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YSK: The company that sold you a Wi-Fi router probably lied to you about the speed
**Why YSK:**
Suppose you are paying for 400 Mbps internet. Now suppose you also don't want to rent something like the XFi Gateway from your service provider, so you buy your own modem and Wi-Fi router.
Your modem says it can handle speeds up to 1 Gbps, and your Wi-Fi router that you bought says it offers 850 Mbps Wi-Fi speeds. On the surface, this seems like it should allow you to fully use the 400 Mbps internet that you're paying for.
But you run a speed test and never get more than 100 Mbps connection to the internet over Wi-Fi. **Why?**
The true, but probably unhelpful, answer is that it can be any number of things.
But what most people don't know is that the industry standard is to advertise the data transfer speed **within the Wi-Fi network**. So if your router was advertised as providing speeds of 850 Mbps, that means you should be able to transfer data **between two devices on the same network at that speed**, which most people won't ever knowingly do. In fact, most people think this advertised speed is maximum theoretical connection speed to the internet. **This is NOT TRUE.**
The advertised speed on Wi-Fi router boxes is not the number you're probably interested in, ***even though it is often misleadingly listed next to text about gaming and streaming speeds***. If you buy an "850 Mbps" router, there's a really good chance that the ethernet port connecting your router out to the internet is capped at 100 Mbps speed, and you won't find this out without reading the spec sheet. Most people will buy a router like this, test their speeds, find out that they're getting 100 Mbps instead of whatever they're paying for, and then assume that their ISP is ripping them off. But this particular thing may not be your ISP's fault.
**TLDR;**
When buying your own router, don't trust the speed written on the Wi-Fi router box by the manufacturer. If you want a router that can give you connection speed out to the internet of more than 100 Mbps, **look specifically for "Gigabit ethernet" on the routers**. Anything else will fall short. "Fast ethernet" is also bad in this situation, because it is the same as ethernet capped at 100 Mbps.
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**Why YSK:**
Suppose you are paying for 400 Mbps internet. Now suppose you also don't want to rent something like the XFi Gateway from your service provider, so you buy your own modem and Wi-Fi router.
Your modem says it can handle speeds up to 1 Gbps, and your Wi-Fi router that you bought says it offers 850 Mbps Wi-Fi speeds. On the surface, this seems like it should allow you to fully use the 400 Mbps internet that you're paying for.
But you run a speed test and never get more than 100 Mbps connection to the internet over Wi-Fi. **Why?**
The true, but probably unhelpful, answer is that it can be any number of things.
But what most people don't know is that the industry standard is to advertise the data transfer speed **within the Wi-Fi network**. So if your router was advertised as providing speeds of 850 Mbps, that means you should be able to transfer data **between two devices on the same network at that speed**, which most people won't ever knowingly do. In fact, most people think this advertised speed is maximum theoretical connection speed to the internet. **This is NOT TRUE.**
The advertised speed on Wi-Fi router boxes is not the number you're probably interested in, ***even though it is often misleadingly listed next to text about gaming and streaming speeds***. If you buy an "850 Mbps" router, there's a really good chance that the ethernet port connecting your router out to the internet is capped at 100 Mbps speed, and you won't find this out without reading the spec sheet. Most people will buy a router like this, test their speeds, find out that they're getting 100 Mbps instead of whatever they're paying for, and then assume that their ISP is ripping them off. But this particular thing may not be your ISP's fault.
**TLDR;**
When buying your own router, don't trust the speed written on the Wi-Fi router box by the manufacturer. If you want a router that can give you connection speed out to the internet of more than 100 Mbps, **look specifically for "Gigabit ethernet" on the routers**. Anything else will fall short. "Fast ethernet" is also bad in this situation, because it is the same as ethernet capped at 100 Mbps.
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