Best Wireless Routers

Fastest and most reliable routers

The most advanced wireless-networking routers now feature dual-band, dual-radio technology. Dual-band means they can operate in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (to increase range, and reduce interference and dropped connections). Dual-radio means they can do this simultaneously (so you can run devices that are compatible with either frequency at the same time). All but one of the wireless routers in this section are dual-band and dual-radio (the D-Link DIR-685, discussed last, is the exception).

Mac owners -- and experts who use both Macs and PCs -- say the Apple AirPort Extreme (*Est. $170) is the best wireless router you can buy. The Apple Time Capsule is a similar wireless router with a built-in external hard drive, in 1 TB (*Est. $320) and 2 TB (*Est. $475) versions. Experts say this sleek white box delivers great range, and Apple routers are the most reliable in owner surveys at PC World and PCMag.com.

Like other top-of-the-line wireless routers, the Apple AirPort Extreme offers guest networking (so you can let up to 50 guests onto your network without telling them your password) and the ability to share external hard drives wirelessly. Unlike most rivals, the AirPort Extreme lets you share USB printers wirelessly, too. It's an Apple, so it's easy to set up and use, says Dong Ngo at CNET; he recommends this wireless router for all novices, whether they use Macs or PCs.

But tech-savvy Windows users -- or all-PC networks -- can get more features for their money elsewhere, both CNET and PCMag.com conclude. The Netgear WNDR3700 (*Est. $165) wins MaximumPC.com's Best of the Best award after toppling six other companies' top-of-the-line wireless routers. The WNDR3700 beats two others at SmallNetBuilder.com (neither test includes Apple routers), and it's a top pick at CNET and InformationWeek.com. Experts recommend it more highly than any other non-Apple router.

Some features overlap. Both the Netgear WNDR3700 and the Apple AirPort Extreme allow you to share USB hard drives wirelessly, set parental controls and create guest networks. The Netgear wireless router boasts some extras, too, notably a traffic meter (especially useful if you don't have unlimited Web access) and one more Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) port than the Apple AirPort Extreme -- four, instead of three -- so you can hook up one additional device.

Apple has its advantages. You can't hook up a USB printer to the Netgear router for wireless sharing, as you can with the Apple AirPort Extreme. The Apple routers work faster in CNET's speed tests, both routing and reading/writing to an attached external hard drive. In fact, the Netgear WNDR3700 is the slowest network-attached storage (NAS) device in CNET's test, and its NAS speed crawls even slower in SmallNetBuilder.com's test, where it takes four minutes and 15 seconds to write a small 2.79 GB file to the disk. At these speeds, CNET says the Netgear's NAS feature is only "suited for light and basic network storage tasks, where only one or two users access the drive at the same time."

Finally, while Apple wireless routers win two awards for reliability and have nearly perfect owner ratings at Amazon.com, Netgear gets only average dependability scores at PCMag.com and PC World -- and some owners at both Amazon.com and Newegg.com have complained recently that the WNDR3700 loses most of its signal strength after a few weeks of use.

Still, the majority of owners love their Netgear WNDR3700 wireless routers, and several experts recommend them -- especially for PC-savvy users who love to tweak their equipment, as Netgear allows users access to more settings than Apple does. Another Netgear advantage for PC users: it reads more external-hard-drive formats than the Apple wireless routers do. For example, while Apple routers can read external hard drives formatted in the Windows FAT32 file system, the Netgear WNDR3700 wireless router can also read the more common Windows NTFS format. For Windows users, this means "you can just plug an existing hard drive with data already on it into the router and share that with the rest of the network" on the Netgear WNDR3700, CNET's Ngo says. "Very convenient."

Runner-up high-end wireless routers

Flagship wireless routers from Linksys and D-Link get less consistent reviews. The Linksys E3000 (*Est. $165), upgraded from the Linksys WRT610N, is a former critics' favorite as a top wireless router. It still earns nods from CNET, Laptop Magazine, InformationWeek.com and Gizmodo.com, but it loses head-to-head speed tests against the Netgear WNDR3700 wireless router at SmallNetBuilder.com and MaximumPC.com. It has also fallen behind on features. CNET notes that the Linksys E3000 router allows only 10 guests at a time (so you can't use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot in a café, for example), and unlike the Apple routers it doesn't allow USB printer sharing.

D-Link's attempt at a similar product, the D-Link DIR-825 (*Est. $135), is an editor's pick at both PCMag.com and Laptop Magazine as one of the best wireless routers. But in tests at SmallNetBuilder.com and CNET, the DIR-825 only delivers fast throughput when testers sit close to the router, as the signal doesn't reach as far as its rivals'. The biggest problem, though, is the DIR-825's customer reviews. Although about half of owners at Amazon.com give the wireless router 4 or a perfect 5 stars, about a quarter of them give it only 1 star, complaining that it's impossible to set up or works terribly slowly.

The D-Link DIR-685 (*Est. $240) wows testers at PCMag.com. It's a Wi-Fi router, NAS storage device and digital photo frame rolled into one. "This is one cool piece of networking," says reviewer Mario Morejon, giving it PCMag's Editors' Choice award. It's also a top pick at Gizmodo.com and CNET, where it shows good routing speed and range -- even though it works only on the 2.4 GHz band, unlike the other routers discussed here. Unfortunately, CNET finds its NAS performance sluggish, and Gizmodo.com and SmallNetBuilder.com find its hard-drive fan distractingly loud ("screams like a banshee," SmallNetBuilder.com says). The photo frame is a tiny 3.2 inches ("like docking your iPhone and calling that a photo frame," Gizmodo.com says), and the whole thing costs a lot more than other routers. Plus you have to buy your own 2.5-inch SATA drive to insert if you want to use the NAS feature.