Choosing the Right Router for You
So, you've decided to buy a router. Good for you! Now, the question becomes muddled with technical jargon and all sorts of other terms that mean next to nothing to the average end-user. I will try to explain what much of this stuff means.
To start, you need to decide if you want a "wired" or "wireless" router. If have one or more computers and they will all be close enough to the router so that you expect to run network cables, then all you need is a wired router. However, if you have at least one computer in a location that is not so convenient for running a wire and/or you want to be able to move one or more of the computers around (such as a laptop), then a wireless router would be the better option for you. (A wireless router is actually a hybrid in that it has the capability to attach both computers connected by Ethernet cables and those that operate wirelessly.)
Now comes the gobbledygook of numbers and letters that I will explain. If you have decided that all you need is a wired router, then skip over this and the next four paragraphs. There are many different wireless standards about which you may have heard: Wireless-b, Wireless-g, Wireless-n, and so forth. They all refer to various methods of connecting machines together in a fairly short, enclosed environment such as a small office, computer lab, or home.
802.11b, also known as Wireless-b, was the first to be used in the home and is still available for implementation today but is slow by modern standards. It operates at only 11Mbps and has a very short effective range (typically around 50 to 70 feet within a home). Because of these limitations, it was easily superseded by its successors.
802.11g, also known as Wireless-g, came out not long after 802.11b as a vast improvement in both distance and speed. Wireless-g has a data speed of 54Mbps (or, in some circumstances, up to 130Mbps if using technology such as the SuperG line of products from D-Link). The range for it also increases to about 100 to 120 feet, depending on the building conditions such as how many pipes and/or electrical wires are running through the walls between the computer and the router. Wireless-g is the most commonly used wireless technology used today.
802.11n, also known as Wireless-n or Draft-N, is the next advancement on 802.11g. It has speed capabilities up to 300Mbps and a range that, in practice, are about 150-200 feet. If you have a large house or have many walls between your computers and the router, then this is probably what you should elect to use. This is the technology that I currently use in my business office and have found it to be ideal for my purposes. It is a bit more expensive than Wireless-g but you definitely will find that the speed you get (assuming you transfer files within your home from one machine to another) will definitely make up for the higher cost in a very short time.
Finally, there is the up-and-coming standard known as 802.11y. If you hear about this, don't worry about it yet. It will be a few years before it makes it into the home. This is a technology that really is not designed for the home but, rather, for community wireless network infrastructure. It communicates at 54Mbps (just like Wireless-g) but has a range of about 5 kilometers (around 3.1 miles). Unless you own a house on a large piece of land and intend to use your laptop while mowing the back 40 acres, you probably will not ever need to look into this.
Now some people may be wondering what all this Mbps stuff is. Mbps stands for Megabits per second. One megabit is equal to 128 kilobytes of information (about 20 average word processing documents). What matters to you, though, is that if you are hoping to speed up your Internet connection by getting a router (whether it be wired or wireless) it will do you no good unless you happen to live in an area serviced by Verizon's Fiber Optic network known as FiOS and you have their highest speed plan at 50Mbits. You see, the issue is that even the fastest DSL service is typically under 10Mbps and the most common speed being 1.5Mbps. In regard to cable modem service, the most common speeds are under 10Mbps while the fastest are typically around 20Mbps (due to limitations of the technology). Thus, in most cases, even if you get Wireless-b routers and adapters, you would still outpace your Internet service and would definitely do so in all cases with Wireless-g as well as with a wired router (which runs at 100Mbps, by the way). Therefore, one should not be thinking about speeding up the Internet connection as a result of the router.
Once you buy a router, you need to secure it. To read about that, click here.