Purchasing a router is an important step in establishing a fast, dependable, and secure corporate internet connection. It might be tough to find the correct router for your small business because there are so many consumer and business routers available – but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve cut through the technical language, from VLANs to VPNs, to develop this simple guide to finding the best small business router!
Is a consumer router adequate for my company?
While top-tier consumer routers are capable of great performance, they lack the security, scalability, and other features found in small business routers. Specialized business routers provide sophisticated data protection, remote access, and a variety of productivity-enhancing capabilities, and they’re a sensible and inexpensive investment for any small business, with costs starting at under £100.
Do I require wireless or wired connectivity?
It’s a good idea to figure out which form of connectivity would work best for your company before purchasing a router. You may get top-tier functionality at the lowest feasible price by picking a router that specialises in either wireless or wired communication.
If you have a small firm with a few employees, wired connectivity may be a more convenient and cost-effective choice. Look for routers that provide powerful Ethernet capabilities. Routers that specialise on WiFi connectivity will provide the best value and usefulness if you have several employees or appreciate the freedom of wireless networking.
Dual-WAN or Single-WAN
Insert shortcode another option to consider when deciding which wireless router would best meet your company’s requirements: dual WAN. A single WAN port is provided to all wireless routers, which links your small company to the Internet. However, if one port fails, your small firm would lose access to numerous additional locations, as well as any personnel who work remotely.
A dual WAN industrial routers ensures reliable connectivity by providing a second Internet connection. It’s also great for enterprises with mission-critical applications that can’t afford network downtime. If your network has a lot of traffic, you may utilise the dual WAN feature as a load-balancing feature to relieve traffic congestion.
How many staff are expected to use the router?
Wireless routers, at their most basic level, allow your employees to connect to the business network without the use of a lot of wires and connections. Your team will be able to access the network as if it were hardwired as long as they are within range of the router’s wireless signal. A router’s range, however, has a limit.
It’s important investing in a router with a range large enough to cover your entire workplace if you have numerous employees or plan to hire in the near future. A Wireless Distribution System (or WDS) is included in some versions, making it simple to deploy signal repeaters at key locations across your business.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) enable remote access to your workplace network, allowing employees to access corporate resources whether on the move, at home, or from another location. Most corporate routers can handle between 5 and 100 employees, allowing for readily scaled VPNs in a secure environment.
What level of security do I require from my router?
For security-conscious small businesses, wireless networking may be a significant headache. The majority of consumer routers employ insecure VPNs, making it difficult to safeguard and protect important corporate information. Thankfully, corporate routers prioritise data security in their design, safeguarding virtual networks with SSL encryption.
In practise, this means that anyone trying to connect to your business network will have to go via a secure website gateway, which will need user login and password authentication. Many commercial routers also serve as a firewall, providing full protection against brute force, DoS, DDoS, and network assaults, as well as a slew of other obnoxious acronyms and online dangers.
Do I want network traffic to be separated?
Many business routers make it simple to construct virtual networks (VLANs) within your local network if you want to take security a step further. This allows business owners to split their traffic and data, ensuring that sensitive information from one part of the company is kept separate from the rest of the network. Even entry-level devices enable this feature, making it simple to keep your personal information separate from the rest of the company.
What router throughput do I require?
Wireless routers are used to transmit data between your local devices and the internet (also known as the Wide Area Network, or WAN) (or Local Area Network, or LAN). Your router’s throughput — the pace at which data is sent from one network to another – determines how fast it can accomplish this. Despite high-performance computers and fast corporate broadband, throughput might be the ‘weak link’ of internet connections, slowing down your internet connection.
Do I require VoIP Quality of Service support?
Fast internet speeds and sufficient capacity are required for some online applications. Quality of Service (QoS) support allows these apps to be prioritised, ensuring that critical applications always have enough bandwidth. This feature is ideal for small organisations that use VoIP and video calling often, since it ensures consistent call and picture quality.
A business router is necessary if your company needs ultrafast internet connections and dependable, secure communication. Wireless routers are sometimes the ‘weak link’ in internet connections, so investing in a small business router can help your company get the most out of its connection.
Network of Visitors
It’s fairly unusual for visitors or clients to ask for access to the company’s wireless network so they may surf the web or check their email on their own laptop. The issue is that in order to fulfil that request, you must either configure their PC directly or supply them with the network passkey, which poses a security risk.
The guest network functionality allows you to give anyone access to your wireless network while restricting access to your main network. This method of isolating guest activities gives an extra degree of protection to your personal data and small business network traffic while also providing a pleasant and friendly environment for your visitors or clients.
Conclusion
One of the drawbacks of utilising WEP, WPA, or WPA2 to protect your wireless small business network is that these protocols encrypt wireless communication between your PC and the router using a passphrase. While this degree of encryption may be sufficient for most users, small organisations can increase the security of their wireless networks by introducing a RADIUS server into their network environment.
