A router is the heart of a local network. Each network needs one router, and preferably no more than one.
At a minimum, a router includes a WAN port to connect to an Internet source and a few LAN ports for connecting local wired devices. Technically, a router is a layer 3 network switch.
Nowadays, the term “router” is often used to refer to a “Wi-Fi router” — one that has a built-in Wi-Fi access point. Consequently, we use “non-Wi-Fi” to refer to a standard router that lacks built-in Wi-Fi capability.
Ubiquiti has some exciting news for home and SMB users looking for top-notch modern networking solutions—think multi-Gigabit and Wi-Fi 7. Today, the networking company announced not one, not two, but three new compact UniFi Cloud Gateways to expand its UniFi family, including the Dream Router 7 (UDR7), UniFi Express 7 …
Amazon today announced the eero 7 and eero Pro 7, adding them to the eero Wi-Fi 7 family, which already includes the eero Max 7 mesh router and eero 7 Outdoor access point. These new products are both mesh routers—they each can work as a standalone router, or you can …
Judging from the model names, you might think the ASUS RT-BE92U BE9700 tri-band router is simply the Wi-Fi 7 version of the previous Wi-Fi 6 RT-AX92U. That’d be reasonable. After all, the RT-BE86U is the latest variant of the RT-AX86U, and the RT-BE88U is the latest in the RT-XX88U lineage. …
So far, TP-Link has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, adopters of Wi-Fi 7, with more hardware options than any other networking vendor. Judging from what’s coming from TP-Link at CES 2025, that’s likely to continue to be a fact. It’s worth noting, though, that TP-Link has …
As mentioned in the post about when it’s time to replace a Wi-Fi router, the ASUS RT-AC86U was one of the few Wi-Fi 5 routers I’ve kept in operation, even in 2024. However, today, it’s no longer. After having had the location’s broadband upgraded to 2Gbps, it instantly became dated. …
The Nighthawk RS200, first announced late last month, is the odd one out in NETGEAR’s Wi-Fi 7 standalone router lineup. Despite its model number, it’s not the lowest tier among its peers. Instead, it’s a comparable variant to the high-end RS600 but without the 6GHz band. The hardware specs put …
The RT-BE86U BE6800 is the second dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router from ASUS you can bring home today. In more ways than one, it’s a lesser hardware alternative to the first sans-6GHz RT-BE88U I tested in June. However, since this new RT-BE86U costs less yet has similar excellent performances in my …
After the RS700S that came out last year and the RS300 released earlier this year, NETGEAR today unveiled three more Nighthawk units to complete its Wi-Fi 7 standalone router lineup, including the RS200, RS500, and RS600. As the model name suggests, RS500 and RS600 fill in the performance tiers between …
Today, NETGEAR announced the availability of its latest mobile hotspot, the Nighthawk M7 Pro (model MR7400). It’s not the company’s first 5G cellular mobile router—there have been at least the M6 Pro and M6—but it’s the first to feature Wi-Fi 7. The support for the latest Wi-Fi can be a …
Since my review of the Archer BE230, folks have been asking me when I’d take the Archer BE6500 out for a spin. The answer is likely never. TP-Link has been known to make numerous hardware variants for different retail stores. The Archer BE230, for example, is also available as the …
