By Randy Hebert

Selecting the best wireless router for your setup can be a challenging task for a great number of people. This article aims to teach you some basic features to look for when purchasing a wireless router.

What type of user are you?

The first step to finding the best wireless router for your needs is knowing what type of user you are. Here are a couple questions you can ask yourself to find out. How often do you use your computer? What do you do on your computer? Do you use the Internet on a regular basis?

I have reduced the types of users into three groups to keep things simple. There are the beginners, the average users, and the heavy users. The beginners are people that are new to wireless networking. They will generally use their computers to do simple tasks like read emails. The average users are people who have been around computers for a while and might have a non wireless network. The heavy users will have been using computers and networks for quite a while. They are users who require high speed connections for downloading a lot of information online. Gamers are also a good example of heavy users.

What features will you need?

Now that you've identified what type of user you are we can move on to selecting the features that you will be using. I will not give a highly detailed description of features since there are so many but I will discuss the important features to look for. The most relevant features you will be looking at are Speed, Range, Reliability, and Ease of Use.

Beginners might like to buy a kit such as the D-Link Wireless-G Starter Kit (DWL-922C) or something similar. It comes with an Airplus G wireless USB adaptor, and a 2.4 Ghz wireless router. It is cheap, comes with everything needed to create a simple wireless network, and it is extremely easy to setup. This kit will provide a wireless network that's range will suit the majority of small to medium sized homes. It is also surprisingly reliable for the price.

The average user will be looking for reliability rather than blazing speed. They will want a stable connection that rarely cuts out. For average users I recommend the Linksys WRT54GS. It is compatible with lots of other network components and is also quite reliable. It's range and performance are highly ranked compared to other wireless G routers. It is fairly priced for what you will receive and it is quite easy to setup and secure.

Heavy users require both speed and reliability. I can be quite frustrating for an online gamer to get disconnected from the game or always being a step behind the competition due to the poor speed of their wireless router. If you are a heavy user I would recommend that you purchase one of the newer wireless N routers. The D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is one of the best wireless routers around right now. It is extremely fast and reliable.

Adding it all up

Hopefully this article has taught you a thing or two about wireless routers. It should help you find a router that is in your price range and that fulfills all your wireless needs. Remember, you don't always need to spend more money to buy a product that has features you will never use.

About The Author

For more information about wireless routers, visit my site at http://www.wirelessnetworksetups.com

Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box.

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