 ac compatibility. Now that Apple has discontinued its router lineup, it is offering customers some tips for buying their next router. Nonetheless, a number of customers would buy an AirPort router purely because of its ease of use and for the peace of mind that it offered in terms of compatibility. Apple had not updated the lineup in years so this move was not particularly surprising, especially since there were far better routers already available in the market. Last week, Apple announced it is discontinuing its AirPort lineup of routers.