Wi-Upgrade Wi-Fi?

With so many devices relying on wireless networking these days, having an up-to-date home network is a must. That’s because many previous-gen routers simply aren’t up to the task of supporting multiple high-speed devices. While it may be tempting to leave well enough alone once a network is up and running, a lot has changed in terms of broadband service and home WiFi demands over the past few years.

Simply put, if you have high-bandwidth requirements, such as 4K streaming, video conferencing, or game streaming, it’s probably time for an upgrade. The same is true if you have multiple smart devices in the home, such as smart speakers or a security system. In short, there’s plenty of new networking technology to take advantage of, and it will be put to good use in the modern home environment.

What’s With All the WiFi Standards?

For the Summer 2025 edition of this guide, we list products from two just generations to make your decision simpler: 802.11ax (WiFi 6) and 802.11be (WiFi 7). We have dropped both 802.11ac (WiFi 5) and 802.11axe (WiFi 6E), for reasons we’ll explain below. For most users, 802.11ax is the great mainstream choice. It was the first to be given a friendlier name, specifically WiFi 6, with a later iteration was called 802.11axe/WiFi 6E. The simplified numerical branding was intended to help consumers know what they were getting (and WiFi 5 was retroactively applied to older 11ac products, which still exist, but at over a decade old, is best left to history). The thought was that consumers couldn’t keep track of whether 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax was faster (although 802.11ax certainly sounded cooler!). In case you’re wondering, the mid-generation WiFi 6E unlocked extra performance by using the 6GHz band (all previous WiFi standards used 2.4GHz or 5GHz). It’s a bit confusing that WiFi 6 doesn’t use 6GHz and only WiFi 6E does, but in truth 6E wasn’t fully embraced by manufacturers, and we never recommended it, so it’s best ignored!

Moving on, if you want cutting-edge speed, you go next-gen: 802.11be/WiFi 7. It adds the 320MHz channel on top of the existing 6GHz band from WiFi 6E, allowing it to make better use of 6GHz than 6E ever did. Just how fast is it, you ask? Well, while 6E topped out at 4800Mbps, 7 can hit 11500Mbps, or nearly 2.5x faster. That is simply mind-blowing, and you know you want it. But… be forewarned: WiFi 7 is strictly for early adopters, given the cost and the fact that very few client devices (i.e., your wireless gear) use WiFi 7. But if building a network for the future is your goal, WiFi 7 is what you need.

Speaking of client devices, if you’re a desktop PC user as many of our readers are, you have the option of upgrading your WiFi, including to WiFi 6 or even 7 with a PCIe-based adapter, which we list in this guide. There’s now even a USB option for WiFi 7, new to the guide since our last update, which means you can upgrade older laptops, although it is a bit bulky. You can learn more later in this guide.

An important change for our latest guide is the removal of all TP-Link products from our website, likely forever. We occasionally “ban” certain brands from our guides for all sorts of anti-consumer behavior (like HP from our Printer Guide for disabling printers when used with generic ink),  but the removal of TP-Link is for even more serious reasons. The latest intelligence suggests that TP-Link flooded the US and other markets with WiFi products that seriously-undercut competitors as part of what may have been a coordinated hacking scheme sponsored by the Chinese government. While this is hard to prove, we are extremely well aware of just how much cheaper TP-Link’s products were than every other brand – that’s why they were in our guides for years. The fact that TP-Link, the only Chinese-owned major networking brand (others are American or Taiwanese), might have sold products at a loss for nefarious reasons is not beyond the realm of possibility. For this reason, we won’t put our readers at risk any longer.

One last thing: you’ll need fast Internet service to take advantage of the speed of any of the offerings in our guide, and that means cable or fiberoptic. The latter always has proprietary modems, but for cable you can buy your own cable modem, and we offer our recommendation in this guide, getting you out of paying monthly rental fees, while getting you into true Gigabit broadband service!

What If I’m Tired of Dropping the Signal Across My Home?

If you have a medium to larger home (say, over 2000 sq. ft.), speed ratings won’t tell you all you need to know about network performance. This is when it’s time to think beyond a single router (or node) sitting on one side of your house, and move to multi-node “mesh” network!

A system like the Netgear Orbi pictured here will fill those dead spots faster than you can say “where’s my signal?!?” With that said, gamers and streamers living in apartments and small homes should probably go with a single high-powered router at the same pricepoint. You get more straight-line speed at the expense of range. And anyone who wants the best of all worlds can actually pair two Asus-branded routers using the innovative Asus AIMesh system to create a truly out-of-this-world mesh network that has extreme speed and extreme range!

One last thing: we utilize Amazon links throughout this guide, and your use of these links helps support future development of the guide!