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Tom's Guide
10-08-2025
- Tom's Guide
I just got my first glimpse at what's possible with Wi-Fi 8 — and this one new feature has me really excited
Just when I thought Wi-Fi couldn't get any better after the jump from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Wi-Fi Alliance are already hard at work on the next wireless standard. Though Wi-Fi 8 is very much still in the planning stage at this point, after learning more about its potential to transform wireless connectivity as we know it, I'm already excited for a world where every large network you connect to will soon feel more like a mesh one. For those not up to date on the latest Wi-Fi developments, let me break it down for you real quick. Although it was an extension rather than a brand new wireless standard, Wi-Fi 6E was actually a really big deal when it launched back in 2020. The reason being is that up until that point, there were only two wireless bands to work with: 2.4 and 5 GHz. Wi-Fi 6E added another band that utilized the 6GHz spectrum which had just become available. Not only is the 6GHz band faster but it's also less congested as most laptops and phones still use the 5GHz band while the best smart home devices and other less data-hungry gadgets use the 2.4 GHz band. Then came Wi-Fi 7 which added a ton of new features like 4K-QAM modulation for increased throughput and Multi-Link Operation (MLO) for improved reliability and speed while still providing access to that faster 6GHz band. Now with Wi-Fi 8 though, the focus is less on speed and more on reliability. After speaking with the Vice President of Technical Standards at Qualcomm, Rolf de Vegt, I'm even more optimistic about Wi-Fi 8 and the future of wireless connectivity as one of the key features of the next wireless standard will allow everyone to experience exactly what I did when I switched from using one of the best Wi-Fi routers to a mesh Wi-Fi system. Don't get me wrong, making the switch to a new traditional Wi-Fi router over say, the one your internet service provider gave you when you signed up, will certainly be a big and noticeable upgrade. However, if you live in a larger home or apartment, your download and upload speeds will be better but your overall experience might not. The reason behind this is due to one of the most pesky nuisances in the world of home networking: Wi-Fi dead zones. When you're up close to your router, you'll get a strong and reliable signal. However, what happens when you walk away from it and are out of range? You know those spots around your home — like in that faraway room on the other side of your house or even out in your garage — where you just can't get a signal. Those are Wi-Fi dead zones. There are several solutions to deal with this problem from adding one of the best Wi-Fi extenders at the edge of your home network to using your home's electric lines and a pair of the best powerline adapters to increase the range of your home network. However, from my own personal experience which involved trying both of these solutions, neither really did the trick. I was about to give up and just live with poor wireless connectivity in certain areas of my home until I decided to go all in by upgrading to one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Unlike a traditional router, a mesh Wi-Fi system or mesh router isn't actually a single device designed to fix your Wi-Fi problems. Instead, it's two to three (or even more) devices working together simultaneously to push your Wi-Fi signal even farther. With this kind of setup, you have one device that serves as your main router and gets plugged into one of the best cable modems or an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) if you have fiber internet and the rest of them, referred to as satellites or nodes, are spread throughout your home. These satellites then relay the Wi-Fi signal from your router to one another which results in your house being blanketed with a strong wireless signal. If you live in a big house and want to finally put an end to those Wi-Fi dead spots for good, I wholeheartedly recommend upgrading to a mesh network. The big advantage this offers over using a Wi-Fi extender is that your devices are seamlessly handed off from one satellite to the next. What does this all have to do with Wi-Fi 8 though? Well, once the next wireless standard is widely adopted, you're going to get the same experience moving from one access point to another on much larger networks thanks to a brand new Wi-Fi 8 feature. While we spend a majority of our time online on smaller networks like the ones we have at home, chances are you've probably connected to a much bigger network more often than you think. For example, maybe you've signed onto the network at a college campus, at a large corporate office or even at the airport. In the same way that a mesh Wi-Fi system is able to blanket your whole house with a single, seamless network, Wi-Fi 8's Single Mobility Domains will make it possible to achieve this same experience across larger networks that cover vast spaces like the ones described above. As Rolf de Vegt points out in his blog post, once this new capability is finalized in the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 