The Best Wireless Router For Streaming In 2024

Harlan Ellison By, Harlan Ellison
Updated
Best Wireless Router For Streaming
Best Wireless Router For Streaming

The Rundown

1. Best Overall: NETGEAR 4-Stream WiFi 6 Router

The NETGEAR 4-Stream WiFi 6 Router is the perfect solution for your home networking needs. It offers fast AX1800 Gigabit speeds with WiFi 6 technology, allowing you to stream HD videos, play online games, and hold web conferences without interruption. Read Review

2. Runner Up: Tenda AC2100 Smart WiFi Router

The Tenda AC2100 Smart WiFi Router offers fast, reliable, and secure connections for up to 40 devices. It is designed to handle the demands of streaming videos, gaming, surfing the internet, IPTV, linking intelligent home devices, and more. Read Review

3. Best Efficient: TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router

This TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router delivers up to 5400 Mbps for faster browsing, streaming, gaming, and downloading, all at the same time. With advanced WiFi 6 technology, this router ensures reliable connections even in the busiest home networks. Read Review

4. Best Quality: ASUS AC1200 WiFi Router

The ASUS AC1200 WiFi Router is a powerful router designed for maximum range and performance. This router offers a powerful and fast wireless connection with a full range of up to 3000 Sq Ft. Read Review

5. Best Technology: NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream Router

The NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream Router offers exceptional performance and coverage for your home network needs. This powerful router offers fast AX5400 Gigabit speed with WiFi 6 technology to provide uninterrupted streaming, HD video gaming, and web conferencing. Read Review

Are you looking for the best wireless router for streaming? If so, you're in luck. With technological advances, streaming has become increasingly popular, and many routers are available to help you get the most out of your streaming experience. Whether you're streaming movies, TV shows, music, or online gaming, you need a fast, reliable, and secure router—the best wireless routers for streaming offer a combination of speed, range, and security.

The router must be able to handle the bandwidth demands of streaming and provide a strong signal that can reach every corner of your house. It should also have the latest security features to protect your network from hackers and malicious actors. With so many options available, it can take time to determine which router is the best for streaming. This guide will provide a comprehensive overview of the features to look for in a good wireless router for streaming to help you choose the right one for your needs.

Our team had to focus on researching and sifting through 17 hours to get such results for readers. As a result, we believe the best wireless router for streaming is NETGEAR 4-Stream WiFi 6 Router. This router offers 1.8 Gbps speed to enjoy a seamless streaming experience without lag. You can also check out the Tenda AC2100 Smart WiFi Router. If you're seeking additional options and more in-depth advice, check out the following buying guide & FAQs.

Our Top Picks

TOP Choice #1 NETGEAR 4-Stream WiFi 6 Router
Our Score:
9.8
NETGEAR

If you're seeking a router that can support numerous devices while conducting bandwidth-intensive tasks such as online gaming, video streaming, or video conferencing, look no further than this one. This router surpasses standard models by up to 1.5 times in performance, achieving a maximum speed of 1.8Gbps, and can accommodate up to 20 high-tech household devices. Additionally, this router is tailored to 1G connections, ensuring fast upload and download speeds.

Aside from impressive speeds, this router offers advanced security features that protect all linked devices from potential cyber threats. Parents can also easily monitor their children's online activity, thanks to advanced parental controls that come standard. Furthermore, setting up this router is a breeze with the Nighthawk app, which offers sophisticated WiFi features like remote network access, speed testing, and internet pausing. However, the app doesn't provide the functionality to track data usage. 

TOP Choice #2 Tenda AC2100 Smart WiFi Router
Our Score:
9.6
Tenda

Are you ready for the ultimate WiFi experience? Tenda AC19 has got you covered. With 802.11ac wave2 technology, this router provides lightning-fast WiFi speeds of up to 2033Mbps (2.4 GHz: 300Mbps, 5GHz: 1733 Mbps) that ensure top-notch performance for your fiber internet connection. With support for up to 40 devices, it's perfect for households with multiple gadgets and is optimized for streaming videos, gaming, and surfing the internet. Also, you can easily link smart home devices and manage your network with the Tenda WiFi app.

Not only does the AC19 offer exceptional WiFi coverage with 4-6dBi external antennas, four data streams of 5Ghz band, and a built-in signal amplifier technology on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, delivering optimized long-range WiFi and a better 5GHz WiFi signal. Additionally, the router features a multi-function USB interface that allows for easy storage sharing and more. You can connect the hard disk and share movies and photos with family and friends effortlessly. Unfortunately, this router may occasionally drop signals sometimes. 

TOP Choice #3 TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router
Our Score:
9.4
TP-Link

Experience lightning-fast WiFi speeds with TP-Link's advanced router that connects multiple devices seamlessly. With its exceptional performance, you can enjoy high-quality streaming, gaming, and downloading of large files. It boasts a maximum WiFi speed of up to 5400 Mbps and provides an uninterrupted connection throughout your home, from every corner to every room. This router is designed to provide optimal coverage and an exceptional range thanks to its cutting-edge technology, including High-Power FEM, 6dBi Antennas, and 4T4R structures. 

