This article explains the 10 important things that a wireless router does for your home and office network.
Wireless router connects to the internet with the necessary protocol
Wireless router connects to the internet for you. They support protocols which enable to communicate with the ISP and to recieve an IP address. Every ISP may support different types of protocols for communication. Wireless routers typically would support all protocols which ISP use.
You need to configure the specific protocol on the wireless router which your ISP supports to connect to the internet.
Wireless router shares the internet connection on your network
Your ISP provides you with a single public IP address which is setup on the wireless router. On your internal network, there are many users. Each user have different unique private IP address. These IP addresses cannot be used to access the internet.
NAT, which stands for network address translation feature is used to convert internet requests coming from the private IP address to public IP address and send it to the internet and back.
Wirleless router provides wireless connectivity to users on the network
A wireless router also provides wireless connectivity to users on the network. This is possible as they have wireless radios in them. This is benefical when you have a lot of devices like laptops, mobiles, smart home appliances which need wifi connectivity to work.
The wireless connection can also be secured with the appropirate security protocol and configuration.
Wirleless router provides wired connectivity to users on the network
Wireless routers also have an inbuilt switch on them. They are used for providing wired connectivity to users on the network. A laptop or desktop can be connected to the wireless router using the ethernet card on them. With this, you can have a combination of wired and wireless users on the network.
Wirleless router provides IP address to users on the network
IP addresses are needed for communication on a network. There are two ways by which you can configure the IP address for devices on a network which are static and dynamic. Static IP address is implemented by configuring IP addresses on the network manually for all the devices.
This could become a cumbersome process especially on a large network.
Dynamic IP makes this process simple. When dynamic IP address is used on a network, the IP addresses are provided auotmatically by a DHCP server on the network. Wireless routers have dhcp server inbuilt in them. This would make it possible for the devices on the network to recieve dynamic IP addresses from the router.
Wireless router allows users to connect to the internal network from internet
Wireless routers allows valid users on the internet to connect to a specific system on the internal network. Port forwarding is a feature which is available on the wireless router which would allow you to do this. If you need complete access to the network, then a VPN can be setup for which a Wireless router with VPN is required.
Wireless router provides routing functionality
Routing is a very important functionality for accessing the internet. Routing is the process by which internet bound packets are forwarded to the next hop (ISP router) which is then forwarded through multiple routers before it reaches the destination.
Without routing, you would not be able to access the internet. Wireless routers comes inbuilt with this functionality.
Wireless router provides security feature
Security of the network is of utmost priority. It should be ensured that all valid users are allowed on your network. Your wireless router does the job of securing the wireless network by enabling appropriate security protocols to be configured on it.
This would ensure that only users who are aware of the credentials on the network can connect to the wireless router and gain access to the network.
Conclusion
The wireless router does the above 9 important things for you. There are also many other advanced functionalities of a wireless router. For this you may also want to purchase an advanced wireless router based on need.
For example you can purchase a Wireless router with firewall if you want advanced security.
Mesh routers can be purchased if you want coverage in your entire area.
You can get more information on the different types of wireless routers here – Wireless router types explained