The basic purpose of the router is to connect two LANS, two WANS and LAN to WAN. Broadband routers are used for setting up the home or office network to share data, voice and video simultaneously and they support DSL, Cable Net and high speed internet connection. There are different types of the broadband routers for the different type of small and big networks. The most common features that are supported by them are the smart data transfer through NAT (Network Address Translation), Firewall capabilities, VPN support, DHCP server, printer sharing, Access control, Virtual Server, Web-based configuration utilities, DMZ host and Access control.
Following is the description of the different parts of the broadband router. The internal and external antennas give better performance. Before buying any router, assess your power requirements, make a list of the tasks that you want to be accomplished and make sure that the router is fully compatible with the wireless network.
Main Features:
- To share the broadband internet connection such as DSL, Cable net with the all the computers in a network, laptops and the gaming consoles.
- Provides security to the home and network computers through the built-in firewall capabilities.
- Printing port at the rear panel is used to share the printer with all the computers in the network.
- Easy transfer of the data, audio and video files across the network.
- NAT support, which means all the computers in your network will share the same IP address to access the internet. There are two types of the NAT. 1. Standard NAT and 2. MultiNAT. In the standard NAT all inbound and outbound traffic transfers on the same IP address. In the multi NAT, all the outbound traffic passes on the single IP address and multiple IP address support for the network traffic is also supported.
- The supported internet connections are DSL, Cable NET, dial-up analog modem, ISDN lines and two-way satellite connections. Two way satellite internet connection work fine with the Ethernet supported satellite modem.
- Few routers support more than one broadband connection at the same time such as Nextland Pro800Turbo.
- To protect your data and privacy most of the routers encode the all the wireless transmission using 128 WEP encryption techniques.
- VPN, IPSEC and PPTP supports.
Device Specifications:
Uplink Port: Uplink port is used to attach the additional hubs, switches and routers to expand the network.
LAN Port: When the LAN ports are being used then the LAN LED is lighted.
WAN LED: When data is being transferred across the WAN then the green LED flashes.
Power LED: The flashing power LED indicates that the system is working properly.
Status LED: Status LED flashes when the broadband router is connected and functional.
The common vendors of the broadband routers are Cisco, D-Link, LinkSys, NetGear, Voyager, Belkin, Edimax, 2Wire and Belkin etc. and the prices ranges from $ 50 to $ 200.