Here Routers for First Time Shoppers

Routers are used to share internet connection between several devices on small or large networks. There are many devices which can be connected to a router depending on the types of connections the router can support. The types of connections supported by most routers are Wired Ethernet connections, Wireless Network connections and USB connections support. Since most devices nowadays are provided with wireless network capability shoppers are advised to choose a wireless router to share their internet connection at home. The devices which are usually connected to routers are computers, Printers, Game consoles, Mobile devices with Wi-Fi support and many other devices.


There are two main types of wireless standards used to describe routers. The first type of router is the Wireless G routers which allow users to use 802.11g wireless network adapters. The other type of routers is the more recent Wireless N router which allows users to use both 802.11n and 802.11g wireless network adapters. The more recent Wireless N routers are known to provide faster wireless connectivity speeds and also provide an increased range of wireless network coverage. Therefore a shopper wishing to support most Wi-Fi devices on his/her wireless network should consider buying the Wireless N routers. However if the shopper is going to use the internet on a device with an old Wi-Fi network card he can get the Wireless G routers since they come at a cheap price.


Another important feature of routers is the number of frequency bands the router can support. This feature is available in the more recent Wireless N routers. The Wireless N routers come in two types: - Single band routers and dual band router. The single band routers transmit at only the 2.4 GHz channel which make them very prone to interference from household devices. The Wireless N dual band routers transmit at both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz range which can be manually chosen or automatically selected. By transmitting at the 5 GHz channel these routers produce a stable channel for communication between computers without much distortion of the signal. Also available is the Wireless N Dual Band Gigabit Routers which in addition to having wireless capabilities they have Ethernet ports which can support 1000Mps data transfer rates compared to the usual 100Mbps.


There are two types of security standards available on wireless networks. The security standards are WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). The security that is available on routers is used prevent unauthorized access through wireless networks. However of the two types of wireless security WEP is the least efficient since its encryption method is not strong and many softwares available online can easily hack into an WEP wireless protected network. The WPA security mechanism is the newer standard of wireless network security and provides a higher security level on the wireless networks at a high encryption level.


Routers have a configuration page which allows users to configure their routers. The configuration page is normally accessed via the browser using the IP address 191.168.1.1 which is common to many routers. The default user name and password on most routers is given as "admin" and "admin" respectively. The configuration pages allows the user to select the router IP address, its network IP address, Internet access settings, Parental control settings, Wireless channels settings, security settings just to mention a few.