I can see the new line of routers from ASUS becoming the most desired technology of 2019. Canadians aren’t known to get overly excited about routers and home networking. So long as things keep chugging along, there’s nothing to see here. But that’s going to change this year. Smart home technology, the smartphones we all carry, tablets, PCs and streaming music services all take an increasing toll on Wi-Fi bandwidth. Gaming demands are intense and set to become far more intense with new game streaming services. Add the real bandwidth destroyer—streaming video—and those old ac routers can begin slowing to a crawl. Get ahead of the curve and enter this contest for a chance at home networking nirvana. We are giving away two ASUS Wi-Fi 6 (also known as 802.11ax) routers: the newest and fastest router tech available.
Why? Because you are going to need it!
Slow home networks are a buffering nightmare
Even with 802.11ac routers, many people are finding their home Wi-Fi networks are inexplicably slowing. The dreading spinning buffer wheel is making a unwelcome return.
Streaming video is currently the biggest consumer of home Wi-Fi bandwidth. It’s been steadily rising as services like Netflix began offering 4K content. Just look at the progression of minimum internet connection speeds as Netflix has bumped its streaming resolution. The recommended speed for SD video is 3.0 Mbps, rising to 5.0 Mbps for HD and then 25 Mbps for Ultra HD. Just imagine what’s going to happen when 8K video starts streaming …. If your Wi-Fi router is causing buffering now, the situation is definitely not going to improve unless you replace it.
Think of all the devices in the average home that might be streaming video, sometimes simultaneously. Smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, set-top boxes, consoles—the list keeps growing. Many people are adding connected video cameras to their homes for security. Then there’s voice chat for video games and streaming music services. All that streaming adds up.
Wi-Fi 6 routers like the pair we’re giving away from ASUS leverage Wi-Fi 6 technology for faster overall speed (or available bandwidth) than 802.11ac routers. But their biggest advantage over previous generation routers will become even more evident over the next few years: support for more connected devices.
These are U.S. numbers, but I think it’s safe to say they are representative of Canada as well. When 802.11ac Wi-Fi first arrived on the scene a typical home had five Wi-Fi connected devices. In 2018, that rose to nine connected devices. With the explosion in popularity of smart home devices, the total is predicated to hit 50 within the next few years.
The problem is that 802.11ac routers can only juggle so many simultaneously connected devices before the network starts to bog down under the demand. The new generation of Wi-Fi 6 routers employ various new technologies to communicate with more connected devices simultaneously. That means your home Wi-Fi network will be faster and more responsive, even as the number of connected devices continues to grow. If you want to learn more about the tech behind Wi-Fi 6 (and why it’s still sometimes referred to as 802.11ax), be sure to read our explainer on the topic.
New Gaming technology will need great Wi-Fi
While video gets the nod for gobbling up the most Wi-Fi bandwidth in typical homes and smart devices are a big part of the growing congestion issue, in some ways gaming can be even more demanding. Not only do online games use significant bandwidth, but speed is critical. Any lag between your gaming PC or game console and the game server can mean the difference between victory and a frustrating defeat. The key to reducing latency is your Wi-Fi router, which manages the traffic between whatever you’re gaming on and the internet-based game server—along with every other Wi-Fi connected device in your home.
Video games also have bursts of extremely high bandwidth demand. Patches and game downloads can be hundreds of GB in size. With a router that’s struggling, those downloads can seem to take forever.
The future of gaming is increasingly online, whether that’s multi-player console and PC games, digital downloads, or what may become the most demanding of all: streaming gaming services.
Yes, streaming. We’ve had a taste of this already with services like Sony’s PlayStation Now, but streaming gaming is going to hit the mainstream in 2019 with Google’s new Stadia platform (covered here by Plug-in’s Jon Scarr). Managing 4K, 60fps action that’s hosted on Google’s web servers and played on local devices means a huge amount of data—both uploads and downloads—is going to be hitting your Wi-Fi router, and at a frenetic pace. This is exactly the scenario that Wi-Fi 6 is going to address.
To make the most of current, coming in 2019, and future gaming technology, you’re going to need the latest generation of routers, with Wi-Fi 6 support.
New routers from ASUS ensures your home is future friendly
Now that the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 are clear, it’s time to get to specifics. Best Buy is giving away two amazing Wi-Fi 6 routers from ASUS, both of which have been positively reviewed by Plug-in contributors.
First up is the ASUS RT-AX88U Dual-Band Gigabit router. This Wi-Fi 6 router offers up to 6000Mbps of bandwidth, making it over twice the speed of most current 802.11ac routers. Besides speed, it employs the latest implementations of MU-MIMO and OFDMA technology, giving it four times the network capacity and efficiency—in other words, you can connect far more devices and still enjoy faster, lower latency Wi-Fi. Gamers will appreciate the fact this router also includes adaptive QoS and built-in wtfast support, to optimize online gaming. You can read Steven Hill’s review of the router here.
Next is the mighty ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Tri-Band gaming router. If you live and breathe video games, this is the Wi-Fi 6 router you want. One of its 5GHz bands is dedicated to gaming traffic, and if you prefer to go wired there’s a wicked fast 2.5Gbps Ethernet port (in addition to Gigabit Ethernet ports). A powerful 1.8GHz quad-core CPU does the heavy lifting, and gaming traffic is automatically accelerated from the device to the game server for a superior experience. This ASUS router also offers all the big Wi-Fi 6 wins, including blistering speed (combined throughput of up to 11000Mbps) and support for four times the simultaneous connected devices. With its array of eight external antennas, the ROG Rapture can also blast that high performance Wi-Fi across even large homes. To learn more about the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, be sure to read Chris Loblaw’s review.
