Killing dead spots, extending your range, boosting speeds – there are many reasons to upgrade your home or small-office network. We explain how
Stronger signals and longer range might be at the heart of many home and small-office network upgrades, but more of us are pushing our networks harder than ever before.
Not only do we have more connected devices at home, but those devices are demanding more bandwidth. It’s true to say that, with services such as audio and video streamers, Skype and cloud-based applications, your broadband connection is a more likely bottleneck than the 802.11n connection to your router. But what if you have several of these services running concurrently, or you want to stream HD or 4K video inside the home? What if you want to try streaming between a gaming PC or console and a lightweight laptop or tablet – already an option with Steam and the PlayStation 4, and coming soon to the Xbox One?
If you’re running up against the limitations of your network – either in terms of speed or range – then you have several options. Here’s how they all stack up.
INSTALL A WIRED NETWORK
The ideal way to set up a future-proofed network for high-bandwidth applications is to use good old Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet ports are now built into many laptops and PCs, and Ethernet is still the best route for optimal performance from media streamers, NAS drives, games consoles and the like. You get full-duplex performance and a guaranteed speed independent of distance, and your existing router may already have Gigabit ports built in. If not, you can connect an affordable Gigabit switch. You’ll only find the 100Mbits/sec connection on your router a bottleneck when traffic moves from the local network out to the internet; your PCs, storage devices and media streamers can still communicate with each other at Gigabit speeds.
The downside is that installing a wired network is a lot of work, and if you don’t have an easy way to run the cabling through walls and floors, then you may need to call in an electrician. And while the cabling itself doesn’t have to be expensive – 100m of unshielded CAT-5e or CAT-6 can be had for $50 to $100 – you’ll also need Ethernet wall plates, back boxes and socket modules to finish the job. For some households the investment in time, money and effort will be worth it, but not all.
POWERLINE
Powerline networking piggybacks a data connection on your existing mains cabling, and is an easier and relatively affordable way to set up a hardwired, point-to-point connection. You can now buy 500Mbits/sec kits for less than $100, with single units cheaper still. New models push maximum speeds up to 1.2Gbits/sec and 2Gbits/sec, with wireless access points (APs) that support the newer 802.11ac standard. Powerline is ludicrously easy to configure, and usually faster and more reliable at a distance than a conventional Wi-Fi network. In situations where Wi-Fi lets you down, powerline may be able to deliver.
As we mention elsewhere, though, powerline speeds should be taken with a pinch of salt. Performance will degrade over distance, and the quality of your household power cable and interference from other appliances and devices connected to the mains also affects speed. What’s more, many 500Mbits/sec devices only offer 100Mbits/sec Ethernet ports, meaning that even with an optimal connection, 100Mbits/sec is as good as things will get.
That said, powerline speeds can compare favourably with 802.11ac extender speeds. Alongside the wireless extenders, we tested a straight powerline kit – the TP-Link AV1200 – and found it reached speeds of 28MB/sec in our mid-range tests and 5MB/sec to our remote garden office. Only the Labswinning Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 was able to establish a connection in the latter location.
There are reasons to avoid powerline, however. Ham radio enthusiasts hate it, because the equipment generates a radio signal that interferes with some available radio bands.
Failures to sync can also result in annoying trips around the building, and sometimes two units from the same manufacturer will suddenly fail to connect. This doesn’t make powerline a bad solution, but you need to keep that in mind.
WIRELESS EXTENDERS
We won’t say too much about extenders here in a Labs that’s devoted to their testing, but they’re not a miracle fix for an ageing network. You’ll always be limited by the speed of your existing WiFi network, so even if your laptop or WiFi adapter supports 802.11ac, as does your chosen extender, the connection between the extender and an 802.11n router will be a bottleneck.
What’s more, your range may be limited by the fact that the extender usually needs to stay quite close to the existing router. Extenders excel in two areas: stretching the wireless network so that it covers unserviced areas of the home – albeit usually at reduced speeds – and expanding the reach of a highspeed 802.11n or 802.11ac network so that you can still attain exceptional speeds in an adjacent or nearby room.
WIRELESS ACCESS POINTS
If you’re more concerned about improving speed than extending the range of your network, then a new wireless AP could be the answer.
Connecting to your router through a Gigabit Ethernet connection, it’s possible to augment or replace a router’s existing wireless network with a new one, based on a faster standard. In this way, you can upgrade to 802.11ac without ripping out existing hardware.
Wireless APs are often designed to cope with more simultaneous connections, improving network performance in a home brimming with smartphones, tablets and wireless media streamers.
The downside? They can be expensive, sometimes more so than a router of the same standard with more features. In fact, many routers can be switched to an access point mode, while some wireless extenders can work as an AP instead. If you’re tempted, check that there isn’t an extender or router that could handle the same job for less.
A NEW ROUTER
Arguably, the most positive move you can make is to buy a new router. The 802.11ac market is maturing nicely, and it’s easy to find an aŒ fordable model that will net you faster speeds and better range. The Netgear R7500 Nighthawk R4 or the lowcost DLink DIR868L can provide speeds in excess of 75MB/sec at close range and 45MB/sec at distance. There’s a possibility that former WiFi dead zones might open up for business.
Again, you need to be realistic. Connections on the 5GHz band suffer less from interference, but struggle more to penetrate walls and cover longer distances than those on the 2.4GHz spectrum.
You may be able to establish a connection in the distant corners of your home, but without an extender it might not be particularly speedy. In the location of our midrange test, we struggled to achieve speeds of more than 1MB/sec using only a direct connection to an AC1900 router. With the Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 working, we reached 20.2MB/sec. On the other hand, a shorter range test through 8m and two brick walls saw the router hit 29MB/sec versus the extender’s 24.6MB/sec.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that simply adding an extender or upgrading a router won’t necessarily enhance range or performance unless you invest in additional network kit. If your laptop or PC doesn’t support 802.11ac, you’ll need new adapters, and neither USB adapters nor PCI Express cards come cheap.