Most people aren’t terribly interested in how a wire running into our homes becomes a wireless signal that gives you an internet connection. However, knowing your router specs can give you a lot of insight into the speed and performance of your connection. Routers have continued to improve with every new generation bringing speed and capacity improvements to keep up with our growing needs. If you need better Wi-Fi coverage or speed around your home, getting a router with the right specs is essential to having a good experience.

With routers, the most important specs come down to those that affect speed and coverage, but a lot of newer routers have also been including software that can improve the security of your network and parental controls.

Wi-Fi Generations

Wi-Fi has, like most tech, been getting incremental improvements since it came out with the coming from just a few megabits per second in the first versions to multiple gigabits per second with the latest generation.

Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)

If you’re buying a router today, you really don’t want to go any older than Wi-Fi 5, which is sometimes called 802.11ac. Wi-Fi 5 has been around for a few years and is quite fast in its final form, but on most hardware, it will struggle to achieve anywhere near gigabit speeds.

Most Wi-Fi 5 devices can achieve up to 867Mbps with a 2x2 connection and some doubling that. Even so, unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you’ll never see those full speeds. Routers need to share the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands they use for Wi-Fi 5 with other routers in the area, which can lead to lower speeds. Some Wi-Fi 5 routers use two 5GHz bands at once to increase capacity, but you won’t see increased speeds on most of your devices.

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) was a decent step up for Wi-Fi thanks to improved tech like 1024-QAM, OFDMA, and more widely adopted MU-MIMO. QAM and OFDMA are used to minutely adjust the Wi-Fi signal to avoid congestion better. For example, if your Wi-Fi signal and your neighbor's are on the same 5GHz band, they can interfere with each other. These technologies help them co-exist better.

Wi-Fi 6 also got a general speed increase, going from 867Mbps on a 2x2 connection at 5GHz to 1021Mbps using the same amount of spectrum. Speeds at 2.4GHz also got a small bump, though some cheaper routers used Wi-Fi 5 at 2.4GHz. And while 160MHz 4x4 connections were possible on Wi-Fi 5, they got a lot more common with Wi-Fi 6 enabling speeds up to 2402Mbps.

Wi-Fi 6E (802.11axe) is mostly the same as Wi-Fi 6 with the addition of a 6GHz band. After the FCC cleared up some spectrum at 6GHz for in-home usage, Wi-Fi routers had access to much more spectrum, albeit at a lower power level.

Wi-Fi is backward compatible so your brand-new phone will be able to use an older Wi-Fi 5 router, but you will be leaving performance on the table. If you want to keep your router for a few years, it’s a good idea to plan ahead a bit.

Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) is the latest Wi-Fi standard and it comes with some strong speed and technology improvements over Wi-Fi 6. In fact, as we saw in our TP-Link Archer BE800 review, it’s one of the biggest leaps in Wi-Fi ever with multi-gigabit speeds on even low-end Wi-Fi 7 routers. Wi-Fi 7 makes more liberal use of the 6GHz band with support for even wider 320MHz channels compared to 160MHz on Wi-Fi 6E. This enables way faster speeds of up to 5760Mbps compared to 2402Mbps.

While 6GHz spectrum has much more space for 160MHz channels (up to eight) and up to three 320MHz channels, it’s still going to need to eventually deal with the congestion issues facing Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6. As shown by Intel, an update to 4096-QAM as well as using Multi Resource Units Puncturing which can use multiple separate parts of spectrum to further avoid congestion.

Another big improvement to come with Wi-Fi 7 is MLO, multi-link operation. MLO allows a compatible device to connect to multiple bands at once, such as the 5GHz and 6GHz bands to improve speeds and latency. For example, it could use the 6GHz band for download and the 5GHz band for upload reducing the load on both and potentially improving the network quality. While some Wi-Fi 6E devices can connect to an MLO network, you’ll really need Wi-Fi 7 to take advantage of it.

Wi-Fi 7 routers can get very fast (and expensive) so it’s easy to overpay. It’s worth keeping in mind that even the slowest Wi-Fi 7 routers are pretty fast for residential internet connection. If you’re lucky enough to have multi-gig internet service to your home, however, you could see some real improvements with Wi-Fi 7.

Band width and spatial streams

Bandwidth literally refers to how wide the wireless band is. A lot of Wi-Fi 5 and cheaper Wi-Fi 6 routers stick with 80MHz wide bands with higher-end models offering 160MHz, double the width. Wi-Fi 7 takes that up to 320MHz. While a wider band enables faster overall speeds, they can struggle with coverage a bit more. Some 160MHz-capable routers will even ship in an 80MHz mode by default.

Next, you may see routers list how many streams or spatial streams they have. This mostly affects how many simultaneous devices can be served at one time. Simply put, more streams mean more capacity, though most homes can get away with four. That being said, if you’ve got gamers in the house, going for six streams could be worth it as many popular games are over 100GB to download with large updates every week or two.

The Ethernet switch

Most routers have an Ethernet switch built in that can handle traffic to multiple wired devices at once. While Wi-Fi is the data transmission method of the future, Ethernet is still the best option for a lot of people who need the fastest possible speeds and the lowest latency. On consumer-level equipment, wired connectivity tops out at 10Gbps with many mid-range routers even offering 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps Ethernet.

