Router: Broadband Internet Connections

r>If you have a cable modem and wish to share the internet access with the whole family then a broadband router is what you will need first. These routers are designed specifically for any one with cable modem or DSL internet so they can easily set up home networks. With a broadband router you can easily share files, internet connections and also if you want to hold a home LAN gaming date. Normal routers may not allow you to use all your potential speed as it may have a speed limit. All broadband router did was combine network switch, firewall, and a DHCP server together to become what it is currently.

The way these broadband routers provide internet to the multiple computers is through the Ethernet standard. Which is first the cable modem will must be connected to the broadband router which allows internet access to as many computers as there is ports to support it. Most routers will hold up to 8 ports, but if you wish to be able to hold more than that you can look around and easily find ones that contain double digits amount of ports. Then through the router you will then connect the cables to the other computers. Before you are able to connect the cables to the computer for it to have internet access you must first have modem cards for each computer. Most motherboard is now advanced enough to include a modem card as a standard feature.

Broadband routers are now going wireless as well. These wireless broadband routers are typically just the same as the wired broadband routers accept for the fact that it allows computers that have wireless cards to connect to the router as well. This does not mean that wireless routers are only made for wireless computers, but they also come with ports so you can either connect your computers that use cable to connect to the router or even printers. Usually the available ports are 5 or 6 depending on the model and of course it could be more if you just look around. But with the wireless router you can actually hold more computers that as long as the other computers' wireless card can detect the signal.

Security for most broadband routers is usually not much of a problem, but with the newer wireless routers it holds a lot of potential danger. One of the clear dangers is the fact that anyone can steal your signal and use you internet if he or she wanted to as long as he or she can detect it. You can actually suffer since you neighbor could steal your internet while you the one paying for it monthly at a rate of possibly as high as $60 a month. That is not fair, but there is a way to protect yourself from not allowing people to take your signal. First you can easily setup a router key. It will be randomly generated on your router and as long as you enable it, all the computer will be asked to insert the key before internet access will be granted to them.

Before you go out and buy any broadband router make sure you clear a few things up first. There are many manufacturers for broadband routers with the more popular ones being LinkSys and DLink. But there are different features on every single model as it may not seem as important to you right now but once you look into it, you will realize that an additional port or whatever may help you in the long run. So the first question would be how many ports you need. The second question is are there wireless computers in the house or do have a computer on different floors or rooms. Because if computers are separated with great distances cabling the computer to the router would be a great deal of hassle, so a wireless router would be the best option.

With the computers being more and more affordable, more household are beginning to have more than just one computer now. Computers are now useless unless they are not connected to the internet. With the routers now you can now easily share internet access with one or more computer as long as it is able to support all of them. They are generally not that expensive as you can outweigh the pros and cons of it all. It will not hinder the speed much for any of the computers that may be hooked up on to the router. The speed will generally be the same like if you were the only one using it.

Author : JAson
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