This article explains 7 different types of wireless router types and help you understand which wireless router you need based on your requirements.
Dual band wireless routers
This type of wireless routers have two Wifi bands. The two bands would be 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. You would be able to setup two different wireless networks with these type of routers on a single router. Most of the wireless routers in todays market is dual band.
Theses routers are recommended for a home or office network where network segregation is needed. An example would be a smart home where all the users are configured on the 2.4 Ghz network and the smart devices connected to the 5 Ghz network.
Check out dual band routers here
Triband wireless routers
This type of wireless routers has three wifi bands. The three bands would be one 2.4 Ghz and two 5 Ghz bands. You would be able to setup three different wifi networks with these type of routers on a single router.
These routers are recommended when the network is bigger and there are more number of devices. For example if you have a home with many smart home devices, you could probably segregate the networks into three using a triband wireless router.
Check out triband routers here
Gigabit wireless routers
Gigabit wireless routers have gigabit speeds. They provide gigabit speeds on the Wirelees and Wired segment. These wireless routers are recommended on networks which require high network speed.
Also, if your internet is gigabit, ensure that you buy a gigabit wireless router to achieve this speed. The WAN port connecting to the internet should be gigabit or you may be paying for for high speed internet but achieving low internet speed due to limitation on the device.
Note that there are dual band and triband versions of gigabit wireless routers.
Check out gigabit wireless routers here
Mesh routers
Mesh routers are used for large area like homes where there are multiple floors. In a typical large homes, you can encounter wifi dead zones. A wifi dead zone is an area where there is no wifi. To avoid this, a mesh router is recommended.
Mesh routers comes in packs of 1,2,3. Based on the area requirement , you can purchase the required number of routers.
Gaming routers
Gaming routers as the name suggests are used for gaming. These routers are highly powerful routers which is used specifically for gaming purposes.
Wireless routers with firewall
These are secure wireless routers. They have inbuilt firewall in them. These wireless routers are used when security is utmost priority on a network. Wireless networking vendors like TP-LINK and netgear have secure routers with firewalls.
They have proprietary anti virus engines which detect and mitigate the threats which are targeting the network behind the router. TPLINK has HomeCare feature and netgear has netgear Armor.
These type of routers are highly recommened when you have a lot of smart devices on your network, where the security can be compromised with ease.
Wireless routers with VPN server
If you need remote access to your home or office, then you need to have a wireless router with VPN server inbuilt. Once the VPN server is configured , you can connect to it from the internet using the configured secure credentials and gain access to the internal network.
The above listed wireless router types can be combined to suit your requirement. For example, you can get a mesh router with firewall or a Triband wireless router with VPN server etc. All combinations can be used and checked to see if a wireless router is available based on your requirement.
Learn the best network setup for smart homes with this article – Click Here