What is a tri-band router? So that is the topic of this video. Now before we talk about what a tri-band router is, let's talk about what a single and a dual-band router are.
Now Wi-Fi routers broadcast a signal so that wireless devices such as laptops, tablets and phones can connect to, to access the internet. Now, a single-band router will only broadcast a single band and that frequency band is 2. 4 GHz.
And this is what the first wireless routers were, they were single-band routers. Now the 2. 4 GHz band works pretty well but the problem is that when more and more devices connect to the Wi-Fi signal, the signal can become over-crowded and slow down the performance of the Wi-Fi speeds.
And in addition to overcrowding, a lot of other devices, such as microwave ovens, cordless phones, and bluetooth devices also use the 2. 4 GHz band which causes a lot of interference. So to help this problem of overcrowding, they came out with dual-band routers.
And dual-band Wi-Fi routers broadcast two separate Wi-Fi bands. They broadcast the 2. 4 GHz band and they also broadcast the newer 5 GHz band.
So by broadcasting two seperate bands, it's like having two separate networks in one device. So you're going to have some devices connect to the 2. 4 GHz band, which should be primarily your older and slower devices and you're going to have other devices connect to the 5 GHz band which would be your newer and faster devices.
So by separating your connected devices into two separate networks, it would help alleviate the problem of overcrowding and interference. But now they have tri-band routers and as it's name implies, a tri-band router will broadcast three separate bands. It will broadcast a 2.
4 GHz band and it'll also broadcast two separate 5 GHz bands. So by having three seperate bands in one router, you can have three separate networks for your devices to connect to which would help further solve the problem of overcrowding and interference. So, to help illustrate this, you can think of a Wi-Fi band as a freeway.
So if you have a single lane on the freeway for traffic, then it might be okay if only a few cars use that lane. But the problem is when more cars want to use that lane, the freeway is going to be more congested and cause a slowdown. So this would be like a single-band router but if you want to add an extra lane on that freeway for traffic, then the freeway would be less congested because the cars would have more lanes to use to get to their destination.
So this will be like a dual-band router. However, even a two lane highway can get congested if more cars get on the freeway. Now what if you want to add a third lane to that freeway?
So by adding a third lane, then the freeway will be even less congested and the cars will clear faster and help eliminate any slow down caused by excessive traffic. So this example will be like a tri-band router. So in a tri-band router we are going to have three lanes or three bands or three networks for all of the devices.
And this will help dramatically with the performance of your Wi-fi network. And in addition tri-band routers will also have a technology call "smart connect". And "smart connect" is a feature that intelligently assigns each wireless device to a wi-fi band where we can utilize its maximum speed.
So when your devices connect to your tri-band router, smart connect automatically separate your slower devices from your faster devices. So it will put your slower devices on the 2. 4 GHz band.
Now slower devices like older laptops and wireless printers. And it will put your modern and higher speed devices on either one of the 5 GHz bands. So this devices will be like your modern laptops, tablets, phones, gaming consoles, and smart TVs.
So smart connect intelligently chooses the best bands for all of your devices. And by doing this, it will make sure that your network is running at its maximum speed. So who will need a tri-band router?
Well if you have a lot of wireless devices and I would say maybe between 10 and 15, I would highly recommend that you get one. Especially if you have more than 15 because you're gonna see a big different and the performance of your network with a tri-band router. So if you're interested in getting one, I'll put a link in the description below of this video of one that I recommend.
And thank you for watching.