Selecting a Wireless Router 51

twfsa

Hello Tom,

The specs of each system have really nothing to do with getting them online and sharing the Internet.

You are looking the right way when it comes to routers. Routers do not cause a system to slow down, as they are in reality their own system. Your computer attempts to connect to it either through a cable, or wirelessly, depending on your preferred setup. Most wireless routers come with 4 ports to plug directly into them.

With a router, you will usually have access to its settings from within your PC. You will need to connect to it using something like Mozilla FireFox or Internet Explorer to set everything up. Some routers come with built in hardware firewalls to prevent hacking attempts.

What a router will allow you to do is to set up port forwarding. Which means that you can close off *all* other ports and forward only a handfull to one PC (say, for yahoo file sharing, webcam, FTP server etc). The rest of the ports will be fully closed off and not accessible from the Internet.

One of the great things about using a router is that your computer is hidden behind it using a local IP address (such as 192.168.0.1). So those trying to access your computer from the Internet will actually need to first make their way through your router & its firewall (if it has that feature) and find out WHICH computer is yours and which local IP address your computer is currently using. You can set up DHCP servers and make your computer have a different IP address everytime you turn it on and connect it to the router, which is a bonus.

To give you an example. I use to connect directly to the Internet, or had DMZ set up (which means all ports were open and forwarding to my PC) - I use to get thousands of hacking attempts a day according to ZoneAlarm & hundreds of them rated as high. With ports closed and only forwarding those that I *really* need and keeping an eye out, I have only had 1,154 hacking attempts with 0 rated as high! And this has been since installing Zone Alarm.

So to draw a conclusion, go look into your local stores and ask a specialist about the routers they have available and the differences.

You want to know what type of wireless card is in your laptop and what band it uses, so that it will work with the wireless router you purchase.

Look into a router with built in hardware firewall. You can also look into a router with built in gateway, so that you can setup your Internet access from within the router and not rely on your PC to be switched on in order for the laptop to have Internet access.

Yours Sincerely, Samu'l ML Lison

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