[Janis]

at our current location   we are stuck with Charter Spectrum   I have made them unhappy because I didn't buy their router (told other brands won't work)!   I have look at review at pcmag.com, an there are three I would consider except they are not described as cable routers.  Is this  a problem?    What should I look for in choosing a wi fi router for the system?   

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My suggestion would to use a separate cable modem and wi-fi router so as to not be limited in having it be a cable modem as well.

[Kemasa]

My suggestion would to use a separate cable modem and wi-fi router so as to not be limited in having it be a cable modem as well.

[Janis]

Charter Spectrum  Requires their modem but would sell a poor quality router to add in.  You can buy a separate router but not sure what to look for .

[SpywareDr]

Correct, use Charter Spectrum's cable modem, then hook up one of these routers to it in order to connect all of your internet-capable devices:

PCMag.com > The Best Wireless Routers of 2017

Edited by SpywareDr, 22 January 2017 - 10:08 AM.

[Janis]

PC mag was helpful somewhat.   I looked at their suggestions at various shopping sites and found not all buyers were pleased.   When searching for a router for a household of only three users, what is the simplest one to use?   Is an USB port necessary?  

[SpywareDr]

If there were one "perfect" router, everyone would buy it and its competitors would soon disappear.

 

A USB port is not 'necessary', no. Sure comes in handy though if you have a USB printer or hard drive that everyone on your local network would like to share.

[Kemasa]

I have a perfect router, at least for me :-).

 

Even if there was one perfect router, not everyone would buy it unless it is really cheap :-).

 

You need to decide what you want/need. The router that I use is by Cradlepoint and can connect to wifi as WAN. This is really useful when the main Internet connection goes out so that I can use a broadband wireless hotspot to replace the connection. Now, it is not as useful as it used to be because I changed Internet providers. If you don't have a hotspot, then this router would not be all that useful to you. Also, I have older computers which don't have wifi, including a laptop, so it is far more useful to me. You can also use it to connect another part of the house without running a cable, which I sometimes do, but a cable tends to work better.

 

I used to use a SMC router which was really nice as it had a parallel port on it so that it was easy to share a printer. This was nice in part because I normally use Linux, but sometimes use Windoze. The problem is that when I updated my Internet connection it seems that the router was speed limited and using a HPjet direct box bypassed the nice feature it had, so it went into the pile of old equipment.

 

So make a list of what might be useful to you and then look at routers to see if it has those features. Sometimes it might be cheaper to go with two devices rather than having everything in one (ie. HPjet direct). If you don't need the feature, chances are that in the future it will be cheaper and there will be new features that you might want, so only get what you need today.

[Janis]

^{The decision now is where to purchase.   After reading reviews by Consumer reports,  it sounds like the ASUS RT 1200 would suffice.   Frys Electroics has the best price but they don't list shipping costs or return policy   Amazon and newegg have the same router at about twenty dollars more.   Should I stick with a company I know?   Is the RT 1200 truly easy to installA?}