Home Network Wired Routers

Home Network Wired Routers

A router is the central device of your home network, and it allows you to get online securely. Mobile broadband devices can be more convenient because you do not have to mess around with the cables, but the wired routers provide more reliable connections, with faster speeds and lower latency. Home network Internet routers are perfect for connecting gaming consoles, laptops, desktop computers, top boxes and other devices that you do not have to move around a lot.

The main network speed standards are Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet. The actual speed of each depends on many factors, including the quality of the router you use, the cable you put between the devices and the end devices that you connect. If all of them support Gigabit Ethernet, which is by far the faster standard, you are more likely to enjoy fast downloading and uploading speeds.

Wired routers connect your devices to the Internet via cables, so the number of ports on the router is important. Typically, home routers include four LAN, or local area network, ports that connect the devices to the router, which in turn connects them to the Internet via the WAN, the wide area network port. Should you need to connect more than four devices, you need a hub or switch. The switches maintain their networking speed, no matter how many devices you connect, while the data rate of hubs gets slower the more devices you attach to it.

The speed of a wired home network does depend greatly on the hardware you use, and this includes the cables. While Wi-Fi boosters and extenders provide quite a lot of reach for wireless connections, the reach of the wired home network relies on the length of the cables. Cat5e cables are capable of delivering Gigabit Ethernet speeds, while Cat6 cables are even more reliable. Older cables may not be capable of providing the fastest speeds.

As modern laptops have gotten thinner and thinner, not all of them may have the Ethernet port you need to make a wired connection. Luckily, you can attach a USB Ethernet adapter, which allows you to plug an Ethernet cable to your laptop via the USB port.