Hi all
I'm looking to upgrade my old modem router and I keep noticing wireless N models scattered in amongst the AC and Ax types.
Just wondering if there's any benefits of staying with the older technology over the new. (I'm only on a 25mbps connection btw).
Cheers
While technically 802.11ac doesn't support 2.4 GHz bands, in practice most 802.11ac routers are dual-band and can fallback to 802.11n if needed
You shouldn't buy a 2.4ghz only router. It's crowded and prone to a lot of interference.
Support article from linksys that explains Wifi AC vs N
https://www.linksys.com/support-article?articleNum=135534#:~….
Just get AX. AX can do 2.4 and 5GHz and is greatly superior. Any AX router will be able to failback to N if you are running old hardware.
Wifi 6, or 11ax in old speak, is more able to deal with multiple wifi devices (like google, bulbs, etc.) than the older variants. Wouldn't be looking at anything less than that IIWY.
This was my reason for going AC over N.
A lot of the routers I was looking at that had AC had stronger hardware to support more devices versus the N routers I was looking at.
And personally I wanted a network that was capable of handling a lot of devices for those times when you have a lot of guests.
Would have gone AX but at the time the jump in price was still too high.
This was over 5 years ago.
Ended up with a Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 for around $250 iirc.
I hit a limit of 10-12 connected devices with the old ISP provided modem. Not only did wifi 6 allow more devices, the antenna diversity gave better reach to the bands.
This was my understanding.
I am too scared to fiddle with my current router and replace it with something more modern.
The setup was honestly a bit of an improvisation but it works perfectly now bridging the isp router and my bridged router.
You want a router support the 2.4GHz (be it Wifi 4 or higher) if you have “smart” devices at home like smart bulb or smart door bell, as they tend to use that frequency only.
So only benefit i see compatibility.
Shouldn't all routers support 2.4Ghz?
Shouldn’t or must?
Mustn’t.
Your Nintendo DS will have better wireless connectivity to send drawings to your friends with.
Otherwise, no.
Wireless N is longer range than AC.