The router is used to create a home network and provide distribution of the Internet for all necessary devices - several computers, set-top boxes, media centers and other wireless gadgets. The correct choice of a router or router, as it is also called, as well as its further configuration provide access to the Internet from anywhere in the living room. Anyone who wants to complement their home with such a device needs to know about some of the features of wireless routers.
First of all, in order to make the right choice of a router for your home, you need to pay attention to the standards that support a wireless and wired network. Knowing them, you can choose the appropriate device, and then the whole system will work properly. By this parameter, all routers can be classified into two groups - supporting 802.11n standards, as well as those that work only with 802.11b or 802.11g standards. The difference between these classes lies in the fact that the first group provides a significantly higher speed of information transfer of a wireless network. For comparison, 802.11n standards allow you to work on the Internet at speeds up to 150 Mbit per second, while other classes are characterized by speeds of 54 Mbit per second.
The correct choice of a Wi-Fi router for the home also depends on how active and voluminous the user is on the Internet. For example, if it is limited only to viewing some sites, searching for information, checking mail and conducting correspondence, then in this case you should not worry about the processor power and the amount of RAM in the router. However, if the user sends and receives a large number of large files daily, you need to go into details and, making a choice of a router in the store, ask for more detailed information about the device.
The scheme by which the router works is very easy to understand - it receives the Internet from the provider through a wired channel, and then distributes it using the Wi-Fi system. As already mentioned, in addition to laptops and stationary computers, you can connect a printer to the router and configure the hard drive to access its files of other devices. In addition, the choice of the router and its price will depend on other functions. It is necessary to consider whether there are TV set-top boxes in the house and whether it will be necessary to broadcast files from the Internet using a TV. Some routers also allow you to reserve an Internet feed. If these parameters are not used, then the choice of a router can be stopped on a cheaper model.
When buying a device for creating a home network, you need to pay attention to whether the router supports the creation of VPN tunnels, which may be necessary for the development of private LANs via the Internet. Also, the built-in print server is a function that provides network printing, which will not necessarily be necessary for every buyer of the router. The price of the device will depend, of course, on the design of the model, the number of USB ports and the popularity of the manufacturer.