standard, it will enable seamless roaming across multiple access points. That way, you won't have to deal with the interruptions or packet drops that are caused when devices like your smartphone or laptop are handed off from one access point to another. Vegt goes a step further in his explanation though by pointing out how Single Mobility Domains will give the Wi-Fi 8-equipped devices of the future a 'once connected, always connected' experience. This will be achieved by 'maintaining continuous, low-latency connections' as these devices physically move from one access point to the next one. Here's a real-world example that you might have experienced yourself if you work in a large office and have to book meeting rooms for video calls. Let's say you're in a meeting that runs over and somebody else needs to use the space as they have it booked for that time. You grab your laptop and look for somewhere else to go to finish off your call. However, as you leave the meeting room and head farther away from it, the people on the other end notice a dip in your video or audio quality or perhaps the call on your end freezes completely. Well, with Single Mobility Domains, this scenario could soon be a thing of the past. With an estimated finalization date of sometime in 2028 and then consumer devices rolling out in 2029 or 2030, Wi-Fi 8 is still a ways off. However, the advantages and benefits of the next wireless standard are slowly starting to take shape even now in the concept stage. If you want a significantly better Wi-Fi experience, you don't have to wait five years for Wi-Fi 8 networking devices and clients to start rolling out and then another two to three years for them to become widely available and then somewhat affordable. Instead, you can give your home network a huge boost right now with one of the best Wi-Fi 7 routers. The first wave of Wi-Fi 7-powered routers started releasing back in 2023 but it wasn't until the following January that the Wi-Fi Alliance actually formalized the latest wireless standard. In the years since, we've seen networking equipment makers release their top-of-the-line flagship devices but now, they've begun shipping much more affordable mid-range and even budget ones. For those who want to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 7 though, I recommend spending a bit more on a tri-band device — either a traditional router or a mesh one if your home or apartment is large enough — with support for all three wireless bands. Over the course of this year, companies have begun releasing dual-band Wi-Fi 7 devices like the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 router or the MSI Roamii BE Lite mesh system. You'll pay a bit less for a dual-band device but if you have the internet speeds for it and really want to experience fast Wi-Fi for yourself, then getting a Wi-Fi 7 router with support for the 6GHz band is a must. For a traditional router with a slightly different design, I recommend taking a look at the TP-Link Archer BE800 or if your budget is a bit smaller, the Archer BE550 is a very capable device too, especially at around $300. Now on the mesh front, the Netgear Orbi 870 is a great higher-end option with fantastic range but there's also Amazon's own eero Pro 7 which is perfect for smart homes with Alexa-enabled devices. There are plenty of other great options too and I suggest you check out the rest of our guides and reviews before making your final decision. Finding the right device for your home is the first step to unlocking a fast and stable Wi-Fi connection. This is the kind of thing most of us take for granted, that is until the internet goes down. However, as I can almost guarantee Wi-Fi is something anyone reading this article uses everyday, it's worth investing in a good traditional router or a mesh router. Right now too, you won't have to worry about buyer's remorse and wishing you had waited for the next wireless standard as we're years away from Wi-Fi 8's launch. Personally though, I can't wait to see what the next wireless standard brings and while faster speeds are always great, at the end of the day, improved reliability is even better. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
CNET
06-06-2025
- CNET
Wi-Fi 6E Brought Us the 6GHz Band: Here's What That Means for Your Wi-Fi
Our growing reliance on the internet means we need a stable, high-speed internet connection to do almost everything, from working to gaming. Although it's tempting to purchase the fastest internet plan possible, a lot more goes into a reliable internet connection than speed alone. The latest Wi-Fi standards are focused on reducing latency and making it easier to connect multiple devices to your router without compromising bandwidth. Wi-Fi 7 is the latest and fastest Wi-Fi standard, but plenty of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E routers and devices still circulate the market. Whether you're shopping for a new router or looking to future-proof your home, you'll have to decide whether to invest in Wi-Fi 6 or 6E technology or wait for Wi-Fi 7 to become more affordable. If you're considering a Wi-Fi 6E router, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more efficient router at a competitive price (that is, until Wi-Fi 7 becomes more affordable). Here's everything you should know about Wi-Fi 6E before you sign up, according to the experts. What is Wi-Fi 6E? What makes it different from Wi-Fi 6? Simply put, Wi-Fi 6E is an extension of Wi-Fi 6; that's what the 'E' stands for. Locating local internet providers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers sets the standards for Wi-Fi technology with the goal of making Wi-Fi more efficient with every iteration. