What Advanced Features Can a Router Provide?

Router is considered as an important tool in a small or home office network. It is because of this innocent small box that everything in your set up runs smooth and remains connected. Many find it quite hazardous whenever they have to set up a router, as the given instructions on the manuals are often full of ambiguities that are quite hard to understand for a common person. However, configuring routers is not as hard as it appears, and you can easily configure them and make the most of their advanced feature.

However, you need to understand the basics of this device. Router is a device, which is used to run communication between two networks. In many different small or home office environments, it is set between a local area network (LAN) and an Internet service provider (ISP), which is known as a type of wide-area network or WAN.

These days most of the available routers seem to work as combination devices, and they handle many different tasks. You would find a wireless AP and a LAN switch in most of the routers that are being used these days. An Ethernet cable is used to connect your computer with the router and it is done with the help of a LAN switch.

For 802.11 wireless devices, a wireless access point serves as a base for connection. Modems, DSL, telephone connections, print servers, and built-in cables can also be included in routers.

Internet connection sharing is the thing, for which routers are commonly used for, as they often prove effective to carry LAN switching, they allow you to establish your computer networking and share folders and printers of the connected computers. There are some additional features like secure remote access; parental controls, Quality of Service, and VPN are some other advanced features that you can find in most of available routers these days.

There are many other security features also available in routers, which are very handy to protect your computers. NAT or network address translation is one of these features that effectively protect your system by setting a router between the internet and your computer. It is only the router that can be identified when you are connected on the internet and communicate.

You need to confirm the ISP requirements as well as the kind of internet connection of your system when buying a router to share a high-speed internet connection. Similarly, you must also carefully look the devices and computers that you want to connect with a router.

An Ethernet network adapter is essential for your system, if you are going to build a wired connection and a suitable number of ports must be there according to the numbers of computers that you are going to connect with it. There are built-in network adapters in most of new computers these days. However, these adapters can also be purchased if needed. Similarly, 802.11 standards that are used in the PCs and other devices are essential for wireless access.