A box that goes between your cable modem (or ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology)
modem) and your LAN (Local Area Network). It usually also acts as a hub. Make sure you find a
picture of the rear of the router to make sure it has enough connectors for all the
workstations on your LAN. Some routers have only one LAN
connector — designed to plug into a hub. Popular brands include NetGear, LinkSys and
SMC. Routers offers some firewall protection. They may be
configured to monitor browsing end emails and to prepare email reports.
NAT (Network Address Translation)
keeps hackers from discovering the internal IP (Internet Protocol)
addresses of your computers. To the outside world, the router makes your entire
LAN looks like one
computer doing all the web accesses. DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
support in the router means you don’t manually
have to manually assign IP
numbers to each of your workstations. VPN (Virtual Private Network)
is an advanced
feature home users would not need. Configuring a router is quite easy. You use your
browser to http://192.168.2.1:88 the internal
IP of the router
itself which acts as the gateway to all the computers on your
LAN. You then talk
to a tiny webserver living in the router. Amazingly the router is able to pass
through high speed Internet connections with only about a 40 MHz processor
internally.
Most routers have autosensing ports, so it does not matter if you use pass-through
or cross-over Ethernet cables.
However, it makes the electronics more sensitive. Don’t connect or disconnect
router cables with any power on at either end.
A WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) router can have one, two or three antennas sometimes called bands. The more antennas, the faster it can go because it can
get a datastream going on each antenna.
Brands
Unfortunately none of the brands offer throughput specifications.
- D-LINK: offer a
wide range of models. I own a 4-port DLINK DI-604 rev E3 which works much better
than my old SMC. It gets much better throughput. I would have bought the 8-port
model had I known I would be using machines with two Ethernet cards, or
temporarily tying in guest machines. The main problem with it is the cables often
wriggle loose. I don’t know if that is the fault of the connectors or the
Belden cable ends.
My previous router an D-Link DI-604, no longer manufactured, does not have wireless ability.
Tt has a connection test. On one screen it shows you did
the connectors, which are working and which are configured properly. It is suppost to keep accurate internal time,
but that feature does not work either with NTP (Network Time Protocol) or manual setting. However, this failing does not interfere with its operation.
A
- Cisco/Linksys are
widely available. PC (Personal Computer) Magazine
rated it excellent. They have a web app to figure out
which features you need in a wireless router.
- Netgear is very easy to
configure.
- I owned a SMC Barricade router
7004ABR, part 750.5756. SMC documentation is more technical. The SMC manual gave
the wrong url to address the router software. You need 192.168.0.1:88 It took a 40
minute wait for technical support to iron out the problem. The firmware upgrade
left out the step of unzipping. Further, the SMC router slows downloads to about
1/10th the speed of connecting without the router. However, its most annoying
feature is the cables need to be continuously pressed into the sockets to make
contact. Further, even when I configured the router to pass through packets on a
custom port for Zaep, it
refused to do so though it claimed to. It tended to freeze up frequently and also
it often lost its ability to provide DNS (Domain Name Service).
I since got rid of it.
You can now get routers that combine in one box: a DSL (Digital Subscriber Loop)
modem, a router, a firewall and a wireless router. Make sure you get a newer 802-11AC model
wireless router. It is the latest and greatest, claimed compatible with the older G and B devices
even even the recenet I and N models.
Make sure they also support B and G as a fallback. If you have, for example and old laptop, your router may have to
revert to the old G protocol to handle it.
Shopping for a Router
$29.84electronic link to Linksys EA2700 App-Enabled N600 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router
 |
recommend electronic⇒Linksys EA2700 App-Enabled N600 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router |
| asin |
B007IL72CI |
|---|
| Gigabit Ethernet connection. 4 ports. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$37.12electronic link to Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router
 |
recommend electronic⇒Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router |
| asin |
B004T9RR6I |
|---|
| Cisco. Single band, 300 MBps. Supports Wireless-N, -B, -G protocols. Has four × 1000 Mb/sec ports and one USB printer port. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$37.99
$39.99electronic link to Linksys EA3500 App-Enabled N750 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router and USB
 |
recommend electronic⇒Linksys EA3500 App-Enabled N750 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router and USB |
| asin |
B007IL6OR2 |
|---|
| Gigabit Ethernet connection. 4 ports. 5G. 300+450Mbps |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$57.61electronic link to Linksys EA4500 App-Enabled Dual-Band Wireless-N Router and USB
 |
recommend electronic⇒Linksys EA4500 App-Enabled Dual-Band Wireless-N Router and USB |
| asin |
B007IL7AKM |
|---|
| Gigabit Ethernet connection. 4 ports. 450+450Mbps |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
$144.33electronic link to Linksys X2000 Wireless-N Router with ADSL2+ Modem
 |
recommend electronic⇒Linksys X2000 Wireless-N Router with ADSL2+ Modem |
| asin |
B005HFJFHW |
|---|
| Has only three ports. Handles WiFi b/g/n. |
|
| Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock |
Tips
If you suspect your router is not working, here
are some things to try:
- See if other computers on your LAN
are working. If they are, the router is probably fine. The problem is with your
computer.
- Power the router off, pause a few seconds, then power it on again.
- Power the cable/DSL modem off, pause a few seconds, then power it on
again.
- Make sure the cables from your computer to the router and from the router to
the modem and from the modem to the wall socket are firmly seated.
- Log into the router and tell it to renew its DHCP
connection the gateway computer owned by the cable company. Your router has
firmware in it to make it behave like a miniature webserver. Read the booklet that
came with the router how to access it. It will typically be something like
http://192.168.0.1/.
- Use ipconfig /renew on your
console to renew your computer’s DHCP
connection to the router.
- Shutdown your computer, then power it on again.
and one with a world map 
) that can glow green or yellow. Both should be glowing green. The little black WPS button is used to speed up configuration without having to retype the wireless password. 