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a network of companies and manufacturers, certifies those standards. In 2020, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced Wi-Fi 6E, marking the group's first extension of an existing Wi-Fi technology. The only difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E is that the extension offers an entirely new frequency band, the 6 gigahertz band. Previously, Wi-Fi only operated on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, so when the Federal Communications Commission opened the 6GHz band for unlicensed use in 2020, it was kind of a big deal. Wi-Fi Alliance That 6GHz band is more than twice as wide as the 5GHz band: It allows for seven additional 160 megahertz channels, effectively doubling bandwidth and lowering congestion. According to Luther Smith, technologist and director of Wireless Access Technology at CableLabs, the 6GHz band is like opening a much wider road for traffic during rush hour. 'If you get on a two-lane road, your experience is very bad during rush hour,' said Smith. 'You put that same amount of traffic on an eight-lane highway, you can move quickly, so your experience is better.' When the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced Wi-Fi 6, the standard was a huge step up from Wi-Fi 5. CNET tested early Wi-Fi 6 routers to find speeds 40 to 60% faster than the fastest speeds we'd ever measured with Wi-Fi 5 routers. The improvement is due to technologies like orthogonal frequency-division multiple access, or OFDMA, which allows for various users and devices to send data at once on the same frequency bands, and quadrature amplitude modulation, or QAM, which translates data over Wi-Fi. 'Anytime you either make broader channels or increase your QAM, you're inherently increasing the speed,' said Smith. Wi-Fi 6E includes those technologies and extends them to a third band, a feat that reduces channel congestion among the devices on your network and improves congestion among neighboring networks using the same channel spectrums. 'When you have a very large band, you can have multiple channels,' said Lili Hervieu, a principal architect of Wireless Access Technology at CableLabs. 'When in crowded environments where you have a lot of access points, they all work on the same channels, so it can be very congested.' Wi-Fi Alliance Like Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E is backward compatible. However, to take full advantage of that 6GHz band, you'll need to use a Wi-Fi 6E (or Wi-Fi 7) device. On the plus side, you won't have to worry about interference or congestion from non-Wi-Fi 6E-compatible devices in your home on the 6GHz band. If you're curious whether your devices are Wi-Fi 6E-compatible, you can use the Wi-Fi Alliance's product finder to make sure. How does Wi-Fi 6E compare to Wi-Fi 7? Wi-Fi 7 is the latest Wi-Fi standard. It operates on the same tri-bands as Wi-Fi 6E, but with a few key differences. First, Wi-Fi 7 has much faster speed capabilities than Wi-Fi 6. The 6GHz band is effectively doubled with Wi-Fi 7 technology, allowing for much more bandwidth and a faster maximum speed. Additionally, while Wi-Fi 6 (and 6E) technology allowed access to multiple bands, devices could only connect to one band at a time. Wi-Fi 7 improves on that by offering Multi-Link Operation, which allows devices to connect to different bands simultaneously. There are a few caveats with Wi-Fi 7 technology. The first is that although it's often advertised as capable of supporting up to 46 gigabits per second, that's an unrealistic standard for home internet. 'There is always the maximum throughput that is advertised and the realistic throughput,' said Hervieu. 'It's not required, it's very expensive, it consumes a lot of power, so it's not realistic.' Like Wi-Fi 6E, you'll need a Wi-Fi 7 device to fully benefit from the 6GHz band. That said, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are both backward compatible. You can still use the technology with a device that isn't Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 compatible, you just won't get the full experience. Should you switch to Wi-Fi 6E? OK, so Wi-Fi 6E is an improved version of Wi-Fi 6. Should you invest in a Wi-Fi 6E router? That depends on situational factors like your budget and how much internet you use, but Wi-Fi 6E offers great home network benefits and is a positive step toward future-proofing your home. Buying a new router is a process we don't take lightly at CNET. If you have enough tech and bandwidth-hogging devices (or users), you should probably be updating your router every handful of years. It's definitely true that the Wi-Fi technology offered by Wi-Fi 7 outpaces Wi-Fi 6E, but until more Wi-Fi 7 devices become readily available and more affordable, a Wi-Fi 6E router is a sure step toward improving your Wi-Fi.
