Finding a suitable router for your spectrum internet services is quite complicated. Spectrum has its own set of routers, but the router you receive may not be that good in terms of functionality and other parameters.
There’s no guarantee it will be the best from the standpoint of your expectations. It’s better to choose your own router instead of buying the router your provider suggests.
To ensure you get the best of the best router, we have gone out of your way and did some research on spectrum compatible routers. In this article, we have included the router reviews along with some other useful information relevant to the topic.
Top 8 Spectrum Compatible Routers
So you want to get your hands on the perfect spectrum compatible routers? Read these reviews and take your pick.
1. Netgear Nighthawk r7000 router
Looking for a 1GHz dual-core processor consumer router? Then this Nighthawk r7000 is what you need. Possessing a 128 Mb flash memory and a RAM of 256 Mb, this one is one of the best spectrum compatible routers available.
Nighthawk r7000 is designed with two USB ports. One port is on the front side, having a USB of 3. The other one with a USB 2, is on the backside. In order to reduce the Wi-Fi interference, the router was designed in such a way that the USB 3 port stays away from the 2.4 Hz radio.
The router has a wonderful feature they call QoS or Quality of service with the latest mini USB adaptor of 11ac and 5Hz frequency band. These two are paired up together and ensures your streaming never buffs. The 5Hz provides excellent speed, being paired with an 11ac A6100 adapter.
This r7000 router from Netgear Nighthawk has a chic black design shaped like a trapezoid. The base of this router is wide, and it also has rubber feet which ensure the router won’t slip away. This nighthawk router can be used both horizontally as well as mounted on the wall.
Qos is mainly designed for Xbox gaming streams, VPN, Netflix, or even Hulu. In order to use this, you need to turn the feature on. You can easily configure the settings and enable this by turning on WMM on either band or on both the 2.4Hz and 5 Hz bands.
Moreover, you can also optimize internet traffic for gaming and video streaming. For instance, use upstream traffic for video games whereas downstream traffic for streaming videos. Nighthawk r7000 contains three amplified antennas making the signal clearer.
Nightgears features a built-in security system that protects the devices from cyber threats. It saves up your money and effort in installing extra antiviruses. The security features have many layers and are well built. It’s also for unlimited connected devices.
Along with this spectacular feature, Nightgear also ensures that you can have control over internet usage. Set limits to the time used on specific apps or websites using the internet.
You can also monitor the internet usage of devices individually. This is especially useful for parents as it helps them to monitor and limit their children’s internet usage.
Pros
- Impressive QoS
- Chic and classy design
- Excellent speed ensures zero buffering
- Full VPN optimization capability
- Dual-band router with 802.11ac
- Compatible with Alexa
Cons
- Expensive
- Slow bridge mode configuration
2. Linksys EA9500 Tri-Band Router
Here’s another spectrum compatible router that takes 2nd place. If you’re looking for a fast tri-band wireless router that provides high bandwidth Wi-Fi to multiple different devices together, then this Linksys router is the one for you.
This is a quad-stream router with eight Ethernet ports that connects the router to an array of devices. It has great stability and is ten times faster than the “fast ethernet” itself.
Get full coverage of 3000 sq. feet distance place with fast internet. To make it even better, this Max stream router features seamless roaming. This makes sure your device is always connected to the strongest signal.
It’s designed for devices that are compatible with the 802.11k standard. However, the feature is not limited to these devices only. You can enable seamless roaming on devices on devices supporting higher standards too.
The AC5400 ensures efficient beamforming technology. In other words, it sends high bandwidth signal focused to every device individually, making it possible for all devices to use the same high signaled WIFI.
The triband Wi-Fi of 5.3 Gbps, 5 Gbps, and 2.4 Gbps provides the fastest Wi-Fi speed to all your devices. You can connect this strong Wi-Fi signal to over 25 devices. MU MIMO delivers high bandwidth fast connection to all connected devices.
MU MIMO lets you connect to different devices doing different things like streaming, gaming, scrolling through the internet, etc.
This Linksys router lets you customize and manage your Wi-Fi according to your preferences. Select which device will use a higher bandwidth connection and when.
Pros
- Gives full coverage of areas up to 3000sq feet
- Stellar performance
- MU MIMO allows you to connect over 25 devices
- Tri-band along with eight antennas ensures the fastest lag-free WIFI
- Easy set-up
- Alexa friendly
- Lets you customize and manage internet usages for devices
- Beamforming technology ensures clearer streaming
Cons
- Expensive
- Has a large footprint
3. Motorola AC26000 Wi-Fi Router
A truly cost-efficient router with a spectacular performance, and yes, it’s spectrum compatible. It’s cheaper than most routers providing such high-quality strong signals.
