Should I Upgrade My Router?

One question we get asked quite often is if a user should upgrade their router. In this article, we take a look at situations in which an upgrade would benefit you and situations that keeping your current router is best.

Current Router

The first thing you need to determine is the capability of your current router. If you have a B router, it might be time to upgrade depending on some of the conditions talked about later in this article. If you have a G capable router, it is unlikely you need to upgrade. Obviously, if you have an N router, you can't really do any better than this. So, no need to upgrade an N router.

Also, is there a certain task or feature that you need that your router does have or cannot perform? If so, if you really need this feature, then it may be worth upgrading for this. One example of this may be a security feature. Most routers have pretty good security features, but some routers have better security features than others. If you need or want better security, it might be worth it to you to upgrade.

What Do You Use Your Router / Internet For

The next thing you want to ask yourself is what do you use your router for. Do simply just check email and browse the web? Or do you stream video from Netflix and Hulu over wireless? If you simply check email and browse the web, you are fine with any router, even a B router. It won't hurt to upgrade to a G router, but you don't have to.

However, if you are looking to stream higher quality video over wireless, you will need a G or N router. A B router just can't handle today's video streaming very well. The better quality of video you want, the better router you will need. Generally speaking, full HD will be tough over wireless no matter what. However, an N router can stream video at very good quality.

Number of Users

The last major thing we suggest you think about is how many users you will have connected to your router at one time. If you are only going to have a few users connected wirelessly at a time, then you probably don't need to upgrade unless you do high bandwidth tasks such as video streaming. However, in the case of a small business, if you will have more than a few users connected to a router, then you for sure would benefit from a G router or better. Generally speaking in a situation where you will have a lot of users, you will also need to consider your ISP speed as well. If you are going to have more than a few users connected at the same time, you will want to look into a higher speed ISP package such as a business package.

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-By Dominic

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