We purchased the The 7 Best Long-Range Routers so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full products reviews.
If you get one of the Best Long-Range Routers, getting high-speed wireless coverage throughout a larger home won’t be a problem. Although many premium routers provide fast performance at close ranges, as you move farther away, those speeds can quickly deteriorate. The Best Long-Range Routers go the extra mile by ensuring that your signal is strong even when it reaches the limits of their range.
This means you’ll be able to enjoy smooth 4K streaming, lag-free gaming, and continuous Zoom calls from anywhere in your house. Furthermore, because larger homes typically have more devices, ranging from laptops and tablets to smartphones and game consoles, the Best Long-Range Routers will continue to function even when under heavy load.
When the kids are downstairs playing Fortnite, you won’t have to worry about your Netflix buffering and stuttering. The Best Long-Range Routers are excellent choices for anyone struggling to get fast internet speeds throughout their home, but they can also help anyone with a large number of connected devices competing for bandwidth.
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Best Overall: Asus RT-AX88U AX6000 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router
The Asus RT-AX88U (Check latest price on Amazon) is a worthy upgrade to the company’s highly acclaimed RT-AC88U, bringing advanced 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 technology to handle the largest and busiest homes. It also manages to keep all of the advanced features and configuration options that made its predecessor so adaptable.
The RT-AX88U has the same sleek low-profile design as most of Asus’ other routers in its class, and it has a smaller footprint than the company’s behemoth gaming routers, so it won’t take up much space in your home network. Don’t be fooled by its diminutive size; it’s equipped with four powerful beamforming antennas that will provide enough range to cover a living area of up to 5,000 square feet, as well as Wi-Fi 6 speeds of up to 6Gbps across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and full compatibility with your more common 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 devices.
If you have a lot of wired devices, you won’t need to worry about adding an extra hub or switch because there are eight Gigabit Ethernet ports around the back. This router, like most of Asus’ other premium routers, includes AiProtection network security as standard, as well as AiMesh 2.0, which allows you to combine it with other Asus routers for even better coverage throughout your home, and a slew of other advanced networking features, including a built-in VPN server, traffic monitoring, and adaptive QoS.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: AiProtection, WPA3, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AX6000 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 8
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Best Budget: TP-Link Archer C80 AC1900 Wireless MU-MIMO Wi-Fi 5 Router
While there are many inexpensive routers on the market, it’s difficult to find one that also provides excellent range. The TP-Link Archer C80 (Check latest price on Amazon) is one of those rare gems that can provide solid coverage throughout a reasonably large home without costing a fortune.
Its four beamforming antennas are supported by a front-end module (FEM) that is more powerful than most routers at this price point. This means it can send out a surprising strong signal that can reach all corners of your house. Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 support delivers up to 1.9Gbps of throughput across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, providing more than enough performance for all but the busiest families’ 4K streaming and video calling needs.
The Archer C80 is also one of the few routers in this price range that supports full 3×3 MU-MIMO, ensuring that all of your Wi-Fi devices get the fastest speeds possible without slowing each other down. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back provide plenty of room to hardwire in devices like PCs or game consoles for maximum speed, and the QoS features allow you to prioritize smart TVs for the best streaming quality. Basic parental controls are also available to help you filter internet access to specific devices based on time of day, and the whole thing is simple to set up thanks to TP-Tether Link’s app.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: WPA2, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AC1900 | Bands: Dual-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 4
You might be surprised to learn that the Orbi is a Netgear product (Check latest price on Amazon), given how different it looks from the typical “big black box” routers with antennas protruding in every direction. Netgear, on the other hand, has created a router with a home-friendly aesthetic, which is important because this is one you’ll want to have in your living room.
Because the Orbi is a mesh Wi-Fi system, it’s designed to provide you with excellent performance and coverage by strategically placing units throughout your home where you need the best signal. The base unit connects to your main internet connection, and one or more satellite units are used to extend the range of the base unit throughout your home. Orbi offers tri-band AC3000 Wi-Fi, with one of the two 5GHz bands serving as a dedicated backhaul channel to ensure that data is transferred quickly between the mesh units and the main router. This means that regardless of which satellite unit your Wi-Fi devices are connected to, they will be able to benefit from dual-band Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1.2Gbps.
A pair of Orbi units will easily cover a 5,000 square foot home, but the best part is that you can add up to five A pair of Orbi units will easily cover a 5,000-square-foot home, but the best part is that you can add up to five more satellites for even more coverage, ensuring that your devices never get too far away from the router when streaming, gaming, or video calling. Thanks to the dedicated backhaul channel, each satellite unit also has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing you to plug in game consoles or PCs in any room and get a full-speed connection. Netgear’s Armor and Circle with Disney features also makes this a great system for families, with sophisticated anti-malware protection and advanced parental controls, although you will need to pay a small ongoing subscription fee to benefit from these.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ac | Security: NETGEAR Armor, WPA2, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AC2200 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports:4 (per unit)
Gaming routers, like gamers, are a unique breed, as they must combine all of the best wireless router features with lag-free performance to keep even the most demanding online tournaments running smoothly. This is where the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 (Check latest price on Amazon) takes the lead—a it’s powerful beast of a router that can handle the demands of large households with even the most ardent gamers.
The GT-AX11000 has a powerful quad-core CPU that ensures the lowest possible latency, so gamers won’t have to worry about everything freezing up right before a critical kill shot. Everyone else in the house, on the other hand, will be able to enjoy smooth 4K streaming and uninterrupted Zoom and FaceTime calls, even if a battle for world dominance is raging in the basement.