Hindustan Times
05-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
What is Wi-Fi 6E and how is it better than Wi-Fi 6? Real-world differences compared
If you are in the market for a new Wi-Fi router but feel confused about which one to get, a Wi-Fi 6 router, a Wi-Fi 6E router, or perhaps something that supports both, you're not alone. In order to make an informed choice, it's wise to first understand what Wi-Fi 6 is, and subsequently, what Wi-Fi 6E offers. In this article, we explain what Wi-Fi 6 is, how it differs from Wi-Fi 6E, and what you should consider before making a purchase. Read on. Also Read: iQOO Neo 10 design and key features officially teased on Amazon; India launch imminent - Details To begin with, let's clarify what Wi-Fi actually is. Wi-Fi is a term coined by the Wi-Fi Alliance and refers to a group of wireless networking protocols based on IEEE 802.11 standards. Each new version of Wi-Fi builds upon these standards. Wi-Fi 6, in particular, follows the 802.11ax naming convention and operates on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. It was introduced in 2019. Wi-Fi 6 is a direct successor to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). It offers significantly better speeds, increased capacity, improved power efficiency, and better security. In numbers, Wi-Fi 6 allows for a maximum speed of 9.6 Gbps across both channels and about 75% less latency. Now, when it comes to Wi-Fi 6E, as the name suggests, the 'E' stands for 'Extended'. Essentially, it extends Wi-Fi 6 functionality into the 6 GHz frequency band. This allows for faster real-world speeds, lower latency, and less interference. MOBILE FINDER: iPhone 16e LATEST Price, Specs And More The main difference that really matters for consumers between these two standards is that Wi-Fi 6E allows for faster real-world speeds compared to Wi-Fi 6, even though both offer the same theoretical top speed of 9.6 Gbps. This is thanks to the wider availability of 160 MHz channels, 7 more, to be exact. Another big advantage is that there's much less interference on the 6 GHz band. And that's exactly why Wi-Fi 6E is better suited for things like streaming, gaming, and using AR or VR tech. That said, Wi-Fi 6E routers are a lot more expensive than Wi-Fi 6 ones and that's where the decision lies. If you're happy to spend a bit extra for less interference and want to prioritise performance using the 6 GHz band, then Wi-Fi 6E might be worth it. But if you're not chasing top-tier performance, a Wi-Fi 6 router will still do a solid job. Just keep in mind: if you go for a new router that supports Wi-Fi 6E or even the latest Wi-Fi 7, it will still be backwards compatible with older standards like Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5. Also Read: iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 15 get a huge price drop during Amazon Great Summer Sale - Details
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Yahoo
Looking for a Better Router? Here's What You Should Know About Wi-Fi First
Shopping for a router might be one of the most confusing parts of home internet. Retailers often exaggerate the speeds routers can offer, and continual developments in Wi-Fi technology (what is Wi-Fi 7 anyway?) complicate the process. Routers don't come cheap, and we all want to make sure we're getting the best use of our internet for the money we spend on it. But there's no need to feel paralyzed if it's time for an upgrade. Whether you've finally decided to stop renting your router from your ISP to buy your own or are just in the market for upgraded equipment, some Wi-Fi basics will be helpful when splurging on a good Wi-Fi router. For more thorough router shopping tips, check out our complete router shopping guide. In this primer, we'll cover the basics of Wi-Fi technology and how it relates to your router, how ISPs may limit your router's capabilities, and everything else that goes into finding good equipment. Once you can make sense of some fundamentals, you'll have no problem finding the right router for your internet set-up. Read more: The best Wi-Fi routers for 2025 | Best gaming routers for 2025 | Best mesh routers for whole-home Wi-Fi | Best internet providers of 2025 Let's start at the beginning. Your router connects multiple computer networks together using Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi refers to the family of wireless network protocols that allows your router to exchange data through radio waves. