The choice of the home router is usually not a big of a deal, because you are just checking the prices and comments from the users. There are no huge risks connected with the security characteristics as well as speed. For day-to-day usage, you don’t need exceptional speed and can enter any website with an average router.
With business needs, the situation might become a little bit more complex. Here you should pay attention to speed, coverage, number of connections, and much more. That’s why, we decided to share some major recommendations so that you can make more informative decisions.
How can a choice of router influence your business?
The selection of the best router for your business needs guarantees that you can have a more secure environment, better internet connectivity, and conduct lots of tasks much faster than it used to be. These are only a couple of things that can influence your business, so let’s discuss some other benefits that come together with a quality router:
- Easier communication in real-time. Most businesses need to worry not only about the quality of the product, and website accessibility but also about the professionalism of the customer service. Response time for comments, emails from your clients, and emergent issues is crucial and here a choice of router can significantly help with seamless connectivity.
- Quick access to the needed information. The most appropriate variant for data sharing is the usage of the VPS or other types of servers for the storage of important information. For quick access to the data on the server, we highly recommend using a reliable router.
- Minimize the budget spending. The efficiency of any employee can greatly improve with the quick accessibility of standard business tools. For instance, the usage of scanners and printers can significantly minimize the spending in case these tools are shared within the team, but not individually set up for every employee.
Basic recommendations for the choice of the best router
The choice of the best router is a rather individual thing and should be discussed within the company so that the needs of most employees will be valued. For this reason, we can only share some recommendations with you that can be applied to your unique case or not depending on the circumstances. Let’s start with the basic things such as whether you will benefit from wireless or wired networks:
- Take into consideration the working environment. The interior of your office matters a lot for the choice of the best router. For instance, lots of concrete, metal shelving, mirrors, and lots of walls can significantly minimize wireless signals. In such a situation, probably the best solution will be a wired router. However, the employees might be not satisfied with some discomforts that come with wired routers so this question should be discussed with the team.
- The number of used devices. If you have a tiny office with only a couple of devices within the system, you may benefit from the wired router.
Ports: LAN and WAN
- WAN: More often, a standard router has 1 WAN port and a couple of LAN ports. The availability of only one WAN port can be quite risky for businesses of any size. In case, this port stops functioning, the whole office might be in huge trouble leading to downtime issues, and reputation consequences. That’s why, dual WAN ports are necessary for business usage. So, if your initial internet connection has some issues, you can add a 4G card.
- LAN: These ports connect all the available devices to the router within the same IP network.
When selecting the number of ports, you should have some flexibility, but at the same time, you don’t need to overpay for the unnecessary ports in case you have a small business. This can be calculated easily depending on the number of available devices in your office.
Speed
The speed characteristics are extremely important so check the chosen router according to this standard as well. For efficient functioning, use the models that work on the basis of 802.11ac protocol or newer ones on the 802.11ax.
Security
The security is quite essential for any kind of business. That’s why, users that need higher security standards should rather choose VPN routers. Such routers offer better protection capability, no limitations of connectivity, fully automated variants, and other benefits.
Summing up
The choice of the best router for your business needs might be a tiring process if you have not made a list of your major priorities and specific requirements. Once you have a clear vision of what you actually need in terms of speed, number of connections, VPN security, and coverage – then you can select the most cost-efficient variant. Take some time and select the most appropriate router for your business so you can be sure of its stability and reliability.