The GT-AX11000 can deliver up to 10Gbps of combined throughput across all frequencies thanks to its tri-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 support, and the eight-antenna beamforming array can easily cover homes up to 5,000 square feet. Around the back, there are four Gigabit Ethernet ports, one of which is a special 2.5Gbps gaming port, as well as two USB 3.0 ports for connecting external storage devices for file sharing or media streaming.
Finally, the ROG Rapture firmware includes a gamer’s paradise of optimization tools, including WTFast game acceleration, VPN Fusion to isolate your gaming traffic from your VPN, and adaptive QoS to prioritize your gaming traffic and automatically connect to the fastest servers for popular online games, in addition to all of Asus’ advanced networking features.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: AiProtection, WPA3, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AX11000 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 5
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Best Value: Linksys Velop AX4200 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System (MX12600)
Linksys’ Velop MX12600 mesh Wi-Fi system (Check latest price on Amazon) is one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems available when it comes to getting the most bang for your buck, offering three mesh units for the price of two. This means you’ll have coverage up to 8,100 square feet, and each unit will deliver consistently fast speeds even over longer distances.
Much of this is due to Wi-Fi 6’s tri-band technology, which provides full 802.11ax speeds on all three bands while dynamically managing the backhaul channel for optimal performance. This means the system can decide whether to use the extra 5GHz band to move traffic between Velop stations or to make it available to your Wi-Fi devices on the fly. This means you’ll have high-speed Wi-Fi in all of the places you need it most, so you can watch 4K Netflix and make lag-free Zoom calls.
Each unit also has four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a high-speed USB 3.2 port, allowing you to connect an external hard drive or SSD to any (or all) of the stations, and it provides some of the best NAS performance we’ve seen on a mesh Wi-Fi system. Although power users can still use the web interface to access some of the more advanced features, Linksys’ mobile app makes everything simple to set up. Unfortunately, it lacks more advanced anti-malware and parental controls found on many other systems.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: WPA3, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AX4200 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 4 (per unit)
Netgear’s Orbi is still one of the best mesh WI-Fi systems on the market, so it stands to reason that the premium Orbi AX6000 (Check latest price on Amazon) is the way to go if you want to get the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology in a mesh system. You’ll get up to 5,000 square feet of reliable Wi-Fi coverage with consistent fast speeds even in the farthest corners of your home with just two satellite units, and you can easily add more satellite units to extend your range even further.
While it isn’t cheap, it provides unrivaled performance among mesh Wi-Fi systems, capable of delivering Wi-Fi 6 speeds of up to 6Gbps. It’s a tri-band system, like its older Wi-Fi 5 sibling, with the extra 5GHz band dedicated to use as a backhaul channel. This means that you get the same lightning-fast speeds throughout your entire home mesh network—no matter how far away you get from the main router, as long as you’re within range of one of the satellites, you’ll be fine.
Because the dedicated 2.4Gbps channel that runs between each of the satellite units is more than enough for delivering full Gigabit speeds to a wired PC, game console, or smart TV plugged into one or more of the satellite units, the four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back of each satellite unit become even more powerful. A 2.5Gbps WAN port is included to take full advantage of this system’s extremely fast performance. It’s also ready to connect to a multi-gigabit internet service.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: NETGEAR Armor, WPA3, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AX6000 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 4 (per unit)
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Best Parental Controls: TP-Link Archer AX6000 8-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router
The Archer AX6000 (Check latest price on Amazon) was TP-first Link’s router to include advanced Wi-Fi 6 technology, and it remains the company’s flagship router, offering impressive range and speed for a single-unit router, as well as a comprehensive set of security features that don’t require a monthly subscription.
The AX6000 can handle combined speeds of up to 4.8Gbps on its 5GHz frequencies and 1.2Gbps on the 2.4GHz side as a dual-band router. Although the antennas themselves aren’t positionable—they can only be folded down to give the router a flatter profile—it can deliver strong wireless performance throughout a 5,000 square foot living space thanks to its eight fixed beamforming antennas and high-power front-end module (FEM). Around the back of the AX6000 are eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as a 2.5Gbps WAN port for connecting to the fastest broadband plans. The pair of USB ports includes a standard USB-A port that’s joined by a USB-C port, giving you more options for connecting different storage devices, which can be used for sharing files or media or even as a Time Machine server for Apple devices.
The HomeCare security suite, which includes parental controls, anti-malware, and advanced QoS features without the need for a recurring monthly subscription, is what really sets the Archer AX6000 apart. The security side of things is powered by Trend Micro, just like Asus’ AiProtection, but the parental controls are far more sophisticated. You can block websites based on a variety of age groups or simply enter individual websites, as well as set internet access time limits. An intuitive interface on the QoS side allows you to prioritize traffic by type of content, such as gaming or streaming, or by specific devices.
Wireless Spec: 802.11ax | Security: HomeCare, WPA3, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access | Standard/Speed: AX6000 | Bands: Tri-band | MU-MIMO: Yes | Beamforming: Yes | Wired Ports: 8
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The Final Word
The Asus RT-AX88U provides a wealth of advanced features, as well as a large range and fast Wi-Fi 6 performance. However, if you want to cover a larger area without spending a lot of money, the TP-Link Archer C80 is a good option.
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