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers developed and released the first version of Wi-Fi in 1997. The IEEE classifies Wi-Fi within the 802 family of standards for local area networks. The IEEE's full code for Wi-Fi is 802.11, pronounced "eight-oh-two-dot-eleven." The ".11" distinguishes Wi-Fi from other standards in the family, including Ethernet (802.3), Bluetooth (802.15.1) and Zigbee (802.15.4). Over the years, the IEEE has done quite a bit to certify new improvements to Wi-Fi and standardize them for widespread use. That's where those confusing letters that come after "802.11" come into play: Each of them denotes specific generations of Wi-Fi. For instance, the first widely used for Wi-Fi was released in 1999 and called 802.11b; shortly after that came 802.11a, then 802.11g in 2003 and 802.11n in 2009. Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax, is the current-gen version of Wi-Fi that most devices use today. If your eyes glazed over a bit just now, I've got some good news for you. The Wi-Fi Alliance, the nonprofit trade organization that holds the Wi-Fi trademark, finally realized that Wi-Fi labels had gotten too confusing for consumers. When 802.11ax launched in 2019, the group decided to market the standard as "Wi-Fi 6," and to retroactively refer to previous Wi-Fi generations in the same way. So now 802.11ax is Wi-Fi 6 (and Wi-Fi 6E), 802.11ac is called Wi-Fi 5, 802.11n is called Wi-Fi 4, and 802.11g is called Wi-Fi 3. The latest version of Wi-Fi, 802.11be, is dubbed Wi-Fi 7. So what is Wi-Fi 7 and should you be worried about making sure your router uses it? In a nutshell, Wi-Fi 7 is faster and better at connecting lots of devices and users with the use of access frequency bands at once. Whereas Wi-Fi 6 and 6E also allowed access to multiple bands, devices were limited to one band at a time. Wi-Fi 7 reduces latency, increases network capacity and supports faster speeds. The only catch is that to take advantage of Wi-Fi 7, you'll need a Wi-Fi 7 router and a Wi-Fi 7-capable device. Wi-Fi 7 is backward compatible, so you can use your current devices with a Wi-Fi 7 router just fine -- but you won't get the full experience. New routers supporting the standard are already starting to pop up on store shelves, but they're expensive. Although more and more devices are equipped with Wi-Fi 7 capabilities, including Apple's iPhone 16, they're still relatively rare. For now. Now that you know how some of the Wi-Fi technology equipped on your router works, it's time to pay attention to speeds. The best place to start is figuring out how much speed your household actually needs. You can do this by, first, figuring out how much speed you're currently getting with a simple speed test. Next, take stock of the devices and type of internet usage in your house. If you have a lot of gamers, streamers, remote workers or students in the house (not to mention the number of smart devices), you should consider a 1-gig or multi-gig tier. When upgrading your router, consider the minimum speed recommendation for your household and make sure you're getting a router that can support those speeds -- but watch out for misleading marketing tactics. Retailers are notorious for reporting the combined top speeds of your router's bands -- misleading people into thinking they're buying equipment that supports 3,000 megabits per second when, in reality, that router most likely supports a fraction of that speed. Also keep in mind that the internet speed advertised by an internet provider is the maximum speed of any device in your home. If you're buying a router with multi-gig capabilities but you don't have a multi-gig plan, you won't get those speeds unless you upgrade with your internet provider. It's important to note that your internet connection will almost always be faster with Ethernet than it is with Wi-Fi. Because Ethernet is a direct, wired connection, there's little-to-no obstruction between your router and your device. Wi-Fi, on the other hand, is a wireless connection to your router that relies on frequency bands instead of a cable. In some cases, retailers will advertise speeds you can only get with a wired connection, making the typical speed for a Wi-Fi connection much slower than that advertised price. Along with each manufacturer's internal naming schemes, most of today's routers will typically also come with designations like "AC1900" or "AC3150." The point is to give you a quick, comparative sense of which version of Wi-Fi each router supports ("AC" for Wi-Fi 5, "AX" for Wi-Fi 6 and so on), along with a rough sense of its speed capabilities. I say "rough" because those numbers after the "AC" or "AX" part indicate the sum total of the maximum theoretical transfer rates across each of the router's bands. That's not useless information as you're