Both of these new routers also support ASUS AiMesh, an optional feature that can turn them into a whole-home mesh Wi-Fi network when used with a compatible ASUS router.
So how about it? If your Wi-Fi network isn’t already underperforming, odds are you’ll be cursing it before too long. Enter the contest and you could win one of these two ASUS Wi-Fi 6 routers and start enjoying the ultimate in cutting-edge Wi-Fi performance.
HOW TO ENTER
Entering is easy but you can only enter once. In a comment below this post tell us which bandwidth hogging technology in your home will benefit the most from one of the new ASUS routers. Perhaps it’s video streaming Netflix; or it might be you want to be ready when Google Stadia is available later this year!
WHAT YOU CAN WIN
At the end of this contest we will randomly select two eligible entries to receive a new ASUS router. One person will win the ASUS RT-AX88U Dual-Band Gigabit router and the other winner will get the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Tri-Band gaming router. They are both amazing prizes that will make your home network ready for 2019 and beyond.
This contest runs from March 22nd until April 8th.
You can only enter once, but you can tell your family and friends about this contest. Do you think they could benefit from faster Wi-Fi in their homes? Remember, that means you will also have a better Wi-Fi experience when you visit them …. If so, let them know so they too can enter.
Win an ASUS Wi-Fi 6 Router Contest Rules and Regulations
Good Luck!
| We frequently have many contests running at Best Buy so check out the “contests in progress” page for more great contests to enter. |
My daughter streaming video and at the same time doing her homework.
With two xbox one consoles, one xbox 360, one Nintendo switch, five iphones and two ipads this would be so awesome to have!!
No more buffering. It’s so irritating and this could be the answer.
Not my fault there’s 2 comments. Sorry disregard one of them. The system it told me the first one didn’t go through.
This would help my signal from so much buffering. It’s so irritating and this could be the answer.
Streaming movies to my XBOX!
So I can stream my movies without annoying the rest of family by slowing their Internet.
My wife loves streaming videos on her tablet.
I will as I’ll be able to stream my movie while the kids watch (stream) there’.
I will benefit from it. My kids doing homework on there laptops/ipads, my wife doing her work and I’m the one holding back till the’re done.
My poor son has his Xbox One on the Wifi upstairs and I am pretty positive this would solve his lag issues.
I would have to say Netflix and video gaming for my kids are the biggest reasons to need this router in my life. Even though i have the fastest internet connection that my community has to offer, we still find it very slow at times. this router could change our lives for the better since life already is a hard task on its own. I would love to win such a gift
The bandwidth hogging technology in my home is definitely Netflix. These routers would help so much.
Video streaming definitely eats up the most bandwidth at home.
One of these new ASUS routers would help when trying to watch a movie on Netflix. It would make the movie faster to load!
WHATCHING NETFLIX
Frustrated with the spinning wheel on Netflix
Definitely streaming…but just my wifes old laptop. She needs a serious upgrade.
The bandwidth hogging technology in my home that will benefit the most from one of the new ASUS routers would probably be our streaming TV service or the online play of our 3 children on either their computers or the xbox one.
3 laptops being used every evening for work and/or school (University) assignments, 3 smart tv’s with streaming. All this on 3 floors. A good router would certainly be useful
My cat’s livestream needs better wifi to keep her connected as she moves through the house.
I need to keep my cat’s livestream up and running, she has a growing following and the wifi needs to reach her harness mounted camera
video streaming Netflix would be great!
Definitely streaming Netflix!!
Nothing more annoying than buffering porn! Need this router!
Definitely all the online gaming my husband and I do
fantastic for netflix
Streaming ,movies, Netflix, working , study
Multiple, and I really mean MULTIPLE devices are streaming Netflix all the time. I really hate when my 2.4 Ghz drops, hopefully this helps! Yay Netflix!
This would be wonderful on times family visits, and they visit a lot.
Some are using Netflix, and the teens social media! It would be a really great addition in the house as a fast router!
Video streaming Netflix
Definitely streaming. Netflix.
This would give us faster streaming for videos.
Definitely streaming videos and gaming!
Streaming Netflix
My husband’s laptop is always hogging all of our family’s bandwidth. Sometimes he tells me to STOP using my tablet so that he can finish doing whatever he is doing!
Streaming movies
Streaming
We can’t get strong enough wifi at the master bedroom, which limits our streaming…
Netflix
7 person household with at least 2 devices each using internet at same time. Streaming videos(YouTube, Netflix…etc) is always slow. This would help a lot over the provided modem/router combo provided by Cogeco.
Streaming movies!
Taking over the multiverse.
My daughter on Netflicks
Watching Netflix and streaming from Plex.
Definitely gaming. While my PS4 is hooked up over ethernet, I play my Switch on Wi-Fi. Having a faster router would definitely help out!
My teenage daughter loves to game and chat on something called Discord. The husband like to watch his Youtube on the tablet. Myself, I stream movies and my favorite shows which always gets affected and buffers. This would be a blessing to have. Thanks Best Buy for this wonderful opportunity and good luck to everyone!
Streaming/Gaming/Work
Multiple Gadgets running simultaneously, TV, ipads, iphones, 2 laptops and 1 home computer. All of which are running wirelessly, the two device that would benefit from the straight input would be my home computer and nvidia shield tv box.
A lot of running electronics, some would say my home is a wireless hub in itself.
I have kids who each have their own gaming systems which directly impact streaming content as well. To make everyone happy the ASUS ROG Rapture would be the perfect solution for my family
Watching Netflix
Streaming
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