Most people upgrade their router when something feels slow, without checking whether the actual cause is too many devices competing for the same connection. This gives you a way to score your home before you spend on new hardware.

Not every device costs the same

A smart plug checking in once a minute and a laptop streaming a 4K video call are both "one device," but they don't put the same load on your router. Scoring devices by weight gives a more honest picture than just counting them.

Score your home

Count how many devices you have in each category, multiply by the weight, and add it up.

1. Count light devices x 0.5
2. Count medium devices x 1
3. Count heavy devices x 2
4. Count very heavy devices x 3
5. Add the four totals together for your household score

What your score means

A worked example

A typical 3BHK home: 4 phones (medium, x1 = 4), 2 laptops (medium, x1 = 2), 1 smart TV (heavy, x2 = 2), 1 gaming console (very heavy, x3 = 3), 6 smart home devices (light, x0.5 = 3). Total score: 14 — high load, and a strong candidate for a dual-band router with the bands actually split, not left combined.

If your score puts you in the moderate-to-high range and you already own a dual-band router but haven't separated the two bands, that's very likely where your slowdown is coming from.

Related: Learn what a dual-band router actually does in our main. If you're deciding between bands based on your specific symptom, see "2.4GHz vs 5GHz vs Dual-Band: Which One Actually Fixes Your Wifi Problem." If you already own a dual-band router, see "How to Split Your Dual-Band Router Into Two Separate Wifi Networks."