iPad becomes so popular today. With iPad you can browse the internet, read your email, watch and preview the video and download to your video library, catch up on your favorite TV shows and so on. To allow your iPad get in touch with the web, it needs to connect to the Wi-Fi network because iPad is equipped with the Wi-Fi for communication to the Webs. In homes, you need to build a wireless network to share the internet wirelessly. And the heart of the wireless network in homes is the wireless router. Now, how to choose the best one for iPad?
To answer how to choose the best router for iPad, firstly you need to know the Wi-Fi adapter the iPad is embedded with and how well the adapter will work best for the iPad applications. Secondly, you need to choose the wireless router that supports the best performance for the iPad applications.
iPad is powered with wireless n technology and is compliant with 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless standards. It means that iPad is powered by dual-band technology. Wireless 802.11n technology is the latest and the fastest wireless technology available in the market today. Dual-band technology supports both 2.4 GHz (802.11 b/g/n) and 5 GHz (802.11a) frequency bands. It also equipped with Bluetooth 2.1 plus EDR technology, but nothing to do with your router. With the 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless technology the iPad supports, your router must be able to support the 802.11 a/b/g/n technology. This means your router should support the same technology for optimum data throughput: wireless n dual-band technology.
With wireless n dual-band technology, the router provides high-speed and clean wireless when using the 5 GHz frequency band. iPad works well in streaming the video preview and downloading media when your Wi-Fi environment delivers high-performance network: high-speed, jitter-free video and lag-free gaming. To deliver high-performance network, your router should support the Quality of Service (QoS) prioritization engine technology. With QoS, the router can analyze and separate the traffic into multiple data streams and categorize them by sensitivity to delay. Applications like video streaming, VoIP and gaming are given priority over web browsing.
The best wireless router for iPad should support the wireless n dual-band technology with Quality of Services technology. The following are couple of the best wireless routers for iPad.
Netgear WNDR37AV
NETGEAR WNDR37AV gigabit router is designed for high performance wireless network for streaming video and gaming. Wndr37AV is powered with the final version of the wireless 802.11n technology with dual-band feature. WNDR37AV support the Video mode, wireless multimedia (WMM) based QoS to optimize HD video streaming without glitches, stutters, or lags. The router is powered by 680MHz powerful MIPS 32-bit processor which is powerful in delivering high-performance wireless environment. This makes the router to become one of the best ones for iPad.
Other features, the router includes gigabit ports: 4 Gigabit ports for Ethernet LAN, one gigabit WAN port for connection to the modem, and one USB port with ReadyShare technology for storage access. The other benefit with this router is that WNDR37AV is compliant with DLNA media.
Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station
Providing the wireless environment for iPad using the wireless router from the same vendor Apple is good for the compatibility. Even though iPad works well with wireless environment using high-performance routers from different vendors, having the devices from the same vendor is better for technical support services.
AirPort Extreme is powered by the wireless n technology with dual-band technology. It can deliver the high-performance wireless environment to support up to 50 clients in sharing the internet connections and it also supports Mac OS X or Windows. The router also supports the QoS for better video streaming. Airport Extreme includes 3 gigabit Ethernet ports, one Gigabit WAN port, and one USB port. With USB port, you can add USB hub to allow you connect USB printer and USB storage for sharing.
You can also consider other high-performance routers for fast response and smooth video streaming such as Linksys E-3000 wireless gigabit router, Belkin Max Play, WNDR3400 N600 router, and new D Link N450 DIR665.
Best wireless router for iPad demands high-performance wireless environment in delivering clean wireless network, high-speed, and Quality of Service. The router should support wireless n technology with dual band supports, and the Quality of Service for multimedia traffic prioritization.
By Ki Grinsing