If you’re putting together a NAS to store your home movies and Linux distributions, you’ll want to use a fast Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi. Ethernet is simply less fallible than Wi-Fi since it’s just a copper connection. Wi-Fi, while very fast, can be weakened by interference from other routers or even just thick walls. Ethernet is a simple cable so as long as copper is touch copper, you’ve got a connection.

Some high-end routers come with an SFP+ port that can be used for a fiber connection. This is way less common than Ethernet but can travel much further without losing speed. For most people, one of the best Ethernet cables will offer plenty of speed. If you’re going to use Ethernet, you’ll want to make sure your router has enough ports to handle all of your wired connections.

Coverage and mesh expansion

Router manufacturers shy away from giving specific coverage estimates these days and while that’s frustrating for the end users, there’s good reason. Wi-Fi signals can be blocked by thick walls, appliances, television screens, and even a running microwave oven. Therefore, even if you got a coverage estimate on a router’s spec sheet, it will still more than likely fall well short of estimates in the real world.

If you have an older home with thick plaster walls, your signal will be hurt more than if you had drywall, for example. Furthermore, some homes have concrete or block walls that can really hurt signal. Your best bet for consistent Wi-Fi with a home like this is mesh Wi-Fi. Mesh Wi-Fi uses multiple nodes that communicate with each other to blanket the whole house in Wi-Fi. You can start with one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems, or get a router that supports mesh expansion.

For mesh expansion, you’re either going to find a router that is open to other vendors, like EasyMesh, or one that sticks to the same brand, like AiMesh from Asus. For example, Eero routers can mesh with other Eero routers, but that’s it. Asus routers can mesh with any other Asus router with AiMesh support, which is most of them. TP-Link, for example, has started including EasyMesh with newer routers making mesh expansion both brand-agnostic and potentially cheaper.

Some of your router’s capacity will be used to link the mesh network together, so you’ll want to start with a router that’s around twice the capacity you think you’ll need if you want the fastest speeds possible.

Gaming specs

Gamers have it rough when it comes to advertising with many brands slapping the word “gaming” on their products without any real specialization for gaming. That’s not true for all gaming tech, though, and some gaming routers, like the Acer Predator Connect W6, have some nice software benefits for gamers.

For example, gamers should get a router with a decent QoS. QoS stands for quality of service and is software that prioritizes network traffic. On a gaming router, the QoS is set up to keep gaming traffic prioritized over other traffic to keep ping times low and, most importantly, avoid lag spikes. Some of these need to be set manually by device, or may work automatically when a connection to a known server is made.

You should also think about NAT. NAT stands for network address translation and is simply a part of the process of directing traffic from your external IP to an internal IP. The site or service you’re using online knows to send the data to your home but doesn’t know where inside your home to send it. NAT is like a directory that can help the data make it to the specific location it’s going.

If you have no choice but to connect your router to a router to another router, or your internet service is provided by your landlord, you may see a double NAT warning when you try to connect to an online game. Some gaming routers can pass your connection through to avoid these double NAT warnings and improve matchmaking.

Ease of access

One of the more unfortunate developments in many sectors of technology is requiring online accounts. For example, some companies like Eero and Nest Wifi require you to have an online account and an app to set up and manage your router. For the most part, this is fine with the apps offering quick access to settings and an easy setup experience but can be annoying if you forget which account you used with your new router.

If I’m trying to adjust a setting on my router, the last thing I want to do is look for an email with password reset instructions. These apps often facilitate some nice additions, however, like improved security software and parental controls. TP-Link, Netgear, Eero, Gryphon, and more have paid software available through the app. The only problem is they often ask you to share quite a bit of data to use them. Sure, it’s anonymous, but if you’re tired of giving your browsing history to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that can put together a tracking cookie, you might not love it.

Many modern routers, like TP-Link Archer, Netgear Nighthawk, Asus, and more offer both an app experience, as well as web browser access that doesn’t need an online account.

CPU and RAM

Routers are basically low-power computers with software specialized for networking. You could even build your own router from a standard X86 PC if you so please. If you plan on using a lot of software features, especially VPN services on your router, you’ll need a fairly powerful CPU to keep up. Having plenty of RAM can also help keep performance smooth when you’ve got a lot of features like QoS, parental controls, and security enabled. If you’re not planning to use many software features, you can get away with something a little slower.

A faster CPU and more RAM can also help with startup time if you power your equipment down at night, or just experience frequent power outages.

Know your needs to pick your specs

If you’re looking for a new router, it helps to know a few key pieces of information. First, you’ll want to know your internet speeds. While many people can get speeds up to 1000Mbps, most people simply don’t need internet that fast. If you’re getting 200Mbps internet, for example, unless you’re doing a lot of big downloads, it’s probably fast enough. If you want full gigabit speeds on Wi-Fi, a good starting point is a Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 router with AX5400 routers, especially tri-band models, working better in congested areas like apartment buildings.

Next, you’ll want to know how many devices you have connected. If you’ve only got a couple of people in the house with a handful of devices each, you can go with a slower router with fewer streams.