With so many internet connected devices at home, there is growing demand for a wireless internet connection to fulfil the duties they were truly designed to perform.
For this you need, and may already have, a wireless router.
Whether you really understand this device is another matter. So let’s take a moment to fully appreciate the router – a seemingly dull, but essential cog in the whirring machine of our modern network experience.
The internet itself is governed by giant super-sized routers. Take as an example the humble email: when you click “send" the digital information that makes up that message is split into loads of tiny data “packets" which are then sent along copper wires or fibre-optic cable and reassembled at your recipient’s end. Huge routers decide how to push these packets towards their destination and can dynamically “re-route" if there is a fault somewhere.
The home router does the same thing but on a much smaller scale. It basically directs information traffic prioritising what is “important" information.
This means your network can work unaffected by the activities of people on neighbouring networks or anywhere else on the internet.
When buying a wireless router, basic considerations include connection speed and range, spectrum and network management features.
Connection speed is about how fast packets of data are exchanged over your router. This will affect both how fast your connection to the internet is, and how fast your connection between devices is. The acronym “mbps" refers to “mega bits per second" and describes this rate of transfer.
Connection speed is closely tied to range, or the physical distance over which your router can pass information, and frequency.
The better the range of your router, the closer your connected devices become in relation to the central emission point of the signal – your connection is faster and more stable.
The frequency of your device is described by the term Gigahertz (GHz). The 2.4GHz band is a frequency that was made available to product manufacturers a long time ago to use without regulation, which explains why so many products – cordless phones, garage door openers – use this frequency. Because it’s a crowded spectrum, interference is common. For that reason, a lot of new routers also use the 5GHz frequency, which has a shorter range but is clearer. Dual-band routers can either access both frequencies simultaneously or either one specifically at your choosing and therefore experience less interference and a smoother connection.
Beyond these basic specification qualities, routers these days offer network management features that are also worth considering.
First and most important of these is security. If you do not password protect your network, strangers can and will use it.
If you’re in any doubt, just have a look at the network preferences. How many of your neighbours’ networks show up without a lock symbol next to them? If you tried, in some cases you could even gain access to their family photo albums.
It’s scary stuff. Most new routers come with in-built security features but it’s best to look for Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) as the previous security standard Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is very easily bypassed.
Secondly, many new routers offer flow management. If you have an internet plan with on- and off-peak times, some come with software that can change the settings on your router to know when those are and shape your download activities accordingly.
You can also tell some routers to prioritise specific content of your choosing for better performance – streaming videos, or VoiP (voice over internet protocol) phone calls, for example.
The Australian Financial Review