How to Pick a Wireless N Router - Technology

How to Pick a Wireless N RouterShouldn't you know "How to Pick a Wireless N Router"? Nearly everyone now has a wifi router in their home, it's kind of like having a stove or refrigerator. If you have high speed or broadband Internet and more than one item to connect to the web, then you need wifi. Wireless Internet is the only way to connect easily multiple items in multiple rooms.What is a RouterOn the Internet a domain name is in tech language a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Web sites have an IP (Internet Protocol) address, which are a set of up to twelve numbers. So when you type in google.com, a router is what controls the data that is sent from your home network to Google's servers, and returns the data do you. It "routes" the data to the computer on your network that requested the data, and if 3 computers are online at the same time, it knows what information to send to which computer.What most people don't realize is that any router (wifi or wired) IS a computer. That means it has a processor, memory, and storage. The processor may be smaller than a netbook, and the storage may be only flash memory, but a router is a single purpose computing machine.Why Routers are SlowA computer can only process so much information before it gets bogged down. It wasn't too many years ago when a computer didn't have enough memory and processing power to burn a CD and surf he web at the same time. If a router was downloading information non-stop from a web site to one computer on your network, and the other 2 were surfing the web at the same time - would it be slow?

You should realize that your router has limits, just as your broadband connection does. You can only physically download so much information at once from your Internet connection, it's much like a hose - and you can't download more than it's capabilities. The router you own can only handle processing so much data at once. Imagine a water faucet was on and you had one bucket to dispose of the water. You could probably handle that. But what if the fire hydrant on the corner was on, and you only had that bucket? It probably wouldn't be enough. That's what it's like when there's more information coming in from the Internet then your router can handle.

What You Should Look for In a Router

What you should look for in a router (in accordance with what you just learned) is that the best router would be the one with the largest processor, the most memory, and the most (flash) storage. It's also interesting that most routers don't exactly say (on the box) what's inside. Do your research in advance and you'll find out that the most popular routers sold nearly everywhere (Linksys), have the least horsepower.

One other thing we hadn't mentioned up until this point was the antenna. For the best range, your router should have multiple external antennas. Linksys routers have one internal antenna.

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