Featuring super-fast dual-band 800 Mbps for the 2.4 Hz band and 1733 Mbps for the 5Hz band, this AC26000 router delivers super fast and clear signals throughout a wider range equally.
It has a 4 Gigabit LAN port that ensures your wired devices get fast internet too. Stream videos, play games without buffering and glitching at all. The router has MU MIMO that supports more than 20 Wi-Fi devices at once. It ensures all your devices get the same high-quality bandwidth whether you are streaming or gaming.
Motorola AC26000 also features a very smart QoS or Quality of Service. It also has a high-security system and management system. Customize and manage how long you will allow internet usage in your devices separately.
The router has four antennas that ensure you get a clear, strong Wi-Fi connection. There’s also the beamforming technology that makes it easier to optimize the Wi-Fi connection for each device individually. This router also has a dual-core processor for lag-free connection.
Pros
- Very price friendly and cost-efficient
- User-friendly Interface
- Fairly easy to set up
- MU MIMO ensures fast connection for over 20 devices
- Smart QoS ensures lag-free fast gaming as well as video streaming
- High-security system
- Lets you manage your Wi-Fi usage on devices separately
Cons
- Changing the login system is complicated
- Not compatible with Alexa
- No auto firmware updates
4. Netgear Orbi RBK50 WIFI Router
No products found.
This Netgear router is both a router and an extender. With its mesh technology and huge wide-range coverage of 5000sq feet, there won’t be any more Wi-Fi lagging, and all devices will get a full-speed connection. You can connect 25 plus devices with this router and enjoy a super-fast lag-free connection on all of them.
Ideal for larger places, this router gives full coverage and high Wi-Fi speed on all the connected devices with its Tri-band Mesh networking connection.
Additionally, there are seven LAN ports that ensure your wired devices get the fastest connection all at a time too. Now you can enjoy gaming and binge-watch movies at the same time with your family.
Manage and customize your Wi-Fi usage on separate devices. You can set limits to apps and websites individually regarding how much time you can spend on the particular sites and apps.
What’s more, is that you can even pause internet usage on some specific apps like mobile games, etc. These are especially useful for parents to monitor and control how much children stay on the internet.
This Netgear Orbi rbk50 is highly secured and has advanced security measures. It’s powered by the world’s current top-notch cybersecurity, BitDefender. However, this is only for the first 30 days as a trial period. To get protected by BitDefender after that period, you need to purchase it either monthly or in annual packages.
This is really easy to set up and install. It comes with one main router and two satellites that you can wall mount easily.
The router goes well with the Alexa device too. It also provides full VPN capacity along with beamforming technology. You can play games and binge-watch your favorite shows without buffering, thanks to beamforming technology.
Pros
- MU MIMO friendly ensures fast bandwidth connection on all devices
- Tri-band and has a Mesh networking
- Gives coverage of a wide range of up to 5000 square feet
- Can connect to more than 25 devices
- BitDefender powered advanced security
- Manage and customize internet usage
- Highly swiftly configurable
Cons
- Expensive
- Bulky
No products found.
5. Motorola MG7550 WIFI Router
Unlike the previous Motorola router, this spectrum compatible router is not only a router but also a modem. Packed with a high-speed modem, this Wi-Fi router is a combo.
The router portion is 3×3. In other words, it has three sends and receiver channels each. At the same time, the modem has an automatic digital tuner installed within it. This ensures your signal gets the least traffic and thus making your Wi-Fi signal faster and clearer.
This modem-router combo contains four ethernet LAN ports that provide a wired connection to various ethernet-compatible devices. Below the LAN ports are WLAN, WPS, and reset options. These are all on the backside of the router.
As for the front side, it contains seven LED lights that indicate the status of your router as well as your modem. The status indicator and what the colors suggest are all mentioned in the product manual. In case you’ve lost the manual, you can download it from the manufacturer’s page.
This router provides high-speed AC1900 WiFi-equipped with dual bands of 2.4 Hz and 5 Hz. Beamforming technology performing in both bands ensures your connected devices get the optimal internet.
There’s a Wi-Fi power boost feature that ensures you get a more powerful Wi-Fi signal than the legal limit. Additionally, this product works well with Wi-Fi DFS, which means it ensures there’s less Wi-Fi interference.
