Introduction to High Speed Routers

The Internet has evolved with great leaps and bounds since its beginnings during the 1960’s. Initially only a small amount of data could be sent at a particular time and these consisted mostly of text based documents. A speed of 28 Kbps was pretty amazing during the 1980’s using a dial up modem. Today, we are seeing speeds of 1MBps up to 12MBps. With the faster speeds and greater bandwidth a lot of applications have been created for the Internet. Video streaming, social networking, downloading of huge files, video calling are just some of the things people could do over the Internet today.

As the Internet has developed so has the devices used to support it. One of these devices is the router. If you have multiple computers in your home connecting to the Internet then chances are you are using a router to network your computers.

What is a Router?

A router is basically a networking device that analyzes the data and forwards it to the intended destination. It may sound simple at first but there’s a lot of activity that a router does to ensure that your data would be transferred accurately and efficiently. Imagine this, you are composing an email and sending it to your friend who lives in the opposite side of the globe. With the millions of users on the Internet today, how can that one particular email arrive at your friends’ computer? This is where the router plays an important part.

We might also know the router as that device that lets multiple computers in our home go online. If you subscribe to a high speed Internet connection and want to share this connection with your 3 desktops and 2 laptops the most effective way to do this is to use a wireless router. This way, everyone in your family can enjoy the Internet connection.

For gamers out there you might have mixed feelings for a router. Routers are great since you can connect to it anywhere in your house as long as it is the wireless type. Imagine playing online games anywhere in your house, pretty cool right? The one thing that gamers often complain about is that some ports are blocked by routers and you have to manually configure it. There is also a chance that your Internet speed would not be as fast as connecting straight to the modem since a router also acts as a firewall.

High Speed Router

Most of the routers being sold in the market today are high speed routers. This simply means that it can handle the bandwidth that you are subscribed to. Internet companies usually provide a 1MBps connection and can go as high as 12MBps. These high speed routers are connected to your modem via the Ethernet port. The correct configuration in order is modem, router then computer. Your modem connects to your Internet provider, you connect your high speed router to the modem and your computer connects to the high speed router.

If you compare this with the older routers that operate at slow speeds you would see a great difference in your online experience. With the older routers, video streaming would not work well, downloading of large files would also take quite a lot of time.

A lot of the high speed routers right now have wireless capabilities. This is due to the fact that laptop sales have increased over the years and these laptops have wireless networking devices. When you visit you computer store you might see routers that are wired, wireless or both.

Wired High Speed Router

This type of router is best used if you have desktops that stay at a fixed location in your house. It’s called a wired router since you would have to use an ethernet cord to connect each of your computers to this router. There is less signal interference when you use this router and the Internet speed you get on your computer is fast.

Wireless High Speed Router

This is the router of choice for people who own laptops. With this router you can go online anywhere in your homes using the laptop. You would not be hampered by wires if you use this, however certain obstacles may affect the wireless signal such as microwaves or thick walls.

Combo High Speed Router

This high speed router can connect your computers through wired or wireless means. This is great to use if you have desktops and laptops at your homes. Most routers sold today have the wired and wireless function in them.