The Asus RT-AC88U delivers a combined 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 dual-band speed of up to 3100 Mbps per second – 2,100 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and 1,000 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band – absolutely dwarfing even the fastest plans from Comcast Xfinity. If your circumstances force you to play online games over Wi-Fi, then the Asus RT-AC88U inches as close as ever to replicating the dependability of a wired connection. The Asus RT-AC88U is among the best Comcast-ready routers you can add to your gaming setup to ward off pesky instances of lag, disconnection, and low ping.
If Wi-Fi 6 is a must-have, check out the TP-Link Archer X21 we cover further down. Still, considering the $80 to $100 asking price, this is entirely reasonable, so it shouldn’t factor too heavily in your assessment of this otherwise stellar piece of home networking equipment. The lone negative of the NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 is the absence of Wi-Fi 6 support.
The NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 integrates all the security features to monitor and keep your network protected, including NETGEAR’s Armor software, Smart Parental Controls, support for VPNs, guest Wi-Fi access, DoS attack prevention, WPA2 encryption, and more. A powerful 1 GHz dual-core processor and a triplet of amplified exterior antennas help in that respect, too. Wi-Fi coverage pushes 1,500 square feet and can funnel a steady and reliable wireless signal to 25 devices simultaneously, something enabled by the presence of features such as Beamforming +, Dynamic QoS, Airtime Fairness, and Smart Connect, which keep interference to a minimum while maximizing speeds for all connected devices. For your wired devices, the NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 includes four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a high-speed USB 3.0 port for media sharing. In action, the NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 delivers steady connectivity and reliable signal to wireless devices even stretching to previously hard-to-reach areas. It strikes a balance between affordability and a dependable feature-set that should suit most homes, even those with a handful of inhabitants and dozens of devices vying for precious Wi-Fi simultaneously.Ī dual-band router, the NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 runs the Wi-Fi 5 standard and can hit speeds up to 1,750 Mbps (450 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 1,300 Mbps on the 5 GHz), making it suitable for most Comcast Xfinity plans. In our estimation, the NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700 is the best all-around router for most homes wired up to the internet via a Comcast Xfinity plan. In this guide, we’ll highlight some of the best routers for Comcast Xfinity cable internet plans. If you’re ready to swap out the xFi Gateway for something better and cheaper but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place. Additionally, the freedom to choose the specifications and features of your router generally means a device better suited to your needs, and more often than not, one that performs better than Comcast’s stock modem-router. Worst of all, you never outright own the device, meaning if you decide to jump ship for a competing cable internet company, you’ll have to send the xFi Gateway back.īy buying a third-party router, you not only own the router, but it ends up paying for itself within 12 to 18 months in most cases, if not sooner for the more budget-oriented options, at which point you start saving and pocket a welcome $14 every month. Renting Comcast’s xFi Gateway router-modem combo incurs a non-negligible monthly rental fee of $14, which over the course of a year amounts to a steep $168. Short of downgrading to a slower plan, one of the best ways to save money on your Comcast Xfinity monthly bill is to consider the purchase of a third-party Comcast-compatible router.