As routers become more and more popular, it’s no surprise that they’re becoming more and more complex. But is that really a good thing? Some routers are designed to handle a maximum of 10 devices, but many newer models can handle up to 100 or even 200. And while this may seem like a lot, it’s not really enough for some people. For example, if you have an office with several computers and printers, you may want to consider getting a router that can handle up to 30 devices. But if you only have one computer in your office and only use the printer for printing documents, then the router might be enough for you. But what about people who need multiple routers in their home? Or people who need multiple routers in their office but don’t want them all in the same room? Well, there’s no problem with that either. You can buy separate routers for each room or even each floor of your house. But again, this might not be enough for some people. For example, if you have two floors and one room is dedicated to your bedroom and the other is dedicated to your kitchen, then you might not need two separate routers for your home. You could just buy one router and use it in both rooms.
If you are purchasing a new router for a household with a high number of devices, you might wonder if it can handle all those devices concurrently without a problem. Today’s SuperUser Q&A post looks at the debate a reader is facing as he gets ready to purchase a new router for a heavy-usage household.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
Photo courtesy of Antonio Nicolas Pina (Flickr).
The Question
SuperUser reader MyDaftQuestions wants to know if routers have a limit on the number of devices that can be connected concurrently:
Is there a limit on the number of devices that can be connected concurrently to a router?
I have a D600 and have looked on their website, through the manual, and also found no mention of the limit (which I really need to know if there is one due to debugging another issue).
The new router will be a gift for a friend. The issue is, they have 12 devices in their house, all of which require Wi-Fi, and another 3 devices which will be hard wired.
Since the router websites do not mention any limitations, can I assume there is a general limit on what the number of concurrently connected devices can do? Or is the issue more about understanding that, the more devices that are connected, the worse the performance will be due to the sharing of the resource?
My question is, without physically trying it, is there any way to know that a certain device will work with a given number of concurrently connected devices?
The Answer
SuperUser contributors D. Kasipovic and Daniel B have the answer for us. First up, D. Kasipovic:
Followed by the answer from Daniel B:
This I suppose, largely depends on the speed of the router’s CPU and available RAM, but it would also largely depend on the services running on the router, i.e. is NAT enabled, QoS, VPN, access control, is wireless open or password protected, etc. I think the amount of traffic that devices create is also an important factor to the limit.
I think this might also be the reason why manufacturers do not specify the number of devices that can connect, because it depends on many factors.
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
Naturally, this would require a network larger than /24, which poses no problem with OpenWrt and the like. Still, the connection tracking load would be quite high.
