Internet Broadband Today

What is a Router?

Ten years ago routers were almost unheard of in a home. With the explosion of broadband, or high-speed, Internet usage in the past ten years, it seems everyone has at least one router in their home. For many, however, what a router does is still a mystery.

If you have high-speed Internet, chances are you have at least one router, regardless of whether it is a wired router or a wireless router. The router manages several important tasks with regards to networking in your home.

The first task is that it allows you to connect multiple computers to a single Internet connection. On the back of your router there are several ports, with the number of ports depending on the model you own. There is also an uplink port that connects to your cable or high-speed modem. The remaining ports connect to your computer.

When you connect your cable modem to your router, your router now becomes an access point to the Internet. The IP address that is assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is now assigned to your router. In turn, once you connect at least one computer to the router, each computer will now receive its own local address assigned by the router. This address is not the same as the one assigned by your ISP.

When you connect to the Internet, your request is sent to your router using your local IP address. The router will then send out that request to the Internet using the IP address assigned by your ISP.

Once the request has been completed and data is sent back to your computer, it is sent back to the IP address of your ISP, which means the data is sent back to your router. Once the router receives the data, it then determines which local address requested the data and then sends it to the computer assigned to that address.

Basically, in a nutshell, a router basically “routes” information from one computer to another. Since a router can connect multiple computers in a local network, as well as connect to the Internet, you can have several computers share one Internet connection.

If you have a wireless router, then you can connect computers to it using one of the wireless standards that are available. Ensure that when you do use a wireless connection, however, that you secure the connection. There are many resources available online that explain how to do this.

Besides allowing you to connect multiple computers to the Internet, a router can also perform another important task – security. Many, if not all routers, sold today also include a hardware firewall. Much like the software firewalls you install today, the router’s hardware firewall can help protect all computers that are connected to it from harmful data on the Internet. While the hardware firewall built into your router provides great protection, it is always important to also install a software firewall, an anti-virus application, and anti-malware applications on your computer for complete protection.

If you use high-speed to connect to the Internet, chances are you are connected through a router. It allows you to share one Internet connection among many computers as well as acts has a hardware firewall to keep those computer safe.

For more information about connecting multiple computers to broadband you may also want to learn about using hubs and switches.