The friends and family crashing your guest bedroom and the couch during the holidays might also be crashing your Wi-Fi. But don’t blame them. Blame the older router sitting in the corner.
Older routers weren’t designed for all the devices you have in your home today. It’s not that they can’t connect all of your devices. They can. It’s more that they can’t connect all of them without slowing down.
So, what can you do to avoid the potential holiday Wi-Fi slow down? Upgrade your router.
Speed Up The Wi-Fi With A New Router
The holidays are the time of year when many people are buying new laptops, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smart TVs, Wi-Fi cameras, gaming consoles, and more.
But buying more Wi-Fi devices without giving them better Wi-Fi is a little like placing cookies out for Santa without giving him any milk. The cookies are nice and all, but the overall experience is going to be poor.
If you’re already buying new devices, we recommend upgrading your router, too. Depending on your home and your needs, there are two types of Wi-Fi routers you should look for.
Whole-Home Wi-Fi Systems
If you have a large home or an apartment with multiple rooms, or if you’re already using a router and range extender to cover your home, you should consider a whole-home Wi-Fi system, also called a mesh Wi-Fi system.
Whole-home Wi-Fi systems, or mesh Wi-Fi systems, use multiple points to provide strong Wi-Fi. You set them up and place them around your house to keep the Wi-Fi strong.
Each point in a mesh system uses the same Wi-Fi name and password, so not only are they great for covering all of the floors, rooms, and devices in your home, they’re also good for moving around your home without losing Wi-Fi.
AC Wi-Fi Routers
If you have a smaller home or apartment, or just want to upgrade your router instead, you should go with an AC Wi-Fi router (Wi-Fi 5 router).
AC routers aren’t just faster, they also come with a host of technologies and features that make it easier to connect multiple devices at the same time. So, even if your current router is “fast” enough to handle all of your devices, it might not be able to utilize all of that speed the right way.
When you search for a new AC Wi-Fi router, you should look for the following features and technology:
- MU-MIMO—Helps you connect multiple devices at the same time
- 4×4 Streaming—Increases the number of devices that can be connected at the same time
- QoS—Lets you prioritize devices and services
If you do this, you should see an improvement for your Wi-Fi during the holiday season—and overall throughout the rest of the year.
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By the way, we have whole-home Wi-Fi solutions and AC Wi-Fi routers to help you out with all of your devices and guests. Here’s what we recommend for each.
Whole-Home Wi-Fi: Covr-1203 Dual-Band Whole Home Wi-Fi System
AC Wi-Fi Router: DIR-882 AC2600 EXO MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router