comparing routers, but it's a bit misleading: the sum total will almost always be significantly higher than the fastest speeds you'll experience as a user. For instance, the D-Link DIR-867 is listed as an AC1750 router. It's a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 router with theoretical maximum transfer rates of 1,300Mbps on the 5 GHz band and 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. Add those two numbers together and you get 1,750, hence the name AC1750. The problem is that you can't actually add those bands together -- you can only connect to one at a time unless you're using a Wi-Fi 7 router with a Wi-Fi 7 capable device. That means the fastest speed you could theoretically get from the DIR-867 is 1,300Mbps, not 1,750Mbps. And I say "theoretically" because those top speeds are measured by the manufacturer in optimized lab conditions, not in real-world environments. When we tested the thing out, we measured max speeds of 163Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 802Mbps on the 5GHz. Solid results for a budget-friendly router, but nowhere close to 1,750Mbps, even if you add them together. Things get even more inflated once you start looking at tri-band routers that add in an extra 5GHz connection. For example, Asus now sells in its ROG Rapture lineup with the designation "AX11000." The "AX" tells you it's a Wi-Fi 6 router, and the "11000" indicates the combined top speeds of each band -- 1,148Mbps at 2.4GHz, and 4,804Mbps on each of the two 5GHz bands. That's a lot of concurrent bandwidth, but don't start thinking your computer, phone, or gaming console will connect at anything close to 11,000Mbps. The fastest figure you'd ever possibly see from a single device is 4,804Mbps, and today's ISP connections are nowhere near that fast yet. In fact, the average internet speed in the US currently sits at 564Mbps according to the latest data from OpenVault. You'll see all sorts of Wi-Fi jargon as you shop for a new router. Here's a rundown of the terms you'll see the most, and what they actually mean for your home. Mesh: A mesh Wi-Fi network uses multiple access points to provide better coverage throughout large homes. Similar to Wi-Fi extenders, a mesh Wi-Fi system extends coverage throughout the house but with a smaller zone of coverage. Start with one that wires to your modem like a traditional router, then add satellite units around the house that act like repeaters for the signal. If you have a pesky back bedroom that struggles to stay connected, then move mesh routers up to the top of your list. MU-MIMO: Short for "multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output" (and pronounced "multi-user-meem-oh"), MU-MIMO lets your router divide its signal between multiple streams. That, in turn, lets the router send data to multiple devices at once. MU-MIMO is optimal for households or spaces with a lot of devices and heavy-internet users, as it optimizes your network. If the receiving device supports it, MU-MIMO also lets the router use multiple streams at once to send data its way, which makes for faster transfers. Current-gen routers Wi-Fi 6 routers can support up to eight streams (8x8) while Wi-Fi 7 routers can support up to 16. Band steering: Different brands have different names for the feature, but a growing number of routers will automatically move devices between frequency bands as their positions change within the range of the router. So, if you're using Wi-Fi to make a video call on your phone, and you're sitting in the living room near the router, it might automatically assign you to the 5GHz band, which is the speediest at close range. If you move into another part of the house during the call, the router might automatically "steer" your connection onto the 2.4GHz band, which offers a steadier connection at a distance. Beamforming: A basic router will broadcast its signal more or less equally in all directions, but with beamforming, the router can focus its signal in the specific directions of the devices that are trying to connect to it. That can help it reduce interference and maintain a better range. Quality of Service: Often abbreviated to QoS, Quality of Service is a feature that lets the router prioritize certain types of traffic above others. It's a common feature for gaming routers. Beyond basics like those, router manufacturers are turning more and more to extras like simplified, app-based setup, integrations with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, VPN support, better parental controls, and optional cybersecurity monitoring. All are worth considering if you think you'd put them to use in your home.
