A WLAN router has all the functions required for networking at home. Whether computers, printers, network storage, mobile devices or home electronics, all these devices can be connected to the router wirelessly or by cable. They are then part of the home network. This allows printing from the computer via the home network or playing music on the stereo system over the local network.
The radio speed
Alternatively, the user views his photos from the network hard drive on the TV. The router ensures that all connected devices can communicate with each other and, if desired, access the Internet. Current televisions, for example, call up additional information about films or series from the Internet.
Range and transmission channels
Webradios play programs from the Internet via the internet connection. Many users have enjoyed this convenience for a long time and use the features that WLAN routers contain as standard.
Two bands connect better
Why should they replace the well-functioning WLAN router for a more modern model? Top-notch WLAN models are not only significantly more powerful, but also more versatile and usually more comfortable than their predecessors. Many new add-on features complement the possibilities of home networking and bring benefits and security to the user.
Child protection
The market overview in the table presents an overview of available router models from twelve different network manufacturers. This allows you to compare the most important features and functions of each device.
Download: Wireless Router Market Survey
Most older WLAN routers support the WLAN-g standard with a maximum transmission speed of 54 Mbit per second. New WLAN routers, however, work with WLAN n.
Depending on the number of its transmitting and receiving units, a WLAN-n-router provides different transmission rates. Most devices support transfer rates of 300 Mbps, some even 450 Mbps. These devices are about five to eight times as fast as an older WLAN g router.
Some, usually cheaper WLAN-n-routers only afford a maximum of 150 Mbit / s. However, even these models are still twice to three times as fast as an older WLAN g router.
Please note: The transmission rate always depends on the weakest device in the network. If your notebook has only a 300 Mbit WLAN adapter, you can send or receive a maximum of 300 Mbit / s - regardless of whether the transmission partner is an extraschnical 450 Mbit / s router. And if the notebook is connected to a 150 Mbit / s router, then a maximum transfer rate of 150 Mbit / s is possible.
Another important aspect of transmission speeds is the gross data provided by the manufacturers and the actual values achieved (netetttes). All the speed data (450, 300, 150, and 54 Mbit / s) mentioned above are gross values and say little about how many user data (MP3s, films, photos and documents) are actually transmitted per second via the radio link
For WLAN connections, this net data rate is at best about 50 percent of the specified gross value. In order to transfer a certain amount of data from your notebook to the 300 Mbps router, you must actually expect a maximum of 150 Mbps.
In addition to the higher speed, modern WLAN n-routers offer a significantly improved range than older WLAN g-routers. The reason: WLAN-n devices use, among other things, several transmitting and receiving antennas. In addition, they can transmit data on multiple channels in parallel and even with a time offset.
Night shutdown helps save
So some of the location in the house, which could not be reached with WLAN-g before or only very badly, with a WLAN n-rout suddenly usable. In addition to speed and range, the frequency and the radio frequency used play an important role in modern WLAN routers.
Previously, the wireless connection and data transmission to a home network router were performed exclusively via a radio band. It was around 2.4 gigahertz. In order to prevent two neighboring WLAN routers from interfering with each other, this radio band can be divided into different transmission channels with differing radio frequencies
USB port extends the home network
However, this evasion possibility is limited. The router density is high, especially in densely populated regions or multi-family houses. Then WLANs overlap in the 2.4 GHz range strongly. As a result, transmission quality decreases and misfires occur.
While surfing the Internet, these misfires are hardly noticeable, but they are really disturbing in the case of continuous data streams, such as the transmission of music or video over the network ("streaming").
Meanwhile, there are routers with transmission in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. Such devices are referred to as dual-band devices. With high WLAN density in large cities, such routers can simply switch to the less heavily "frequented" 5 GHz frequency band.
The router as media server
Wi-Fi for guests
With or without modem
AVM Fritz! Box: remote access
Some dual-band models radiate either only in the 2.4 GHz band or only in the 5 GHz band. This has a disadvantage: once you switch the router into the 5 GHz mode, you lock all WLAN devices from the home network, which work only in the 2.4 GHz band.
However, there are now more and more dual-band routers that span both WLAN-n frequency bands and thus form two independent WLAN-n networks. These devices support simultaneous transmission of radio signals in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.
