What’s a Wireless Router?

This right here is a switch. This right here is a router. This right here is a firewall. This is an access point. And this right here is a switch, router, firewall and access point, all built into one.

This right here goes by many different names. It could go by wireless router or home router, but essentially it performs the functions of all of this.

What's on the box

So what do we see right here? These orange connectors right here are Ethernet. This is a LAN connection — this is a switch built into here. This blue one right here, this is our WAN connection. So we have routing between our WAN and our switch connections right here. It also performs a firewall: there's a built-in firewall in here that helps protect a network. And then it also has these wireless access points, so we see the antennas to help support the wireless access point. So now we have multiple functions that we're getting out of this wireless router right here, or home router right here.

Why it's all built into one

So why do we have it all built in together? If you were to expect a user to have a separate switch — even a smaller one than this — and a router and a firewall and an access point, and be able to interconnect all those, some people are just not technically savvy, and that would be very difficult for many people to do. So they've created this as just a simple way that you could set up on your home network, so you can interconnect your device via a switch or a wired port or wireless, and have all the functionality that you need to operate at home. So there's a wireless router that we have right there, or a home router.

Wireless router versus access point

One thing to note is that many people will have this wireless router on their network — maybe it was something that they bought, or maybe they are renting it from the internet service provider. So this is what they have on their network; that's what's connecting it. But then they'll go out and they'll buy another one of these to extend their wireless range, or for some reason they'll buy another wireless router. Now you've got two routers, two of these plugged in together, and that can cause a lot of problems, especially if you're doing something like gaming. It can cause problems on your network if it's not done right. There are ways that you can do that, but it takes some extra configuration on this equipment.

So a lot of times what people really are trying to do is use an access point instead. An access point is what's essentially built into this, but with the router functionality you're doing this double routing, and that can be problematic. Versus an access point just allows you to connect to your network wirelessly. So they do serve different functions here, this access point versus a wireless router.