Need help choosing wireless router

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Level 1

19 points

Need help choosing wireless router

I have satellite internet, which is notoriously slow with lots of lag latency time. I don't know if that influences the type of wireless router I should be looking at to get wireless in my house. I know nothing whatsoever about wireless routers or wireless technology or specs. All I know is I need to be able to start moving my laptop around the house freely. I'll also want wireless music in the house soon, but I don't think that has anything to do with a router, does it?

I had a satellite service guy here a few months ago and he said that if I buy a router, make sure it has such-and-such an initial in the spec, because that's the latest greatest thing ... but, genius me, I didn't write down what he said and now I'm still clueless about what to look for.

Can anyone steer me to a router that will do the job for me? Are they all pretty much the same ... or is there one certain one that is ideal for super slow internet, long latency time, and various devices in the house (MacBook Pro, iPod Touch, etc) ... ?

Thank you to anyone willing to help me with this.

-John

Posted on Jul 13, 2014 12:59 PM

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Answer 1

Tony T1

Level 6

10,232 points

Jul 13, 2014 1:44 PM in response to Plenty7

He probably was referring to 5 GHz and 802.11N

Google: How to Buy a Wireless Router

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2014 2:16 PM in response to Plenty7

IEEE 802.11n (2009) and 802.11ac (2013) are the latest versions of WiFi standards that are now widely available for the so-called 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi network bands.

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule will provide for your needs here, have current WiFi technology support including 802.11n and 802.11ac, will interoperate with OS X and other operating systems, support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz links, and — in the case of Time Capsule — will also provide storage for your backups separate from your Mac using Time Machine.

Time Capsule is particularly nice with Mac portables, as the backups will operate whenever you're within range of your Time Capsule. You don't have to remember to cable up an external disk.

Your Mac and any other WiFi client devices in use here may or may not have support for 802.11n and 802.11ac, but can generally interoperate with the older WiFi support that's also available in these devices.

The Apple tools present within OS X will make configuring your WiFi network fairly easy with an AirPort Extreme or a Time Capsule, as well. If you pick something else, you'll be learning more about which vendor calls what, and where various options and switches are located either in the WiFi configuration, or in the OS X configuration. WiFi is compatible, but not all the terms used by the vendors are the same, and the configuration menus and tools available can be very different.

If you're using satellite Internet, you're likely not in a high interference area, though 5 GHz is usually still preferable to 2.4 GHz for various reasons.

These devices and your local WiFi traffic is entirely separate from your high-latency satellite link. Local traffic will be at local speeds and latency, and traffic that has to cross the remote link will have the latency inherent in the satellite connection.

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