Best Gaming Router | D-Link DGL-5500 Review.

With today's high speed cable modem connections, the Internet connection speed is quickly becoming less and less of a factor on gaming lag. In most cases, when it comes to throughput issues, the router is the culprit. Performing a proper speed test on your connection will usually show that the router is the bottleneck.

Gaming is one of the most demanding activities you can place on a router. Using a crappy router can absolutely kill your gaming experience. Save yourself the frustration. Purchasing the best router for the money can not be overstated.

Wonder why most routers just suck when it comes to gaming? Most routers continue to offer the same old generic feature known as Quality of Service (QOS) to address gaming performance.

QOS or Quality of Service is an old technology that most router manufacturers still brag about as the solution to gaming and multimedia. The problem with QOS is that is a decade old and tired technology that just doesn't cut it anymore.

What's wrong with it?

The QOS feature only addresses half the problem. QOS analyzes IP data traffic and if it believes that the data traffic contains multimedia or VOIP data, it gives it priority over the other traffic. It was great back in the day when games were less complex and the average house had one or two computers. This was before smart phones and tablets and most online movie streaming

The problem with QOS is that it is not granular enough. Imagine you are gaming away and another family member decides to watch funny Youtube videos. With QOS, you both have equal priority, so your gaming takes a hit. With QOS, Skyping or watching Netflix would also be equal priority to your gaming. It also treats all devices equally.

If you are gaming, your game and your computer or game console should be given number 1 priority over everything else on the network. QOS can not properly address that. It's a dumb technology. In most cases, QOS is just a check box on/off solution. It never updates to learn about the latest games, apps and streaming content and there are usually no options to fine tune performance.

Does QOS help?

Sure it does, it's better than not having it. But there is a much better solution.

What makes the D-Link DGL-5500 the best router?

Only one router manufacturer, D-Link, looks beyond QOS for gaming. The DGL-5500 is a router specifically designed for gaming by offering a solution to the shortcomings of QOS.

D-Link understands that when you are gaming, your game and your gaming device needs top priority. QOS just doesn't get it.

Qualcomm Stream Boost replaces standard QOS and dynamically adapts to games and gaming consoles. Plus unlike QOS, Qualcomm Stream Boost will actually reserve bandwidth and dedicate it for your game.

That means that file downloads, apps and computers performing automatic updates, Youtube videos, Netfilx and Skyping will no longer affect your game. It's like your machine and game having its own dedicated traffic lane.

Best of all, the stream boost engine does automatic cloud updates so that it continuously improves the traffic streaming engine to keep up with future gaming technology. This is not the first gaming router released from D-Link, but it is the first to offer the stream boost with wireless AC technology.

So with that fact that it intelligently and completely addresses the needs of gaming and has the newest wireless technology, the D-Link DGL-5500 is the best gaming router available.

In case you are not familiar with Wireless AC, it is the next step up from wireless N. Wireless AC boasts 1 Gigabit wireless transfer speeds with other wireless AC compatible devices. Wireless AC is 3 times faster wireless than wireless N. But don't worry, it is also backwards compatible as well. That means you do not need to worry about your wireless N or G devices connecting.

Although for gaming, for the best performance, you would preferably want to be hardwired to the router. But it sure is nice to know that this one packs quite a powerful wireless mode under the hood should you need it.

Make sure for the best performance and uninterrupted game play that you forward or trigger the ports. Most games and game consoles have ports that the game uses to communicate through. For more information on Port Forwarding or Port Triggering, please visit my Xbox Port Forwarding vs. Port Triggering page.