No $ 450 Router Needed
I love the time of CES – short for Consumer Electronics Show – because we get to know all sorts of outlandish devices that are of interest, but nothing that you should add to your shopping list right now. And this is especially true in the wider world of wireless networks. Linksys unveiled the AX8400 Tri-Band Router at this year’s trade show, and it’s eye-opening in three ways. First, there is a 4X4 MU-MIMO router that supports Wifi 6E, the latest and greatest standard found on exactly the devices you can buy right now. In other words, the AXE8400 is yet another future-oriented router aimed at early adopters, or will be when it arrives this spring or summer.
Secondly, it costs a whopping $ 450 for one router and really designed for use on the network. Linksys, to her credit, brings you a two-piece kit – that’s $ 850 for a pair of AXE8400 routers. But you’ll still be paying more for routers than you would for a new Mac Mini.
Finally, the router is equipped with a built-in motion sensor . Linksys markets this as a useful whole-home security feature and part of its separate ” Linksys Aware ” service, which will set you back $ 3 a month or $ 25 a year. Yes, that’s right: your router now comes with a subscription service because you get a hashtag, but it will only notify you if it detects movement in your home. It won’t connect to any other smart home system – not even your smart lights – which greatly reduces its usefulness.
I don’t want to dive into Linksys unnecessarily. However, this router and the hype that some will have about the “latest and greatest” wireless device point to a bigger problem. Namely, you don’t need to buy very expensive new routers with technology that might not make a lot of sense for your home setup.
Stop buying routers because they are new (or boxed copies)
I try to adapt to the launch of new technologies. I am thrilled; I’ve been talking about the wireless networking industry for many years. New standards are emerging, companies are rushing to be the first to market routers that support them no matter what, and devices usually cost a lot more than what you would otherwise pay for a router in a year or so.
However, I think it’s important to remember an important tip: don’t buy a router that hasn’t been tested by a number of browsers in different situations. Ideally, you want to get a good representative sample of how the router performs in various real-world situations, rather than taking the word of one reviewer who ran multiple speed tests from another room and declared it the best wireless router ever built.
As wireless expert Dong Ngo put it :
“Downloading a movie (or streaming Netflix for that matter) relies on internet speed, which has little to do with Wi-Fi. These are two different things .
Wi-Fi is an alternative to network cables – it allows you to create a local area network without wires. Thus, the increased speed of Wi-Fi 6 only makes sense locally, in your home or office.
In other words, if all of your devices support Wi-Fi 6, you will be able to print, perform the backup in Time Machine network or to stream from the local NAS-server, and so on. D. It is much faster.
When it comes to the Internet, most consumer broadband services nowadays offer speeds well below Wi-Fi 5, which is already fast enough. Therefore, if you are using Wi-Fi 6, you will not feel any improvement in Internet access. ”
Remember, just because the router is new and has various features to achieve higher top speeds does not mean that it is the best on the market. And then there’s the cost factor: Honestly, if I were building a network for a reasonably sized home, I wouldn’t buy a $ 850 mesh dual AP system. I would buy a bunch of prosumer gear and saturate this house with hotspots.
Most people don’t even have a super-fast internet connection. And even those fortunate enough to have a gigabit pipe in their home , gigabit fiber will likely see more benefit from more hotspots around their home – even if they support a slower standard than Wifi 6E, like “simple” Wifi 6 or, gasping for breath. , Wi-Fi 5.
A Wifi 6E router, like any other router, will lose performance as you move away from it. I’d rather have a bunch of “Wi-Fi bubbles” giving me ~ 750Mbps download speeds and file transfers in more areas of my house than one room that peaks wireless speeds north of 1Gbps. with a constant drop in wireless speed when I move away.
Yes, setting up a wireless network can help solve this problem, but then you are also dealing with the random features of a wireless bridge . As always, I think the best solution for getting fast wireless connections at home is the classic one: scatter hotspots all over your home, even if they only support 1Gbps wireless connections. This should be more than enough for your day-to-day needs if your network does a good job of dropping you and your family / roommate / pet’s devices to the best (MU-MIMO) wireless hotspot when they’re walking around. (Your devices usually handle this transmission, but just in case it never hurts to have a great wireless setup that can also charge as needed.)
It’s nice to be in awe of new technologies. I’m sure there will come a time when Wifi 5 will feel as old as wireless-n. Don’t waste your money on expensive Wifi 6 “solutions” right now if you can do more for less with “slower” equipment. Wait until you need that kind of powerful networking power and you’ll probably get a much better deal and better hotspots.