Moreover, its USB 3.0 connector also enables fast and easy data transfer to the cloud. TP-Link's top-notch security measures protect your network and IoT devices, giving you peace of mind. While the initial setup can be a bit challenging, this device's impressive performance makes up for it. It's the perfect choice for those who need a fast and reliable connection to cater to their bandwidth-intensive needs.

4 ASUS AC1200 WiFi Router
Our Score:
9.2
ASUS

Get ready to achieve unparalleled internet speeds with the Asus wireless router, designed to cater to all your connectivity needs. This device offers uninterrupted and blazing-fast wireless performance, covering an impressive 3000 square feet range, ensuring seamless browsing, gaming, and streaming. Also, dual-band Wi-Fi with speeds of up to 300 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 867 Mbps on the 5GHz band ensures you can do everything you need without lag.

Moreover, this router has four Gigabit LAN ports that are ten times faster than standard Ethernet connections, enabling you to connect multiple devices simultaneously. It also features a USB 2.0 port, which provides network file-sharing through the ASUS AiDisk feature, allowing you to share files locally or remotely. Furthermore, the ASUSWRT dashboard UI makes setting up and managing your router easy, while the four external antennas offer extensive coverage and exceptional multi-device performance. Nevertheless, the router's instructions could be better. 

5 NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream Router
Our Score:
9.1
NETGEAR

Covering an extensive area of up to 2,500 square feet and supporting up to 25 devices, this router can provide uninterrupted high-speed connectivity. With cutting-edge WiFi 6 technology, you can enjoy reliable, high-speed streaming, gaming, and video conferencing connectivity. This device is compatible with any internet service provider up to 1Gbps, replacing your existing WiFi router by connecting to your cable modem. Four 1G Ethernet ports also enable you to connect multiple devices, including computers, game consoles, and streaming players.

Furthermore, the 3.0 USB port feature allows sharing of storage drives with connected devices, creating personal cloud storage accessible from anywhere. With NETGEAR Smart Parental Controls, monitoring your family's online activity is effortless. With these features, you can promote healthy internet habits and build trust with your children by ensuring your family's safety and security online. The only drawback is that the user interface may occasionally respond slowly.

6 ASUS WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX3000)
Our Score:
8.9
ASUS

If you're searching for a dependable solution to your home internet problems, the ASUS RT-AX3000 WiFi 6 Router could be the answer. This cutting-edge router boasts advanced WiFi 6 technology, including features like OFDMA and MU-MIMO, resulting in speeds up to 2.7 times faster than previous models. The router's expansive coverage range of up to 3000 sq ft guarantees that all your devices will have a fast and stable connection.

Moreover, this router comes with innovative parental controls and AiMesh technology, allowing you to establish a secure mesh WiFi system with other compatible ASUS AiMesh routers and manage your family's internet usage from your mobile device. With these advanced features, the ASUS RT-AX3000 WiFi 6 Router is an excellent choice for those who upgrade their home network and enjoy reliable, high-speed WiFi connectivity. The only minor flaw of this device is that it may be hard to set up for some. 

7 TP-Link AX3000 WiFi 6 Router
Our Score:
8.8
TP-Link

This state-of-the-art router is perfect for those seeking high-speed, uninterrupted wireless connectivity. It offers lightning-fast speeds of up to 2402 Mbps on 5 GHz and 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz bands, simultaneously allowing multiple downloads and video streams. Its advanced technology is designed to provide a more responsive experience, minimizing latency and jittering while allowing various people to share one band simultaneously. Also, the innovative OFDMA feature ensures efficient communication between devices, which consumes less power, improving battery life.

Moreover, you can enjoy seamless Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home with its four high-gain external antennas and Beamforming technology, which extends reliable Wi-Fi throughout your home, even in those hard-to-reach areas. Furthermore, its improved cooling design cools the system. It lets your network stay at top speeds in more versatile environments, making it the perfect device for large families, gamers, and streamers. Also, with its compatibility with Amazon Alexa, you can control the router via voice commands, making your life more innovative and convenient. Nonetheless, the WAN port of this device may be slow. 

8 Linksys Mesh Wifi 6 Router
Our Score:
8.7
Linksys

Sets up in minutes with the easy to use Linksys App

Future-proof and easily expandable, simply add Linksys Mesh products to expand coverage throughout your home

Amazon exclusive extended 18 month warranty

NETGEAR Armor protects your family's WiFi with an automatic shield of security across all your connected devices with a 30-day free trial

Powerful 1.8GHz quad-core processor gives you exceptional 10.8Gbps WiFi speed, 9x faster than WiFi 5. Backward compatible for all WiFi devices on 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands

Coverage up to 3,500 sq. ft. and 60 devices

Setup in a few Clicks: With the 'Speedy WiFi' app or webpage, setup and managing the network is completely hassle-free. Setup your new router in a few clicks or taps.