In this solution, interference-prone connections are running across the 5 GHz band. This includes, for example, the transmission of audio or video streams. The other online accesses such as surfing and other online applications are handled by the router over the 2.4 GHz WLAN.
Children are already in contact with the Internet already in the basic school age. They are often actively encouraged by teachers to research and use information on the Internet for learning. For the first steps into the online world, the use of a child safety system makes sense.
It should filter unwanted websites and regulate how much time the child can spend on the Internet daily. Also here, new routers with special functions for child safety provide support.
A particularly successful solution provides manufacturer AVM for its current FRITZ! Box modem router. In the child protection of the FRITZ! Box, you can determine when and how long the child can surf the Internet. The router locks websites via a negative list (blacklist) and allows visitors to visit a Whitelist.
By activating the BPjM module, all sites classified as harmful to young people by the American National Testing Center for Adolescent Adolescents are automatically blocked by the router.
In order for the protection on a PC or notebook to work without any attempt to circumvent it is necessary to install and set up a small control tool from the AVM homepage.
Who sleeps, does not surf the Internet and does not need an active WLAN connection. Some modern router models therefore offer the possibility to automatically switch off the integrated WLAN functions for a selectable period of time. Some manufacturers call this function "night switching", since the switch-off usually coincides with the night rest. If WLAN is disabled, the router saves energy.
In addition, many users feel comfortable when there is no additional radiation exposure during night rest. At the very least, the transmission and reception performance of a switched-on mobile phone in the household is significantly higher than that of an activated WLAN router. Therefore, if you want to effectively reduce the radio radiation during the night rest, you should also switch off the mobile phone.
The manufacturers of routers are increasingly building devices with one or more USB ports. This can be connected to USB memory sticks or external hard disks. This works similar to the USB port of a notebook or computer. The best thing about this is that the connected memory is then available for other devices such as PCs, notebooks or media players in the home network.
This is very handy if one would like to view his digital collection of different devices. It is not necessary to change the USB memory. The same applies to the frequent processing of documents. If the data is stored in a centrally accessible memory, it can be edited from any computer in the home network.
However, the speed at which data is transferred to or read from the connected USB memory is usually much lower than the transfer speeds of current, stand-alone network hard disks.
Printers can connect to the home network via the USB port of the router. With this solution, printing from any computer in the local network is possible.
Interesting: Some routers with USB port can produce an alternative Internet access via a plug-in UMTS-Stick (UMTS modem). This can be useful if you wait for a move to the new set-up of your landline Internet access (DSL or cable). In this way, the wireless access can be split over the router to several devices.
A useful extension in the new routers is a media server (media server). Devices with such features provide photos, music, and videos throughout the home network. The data is located on a connected USB memory. The multimedia data is used to retrieve and reproduce network-capable TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players or Webradios.
The transmission standard UPnP AV or DLNA plays an important role. As a rule, all media servers support one of these two mutually compatible standards. This also applies to network-capable playback or playback devices that access the contents of the media server.
Particularly useful: DLNA or UPnP AV devices do not need a computer to communicate or transmit data. The user can directly view the photos from the USB hard disk on the router on a DLNA-enabled TV via the home network.
Most modern WLAN routers span an additional encrypted wireless network. It offers access to the Internet and separates this from your own home network WLAN completely. In this way, a wireless Internet access for visitors can be set up quickly, without giving the guests complete access to their own home network.
Experts from the guest WLAN speak here. All users who use network hard disks with private data in their home network in addition to PCs and notebooks will appreciate this practical feature.
An important point in the purchase of a router is the question of the integrated modem. A device without an integrated modem has a wide area network (WAN) connection. An Ethernet cable connects the router to the DLS or cable modem. This is then again connected to the telephone or TV cable box.
The advantage: You can use such a router for every online access, provided you have the additional required modem. For this, you always have two devices, each of which has a power supply and then requires two sockets.
A router with integrated modem has the advantage that there is only one device and thus less cable. However, you usually have to choose an online access (DSL or cable).
Each router provides remote access. The function provides online access via the web menu of the router. For example, the user changes certain settings or fetches status information. However, in the past, setting up remote access was not necessarily comfortable.
Manufacturer AVM has recently offered a simple remote access for its new FRITZ! Box models. MyFRITZ! Is available after registration with your e-mail address and your own password. The user accesses his FRITZ! Box and the connected USB memory via the browser and the website from any online access.