


If your wireless router isn’t reliably emitting the WiFi signal that it should be, there are a few quick fixes to test out:

Tri-band routers are overkill for most people, but they can be helpful if you’re supporting several users and dozens of devices. Some routers market themselves as “tri-band” routers, but that’s a bit of a misnomer tri-band routers have an additional 5.0GHz broadcast. That’s important because older devices and newer smart home devices will typically only work on the 2.4GHz band, and newer devices can take advantage of the less crowded 5.0GHz band. Most modern wireless routers are dual-band, which means they broadcast at both the 2.4GHz and the 5.0GHz frequencies. In most cases, sticking with an 802.11ac wireless router is the best option. The bottom line: Most modern devices use the 802.11ac standard, and WiFi 6 adoption will be slow. Each new standard is backward-compatible with the ones that came before it. Subsequent upgrades like 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11a, 802.11ac, and the bleeding-edge WiFi 6 protocols have enabled WiFi to be faster and farther-reaching. For example, the first mainstream WiFi technology was built based on the 802.11b protocol. The Wi-Fi Alliance-a worldwide network of WiFi researchers and manufacturers-ratifies new WiFi standards as they become available. Wireless routers are often described by a wide variety of terms, codes, and protocol names that are easy to confuse. BestReviews Electronics Expert WiFi terminology: a cheat sheet
