Very simple: if you are connecting to the Internet via cable or DSL, you should have a router!
A router has one input and two types of outputs: wired ports (1, 2, 4, 8, etc) and/or wireless antenna.
The input comes from the Cable (or DSL) modem. The outputs go to all the computers you have in your house...either wired or wireless or both.
The purpose of the router is to take that one signal from the modem and route it to all the computers attached to it. It will allow the sharing of an Internet port and swapping files from computer to computer.
The best thing about the router....computers (hackers) cannot communicate through it to get to your computers. It's a must to keep hackers from your computers!
Tips about a router in case you care:
The router will take the IP address from the modem that has been assigned to you by your ISP and split it amongst all new IP addresses it has assigned to all the computers attached to it.
A typical IP address assigned from your ISP might be something like 24.208.216.1
The router will assign IP addresses to up to 255 computers.
Each manufacturer of routers has their own IP addresses and they are the same for all the routers they sell.
D-Link uses 192.168.0.1 through 192.168.0.256
Linksys uses 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.256
Belkin uses 192.168.2.1 through 192.168.2.256
The IP address for the router itself is the first number of the range of addresses it uses.
If you want to view/change the configuration of your router, with your browser (Internet Explorer?), type in the first IP address (192.168.1.1) and hit enter.
Your router should probably be placed near at least one of your comnputers...so that computer can be wired to it rather than wireless.
If you want more computers wired to your router than you have outputs from the router, buy a hub to split the signal from the router.
I hope this was helpful.
This page last updated 7-15-04