What I do here
I write the reviews and the guides on this site. The subject is home networking — routers, mesh systems, access points and the things that connect to them — because it is the area I have spent the most time in and the one where most published advice is either wrong or a rewritten specification sheet.
Why I am worth listening to
I have worked in ISP operations since 1998. That covers routing and switching, wireless links, billing systems, Unix and Linux, and the unglamorous business of keeping infrastructure running when it would rather not. I have watched a great many consumer routers fail in the field, which is a different education from reading their spec sheets.
How the reviews are made
Honestly: mostly from the datasheet, not from a lab. Every review states what it is based on in a Basis line near the top. Where I have not handled a product, the review says so. Where a manufacturer's marketing claim does not survive the physics, the review says that too.
What I add is translation. A port speed of 100 Mbps means every wired device is capped near 94 Mbps. A 5 dBi antenna is +3 dB, which indoors is roughly 20% more distance, not double. That kind of arithmetic is where most reviews stop and this one does not.
Corrections
If something here is wrong — a specification that changed, a product discontinued, a claim that does not hold — email reviews@webreviewstar.com and it gets fixed, with the date amended on the review.
Disclosure
This site earns commission through Amazon Associates. No manufacturer has paid for a review, supplied a product in exchange for coverage, or influenced a score. The full detail is on the disclosure page.