Build Secure Network: There is no worry about the WiFi security with the WPA2-PSK encryption and SPI firewall. Real-time detection keeps no threats, no intrusion.

Diversified Functions: Parental control allows to easily manage your child's Internet access. Guest network keeps your visitors in separate WiFi. AP mode enables the router may also work as range extender.

Pro WiFi Experience: Build high power WiFi network with Speedefy K8 WiFi router. Dual band WiFi 5 up to 2100 Mbps, no pressure on surfing Internet, gaming and streaming 4K video.

Powerful Performance: Dual-core CPU, 4x high gain antennas with 4X4 MU-MIMO technology, and Beamforming, max 2000 sq.ft WiFi coverage, support up to 35 devices. Create a stable Internet with no signal dead ends.

Product Images, Product Titles, Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API

What to Look for When Selecting best wireless router for streaming?

There are numerous factors for customers to consider whenever they decide to buy a best wireless router for streaming. Simultaneously, it comes with many product types and brands, which makes it difficult for you to choose yourself. Thus, we are here to give you support, guidance, and solutions to these problems. Our buying guide will highlight some most outstanding features related to the best wireless router for streaming of 2024.

Nowadays, the number of technology sale networks, especially websites, sale forums, or even the online space for customers’ comments, has been dramatically increased. So, you can quickly obtain information on best wireless router for streaming available on these sources. 

Along with reading the update of best wireless router for streaming on famous websites, you are also expected to go through some needed things below to make a great decision.

WiFi Standards

As of early 2021, the tech world is starting to transition away from the WiFi standard known as WiFi 5 and towards WiFi 6, which is faster and boasts better support for more devices connected at the same time. Older, WiFi 5-certified devices like smartphones and laptops can still be used with WiFi 6 routers, but you won’t receive the full benefits of WiFi 6 unless the device you are using is certified for the new standard. For more information on WiFi 6, be sure to read this article.

USB Ports

USB ports on a router are used for connecting to a flash drive, an external hard drive, or a USB printer if the router has a built-in print server.

Quality Of Service

Wireless Routers offer a great way to optimize the performance of your computer. You can change the router's settings to work best for streaming videos, making Skype calls, playing games, or streaming music. This will give those applications more of the bandwidth—so, for example, your Netflix movie doesn't pause and rebuffer because someone in your house is downloading a large file.

LAN Ports

Many internet-connected smart home devices, such as Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings products, require a LAN port-connected hub to function. If you need more LAN ports than the router has, you can expand the number available by adding an Ethernet switch. This is sort of like a power strip that adds open Ethernet ports.

Booster Club

When it comes to wireless routers, most ISPs offer several tiers of service. If you’re ever in a situation where you need more speed for streaming or gaming, you can always upgrade your service. A connection speed of around 200 megabits per second should be able to handle a family’s worth of activities like this.

Security

To secure your router, you should use the latest available encryption standard. This is likely WPA2 or WPA3, depending on the age of your router. You’ll need to enter the password just once into each wireless device you use; afterward, the device will remember it.

App-Based Management

Every new router comes with apps meant to simplify the task of setting up and making adjustments to your WiFi network. The apps make it easier than ever before to monitor which devices are connected to your network and adjust which devices get priority. These apps can also alert you when an update is available for your router.

FAQs

What is the best router for streaming?

The best router for streaming will depend on your specific needs. Generally, you'll want a router that can provide a robust and reliable Wi-Fi signal with a good range and support for the latest wireless standards and protocols. Additionally, you may want to look for features such as MU-MIMO and QoS for better streaming performance.

What is MU-MIMO and why is it important for streaming?

MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output) is a wireless technology allowing a router to serve multiple devices simultaneously. It can help improve streaming performance, allowing for more efficient use of the router's bandwidth and reducing interference from other devices on the same network.

What type of wireless router do I need for streaming?

The type of router you need for streaming will depend on the streaming you are doing. If you are streaming video, you should look for a router that offers 802.11ac technology, a dual-band frequency of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and at least four Gigabit Ethernet ports. If you are streaming audio, you may be able to get away with a router that offers fewer features.

What is the best router for streaming?

The best router for streaming will depend on your specific needs. Generally, you'll want a router that can provide a robust and reliable Wi-Fi signal with a good range and support for the latest wireless standards and protocols. Additionally, you may want to look for features such as MU-MIMO and QoS for better streaming performance.


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About Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison is a writer and audio equipment enthusiast. He's particularly interested in home theater HiFi audio, and he has been the editor of The Audio Insights since its inception. Harlan is known for his sharp wit and scathing critiques, but he also has a great love of music and audio gear. When he's not writing or editing, Harlan can be found listening to music or watching movies with his wife.