The modem has 16×4 DOCSIS 3.0 cable. This means the modem has 16 downstream channels and 4 upstream channels, which is ideal for supporting around 680Mbps. However, Motorola recommends using this router-modem combo for a speed of 375Mbps.
Get proper security with the help of the Broadcom modem chipset against DDoS. DDoS refers to ‘Distributed Denial of Service’ and it’s basically when any perpetrator intends to make the network unavailable to the owner.
This way, they steal your data. But the modem cable chipset secures the router from this cyber-attack.
Pros
- Modem router combo
- Exceptionally good speed
- Dual-band and beamforming technology on both bands
- Goes well with Wi-Fi DFS
- Wi-Fi power boost available
- Protects against DDoS
Cons
- Not compatible with DSL
- Modem part has no telephone jack
6. Synology RT2600ac WiFi Router
The second spectrum compatible router from Synology is this one, and it is pretty amazing. Packed with immersive features, this router is very cost-efficient. It has a dual WAN to ensure proper load balancing and provides enough support if there’s any failover.
There are four LAN ports of 3 USB, 2 USB, another WAN port, and an SD card port. This first LAN port can also act as a support to the WAN port. And in any case, if the WAN port faces any problem, this LAN can provide a failsafe.
In addition, this router allows both WANs to load traffics so that there’s a more clear signal and none of them gets overheated. Speaking of overheat, this Synopsis router has an overheating temperature of 40°F to 104°F.
The router is MU MIMO meaning it can connect to multiple devices at once. It also has beamforming technology allowing it to optimize internet connection to all devices individually. This ultimately leads to every device getting a powerful and strong, fast connection.
It’s ideal for parents as it allows content filtering. In other words, you can choose which apps or sites can use Wi-Fi. This way, parents will be able to monitor their children’s internet usage.
Synopsis router has a comprehensive VPN that is secure and easy to set up. Additionally, it lets you back up your shared files and links to a private cloud so that you never lose any data. The layer 4 and 7 acceleration engine and 802.11ac signal and dual bands guarantee fast and lag-free streaming and gaming experience.
Moreover, the router has powerful tools to secure from any sort of cyber-attack such as a Distributed Denial of Service. The router also provides great firewall management.
Pros
- Comes with Dual WAN support
- Dual-Band with strong beamforming technology on both frequencies
- Supports MU MIMO
- Level 4 and 7 acceleration engine
- Superfast
- Easy to set up and install
Cons
- MU MIMO is moderate
- Can get overheated easily
7. Netgear Nighthawk XR700
If your topmost priority while buying a spectrum compatible router is top-notch performance, then look no further than the Netgear XR700 router. Netgear XR700 is mainly designated to be a game-friendly router.
It’s not only featured with high-tech software but also with futuristic hardware providing you an ultra-smooth gaming session.
Is your game lagging? No worries. Nighthawk xr700 is featured with a geo-filter. It limits the distance between the servers or other players to reduce lags. Also due to this feature, you can just use blacklisting laggy opponents and whitelist those who you want.
It comes with a 1.74GHz quad-core processor providing a consistent network speed. You can do VR gaming, 4k streaming, or surfing simultaneously. This processor is efficient in providing high-speed data to all the connected devices and also modifies the speed rate when needed.
Connect your devices to its 7GB Ethernet ports to avail yourself with swift wired speeds. There’s also a 10Gb SFP + port to provide you an ultrafast backup and also so that you can stream from NAS.
This router is tri-band and is also reckoned as an AD7200router. It can transmit 800mbps, 1,733Mbps, and 4,600Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, 5GHz band, and 60hz. Thus, you can use Wi-Fi without any buffers simultaneously on multiple devices.
Moreover, it has four antennas to ensure the high-speed transmission of data. It may take most of your desk space, but for a swift gaming session, this router is worth it.
Pros
- Excellent performance
- Easy set-up
- Superfast
- Provides lag-free online gaming session
- Well potential software
- Outstanding Wi-Fi range
- Featured with geo-filter technology
Cons
- Heavyweight
- MU-MINO performance is moderate
8. Linksys WRT3200ACM
If you are looking for an open-source router with a high speed of up to 3200Mbps with a nostalgic design, then no doubt this is the one for you. This router is dual banded, super-fast, and MU MIMO proof.
Connect multiple devices and, through the impressive beamforming technology on both bands, get the fastest internet free of all kinds of buffering. This router is one of the best open-source routers. It offers advanced customization.
