What Does a Router Do?
First of all, let us have a quick idea about the router. A router can be defined as a channel that routes traffic among a device and the internet. Thus, if you are in your house or office and need to connect the internet on your phone or computer, the router would do the job.
Usually, at houses or offices, devices that need an internet connection to work with include personal computers, smartphones, printers, tablets, smart TV’s and a router can cover all these and let them access the internet at ease, thus creating a network.
When there are several devices connected to the router, it makes it a challenge to provide instant and correct information that a good router can successfully manage.
Modem
A modem’s work is to bring an internet connection to your place from your internet service provider. After that, it connects with the router, thus providing smooth internet to your connected devices at home or workplace.
Switch
For any network, switches are key building blocks. They connect a variety of devices within the same building. The devices they provide connectivity to include personal computers, smartphones, and a server enabling them to talk to each other and to share information.
There are two types of switches, unmanageable switches, and manageable switches. In unmanageable switches, there is no need for configuration.
All you have to do is plug them in, and they work while that’s not the case in manageable switches. Manageable switches always need configuration as they provide more features, greater security, and flexibility.
WAP (Wireless Access Point)
A wireless access point, commonly called as AP (access point) is a device that lets other wifi devices get connected to a wired network. They form a local area network known as WLAN.
Wireless routers work with stand-alone AP units and give connectivity to home networking. When you go online by using your laptop or tablet, the device works through an access point to access the internet without using a cable.
Does Having Two Routers Slow Down the Router?
When a router connects to a modem, it provides faster internet activity. If a second router is on the ethernet side of the gateway router, it would be able to route at ethernet speed.
In that case, using two routers should not slow down your network connectivity, but if it does, there might be several factors that you need to look for better connectivity.
1. Too Many Users
If there are multiple users in a home connected to a single router, network connectivity goes down because all of them are receiving, sharing, or sending information at a particular time. You need to fix the number of users connected to single connectivity.
2. Using Powerline or Wi-Fi Extensions
A little box, Wi-fi extender is a device that connects to the power socket. Using Wi-Fi extenders assists in providing Wi-Fi connectivity to another corner of the house. These devices do nothing but adding on interference and making situations worse.
3. Heavily Congested Wi-Fi Channels
Wi-Fi channels might get heavily congested because your router gets surrounded by hundreds of other network channels, and the available frequency bandwidth is too less for all the channels to get connected.
Try to change the channel number for better connectivity experience. For this, use modern routers that picks the best connection for your channel.
4. Problematic Devices
The devices connected to a wired connection might be a source of poor network connectivity in your home. If you’re facing such an issue or having these devices in your home and work area, one suggestion is that you need to unplug all those devices to get rid of connection problems.
5. Slow Server
All internet packages, regardless of what you’re paying for, use a domain name system – also called DNS. Every time you type a web address in the browser, you use a DNS.
It’s more like a phonebook and translates the physical IP of the server it is located on to the human-readable web domain. Using DNS is not only unreliable but slow too. You need to change your DNS settings for better connectivity.
6. Too Many Devices
It might be possible that the number of devices connected to a single router is greater than its connectivity limit. Our homes are full of several internet filled devices like smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.
Each of these uses a Wi-Fi network – thus limiting the availability and reducing the speed of the connection. Upgrade your connection to a newer router model.
7. Signal Interference
The most important factor affecting the speed of your network depends on the placement of the router. Signals get distorted when they strike with the buildings.
Routers transmit signals at a frequency of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Among these, the 5Ghz network is faster and provides better connectivity to your devices when they linked to a Wi-Fi router. But a thick concrete wall or floor can stop the entire signals coming from 5Ghz frequency.
8. Network Cables
An important factor in the down activity of the network is of network cables. The older they get, the slower the connectivity they provide.
The easiest way to check a cable about its age is to look at the Cat number specifications. Cat 5 is the oldest and slowest of all. Thus, it provides slower speed and poor connectivity while Cat-5e being the most commonly used guarantees better coverage. Cat6/6a is the fastest among all so far as it is the latest one.
Try to figure out what slows down your connection speed when there are two routers in the same house. Find out the issue and resolve it for better results. Wisely choose the position of placement of the router as it severely affects the connectivity.