What Does Hunter Recommend?

The Unifi Dream Machine ($299 - store.ui.com) is a nice device that has the simplicity of a home router but the complexity to build an enterprise network.

Netgear Nighthawk routers ($120 -> $300) are pretty decent as well. I've had good luck with them and they work.

Look for things that have: "Wave 2" | "3x3" | "4x4" | "gigabit ethernet" | "Dual" or "Quad core" | "WiFi 6" | "WiFi 5"

Try not to get a router that has "Whole Home Wi-Fi", they are more often than not good at not performing as they are advertised and, depending on how they are placed and where you are in the home in respect to each "Whole Home Wi-Fi Devices", they will actually perform worse and cause unnecessary slowness. You are better off having one wireless router in the center of your home or if you wan to get fancy, have two Access Points plugged into ethernet at opposite sides of your home.

If Wi-Fi Speeds are "1900 Mbps" or anything over 1000Mbps, that doesn't mean that the Wi-Fi is faster or it will reach farther. Gigabit ethernet is only 1000 Mbps (1 Gigabit) and wireless that advertises "1600" or "1900" or even higher does not mean it's faster than ethernet, for now. The fast speed is not per device and will NOT increase your internet speed. They are advertising the total throughput of the wireless radio across ALL of your devices at one time. If you want faster internet speeds 1. Get faster internet from your provider or 2. Plug in your devices for a more reliable connection. Wi-Fi 6 is getting better at those faster speeds over Wi-Fi per devices (not all devices at once) but it requires a Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices, which is still fairly new. This is mainly an advertising trick to get you to buy the FASTEST one, in most cases for home you will not get close to saturating that speed, and ultimately spend more for something you will not fully use. However, the caveat is the one with the faster speeds will most likely have the faster, better technology to perform than the lower models. So a catch 22 right there.

If you would like more details, please let Hunter know.

Anything with Fiber optics will be the best. Cable will be decent. Anything else DLS, Dial-up, Satellite, etc. will be the least performing. Steer clear of AT&T!

10 Mbps Upload, 50+ Mbps Download, and Ping should be as low as possible.

Download speed is what matter's for "using the internet" and Upload speeds are usually only 10Mbps. However anything faster is usually going to be better performing.

High Ping is what causes lag in Gaming or long response times. Ping is how long it takes for data to get to wherever you are going to from you. Ping is relative to each site or server you are getting to meaning that because one site has a high ping doesn't mean another site will have a high ping unless your internet is not up to snuff. Major companies (google, Netflix, amazon, etc) will have services spread across the globe, somewhat local to your area, to keep their services fast and ping as low as possible.

Ping lower than 30 is good, 30 to 60 is a bit laggy, and 60 and higher is pretty low quality.

Budget friendly Specifications (it will work but will not last unless it is taken care of properly): Expect around $600 to $1000

• Intel / AMD Dual core running around 2.3 to 3.0 GHz will work

• 6+ Gigabytes of RAM

• Storage - Preferably a SSD (Solid state drive - No moving parts) but a HDD (Hard disk drive - Spinning Disk) Will work. Anything above 240GB of storage is decent unless you are looking at storing a lot of pictures or videos, then something larger, about 1 TB or higher, will be needed but, at that point just get an external hard drive to store those items on because 1. the disk will not be always running when you are using your computer (because it will be unplugged and put away) - reduces ware and tear 2. If your computer crashes, breaks, doesn't turn on, etc. then your pictures and videos will be safe on the external hard drive.

• Something that does not have:

  • A touch screen - they do not last and can break easily which causes "ghosting". Ghosting is when the computers is doing something by itself that it's not supposed to.

  • A 360 screen or laptop/tablet combo. The hinges can not always be reliable and over time the hinges will not be able to hold the screen up. The small wires in those hinges to power and work the screen also degrade overtime and may cause the screen to stop working altogether.

Long Lasting / Performance: Expect around $800 to $1200

• Intel / AMD Quad core running above 2.5 GHz, preferable 3.0 as a base range.

• 8 Gigabytes of RAM

• Storage - SSD for storage, keep the internal storage under 500GB and get an external Hard drive

Just a note, If you have a quad core processor running at 3.0 GHz, The max speed is 3.0GHz, not 12GHz. It doesn't work like that. An example of this would be similar to 4 vehicles driving down the road at the same time at 50 MPH. How fast are the vehicles going down the road? They're running at 50 MPH, not 200 MPH. They are only doing 4 times the work compared to one vehicle driving 50MPH. Similar to processors, a quad core is doing 4 times the work, up to 3.0GHz compared to just a single core running at 3.0GHz.