There’s a guest control option in addition to parental control. It lets you customize and manage your Wi-Fi usage on devices separately.
You can restrict certain apps and websites from using Wi-Fi too. This is really convenient for parents. There are 50 guest network slots available in the router. It ensures less traffic and interference.
The average coverage provided by this router is 2000 sq feet. It gives decent coverage, and you can get a strong connection within this area.
This router is also available for a 160 MHz width range streaming which is impressive. The dual bands of 5.4 GHz and 2.4 GHz give off proper signal to the devices that avoid any sort of leggings or buffering.
Pros
- MU MIMO capable
- Super-fast connection
- Open source firmware
- Easy to set up
- 50 guest networks
- Parental control and customization available
- Dual Band
- Nostalgic look
Cons
- Expensive
- Bulky
Things to Consider Before Buying a Spectrum Competitor Router
In order to buy a preferred router, you must know the factors that matter the most before going to buy a spectrum competitor router. Now let us describe to you the factors that specify the quality of a spectrum router.
Number of the Device
The first considerable thing about spectrum competitor router is the number of devices it will able to connect. You need to know how many devices you will need to connect to the router. Besides, you also need to know the capacity of the router. And then choose the router according to it.
Internet Speed
All routers have different speed packages. Generally, the speed package routers offer doesn’t match the speed limit they can actually afford. Suppose you have chosen a router offering 2Gbps speed. When you connect your device, you will never get the same speed. You can get a maximum 100Mbps speed from that router.
Online Activity
The second important thing about buying a router is to know your online activity. Not all routers can help you with speed and performance when it comes to online activity. Gamers, as well as movie lovers, will need more speed.
For someone who only browses social media and rarely stream anything, it won’t need much internet speed. So, first, you need to be sure about your need and then choose the suitable router for you.
QoS and MU-MIMO Feature
Before buying your spectrum competitor router, you need to check the QoS and MU-MIMO features of the router. These two are separate features that you will find in spectrum routers. The advantages and the services are different from the routers having individual features.
The router having more speed contains the Qos feature. This feature ensures more speed; thus, you will have a clear and fast streaming experience. With the MU MIMO feature, your router will be able to serve a quality network to multiple devices at a time.
How to Connect Spectrum Approved Router?
Spectrum competitor router is a specific kind of routers, and so the connecting process is also different. As you know, there are two kinds of spectrum routers: Wave 2 and Sagemcom Spectrum Routers and NetGear routers.
Connecting or installing process for both of them is different.
Process for Wave 2 and Sagemcom Routers
Firstly connect to your router and then enter into a web browser. Then you need to enter your ID and password. Finally, for a new subscriber, who still doesn’t change the login credentials, they need to use an admin username and password. After buying a subscription, you will be able to use the default username and password.
Process for NetGear Routers
For this type of router, at first, connecting to your router, enter the web browser and input your IP address. Then go to the address bar, and type “routerlogin.net” or “routerlogin.com,” and press enter.
After this, enter the username and password into the next window. For a new subscriber, you need to enter the default username and password. And for NetGear routers, the default username is “admin,” and the password is “password.”
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is buying a Spectrum compatible router necessary?
Since Spectrum lets their customers rent routers and modems, this question may arise in your head. While the router given by Spectrum may be good, there’s no guarantee it will be the best for you.
And you don’t even know if that router is worth the internet bill you have to pay every month. So it’s better to buy your own spectrum compatible router.
2. How to boost my Spectrum Wi-Fi signal?
To boost your spectrum Wi-Fi signal, you can do a couple of things. You can update your firmware and router. This is the easiest way. But you can also use a cable booster or an antenna booster or just simply call your ISP.
3. Can you install Spectrum internet by yourself?
You can install spectrum internet by yourself with the help of a self-install kit. And you can find them at your local tech shop.
4. Will Spectrum charge extra for using a purchased compatible router?
Spectrum will charge no money for using any router instead of renting from them. However, Spectrum will not provide customer care for the purchased router.
5. How many ways are there to connect a spectrum compatible router?
As mentioned earlier, there are two ways to connect a spectrum approved router. You can install them with a self-install kit but it’s better to take professional help.
Final Words
Hopefully, this article came to your aid, and lets you buy the spectrum-approved router best for you. By reading so far, we hope that you can now choose your preferred spectrum compatible routers. Don’t forget to let us know which one you would buy!