If you're using Wi-Fi in your house, the odds are good that you just went with the free router that the ISP provides. It's convenient since you don't need to set up anything, and it saves both time and money.
And then the problems start - the network is slow, or doesn't reach most parts of your house - and there's not much you can do about it. Most people avoid buying a router themselves because of the complication of the specifications and the effort it takes to understand them.
You can try looking for alternatives yourself, but the router page on the company website or an e-commerce website doesn't provide you the details in a simple language that would help you make the decision. So you end up taking the path of least resistance and keep using the ISP's router.
That may work for some, but for most people it is advisable to invest in a better router, so you can get your home network working according to your needs. This way, you can make sure that the router is fast enough for your usage, and has enough range to cover your house.
Router with or without Internet
The most common use of a Wi-Fi router is to share an Internet connection between various devices, but that's not its only use. You can even use the router even without an active Internet connection to connect your devices like smartphones, tablets, TVs, computers to each other for streaming videos, file transfers and more. In such a case, you'll obviously have no ISP and will need to invest in a router of your own.
Most users, however, need a router to use the Internet connection on multiple devices. Now your Internet connection can either be cable or ADSL. If it's the former - you should check with your ISP to identify what kind it is if unsure - you typically wouldn't need anything other than the router. However, if you have a DSL connection - the kind supplied by the likes of BSNL, MTNL, and Airtel, which usually comes with a landline - you'll also need a ADSL modem. In such a case, it makes sense to buy a router with a built-in ADSL modem, which will take lesser space on your table and there will be fewer wires to manage.
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However, these routers are a little bit more expensive - a standalone ADSL modem costs less than Rs. 1,000 so keep this in mind when comparing a router with built-in ADSL modem against a modem + router combo.
There are a lot of different numbers and specifications floating around, but these are the ones you want to keep in mind buying a router:
Wi-Fi Standard (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
The first thing you'll want to check is the Wi-Fi standard that the router supports. Older ones would be 802.11 'b' or 'g' - but almost all new routers also support 'n'. This standard - 802.11n - allows you to transfer data at 600Mbps (mega bits per second) theoretically, though some 802.11n routers come with top speeds of only 300Mbps (which translates to downloads of 37.5MBps or mega bytes per second).
The latest Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ac. It allows a transfer speed of 1.3Gbps. Of course, in practical scenarios the speed is reduced a lot. This means that 802.11ac allows you to connect more devices with high data transfer speed, thanks to better multi-antenna and MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) support. MIMO allows multiple streams for a single connection for faster connections, particularly if you are doing multimedia activities.
Only a handful of phones and laptops support 802.11ac and the technology is more expensive at the moment than 802.11n routers. So which one should you go for? For now, the choice is simple - the 'n' standard is more than fast enough for your Internet connection in India, and it's more likely to be supported by all your devices. As a bonus, you save money too.
Frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz)
Frequency of a router will decide how powerful your network would be for multiple devices. The two main standards are 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The key difference between these two is of interference and range.
http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/features/buying-a-wi-fi-router-here-are-the-features-and-specifications-that-matter-675929
