Almost everybody who uses the internet at home or work know exactly what routers are. Routers basically act as a link between your computer and the broadband internet connection you have subscribed to. You can check out the best broadband deals available in your area. You can directly connect the broadband wire to your computer, but you will lose all the benefits you get from using a router. Let’s take a look at a few of these advantages.
Access to more than one computer:
One of the biggest advantages that a router has is its ability to provide internet connection to multiple computers. Routers usually have one input port and around 4 output ports. By using a LAN cable through one of its many output ports, you can connect multiple computers and gain access to the same internet connection. This means that you don’t have to buy different broadband connections just to access the internet from other computers.
Wi-Fi:
With wireless technology becoming more and more relevant every day, a router’s capability to send Wi-Fi signals to all the connected devices is one of its major benefits. Sure, you can buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle and connect it to your PC and bypass using a router altogether, however, the range of the signal that you get from using a router is significantly higher than using any kind of dongle. Depending on how big your house is or how many rooms you need to give connections to, a router can come in several varieties that change the signal range from a short radius to a long one.
Security:
After several updates and changes to the firmware, a router can offer a very highly secure connection between the server and your computer. Every data that flows through the network is always encrypted constantly monitored so the risk of your computer getting a virus, or worse, is very low.
Features:
A router is filled with a lot of technical features that can be fine-tuned by any user as long as they know what they are doing. Some features include port forwarding, which allows the user to open up ports for a better connection from a particular server, and there are also several security features to enable or disable and tweak to get the maximum advantage. An average user need not worry about all this, but it’s good to know that there are such options if required in the future. These also help a user troubleshoot a lot of problems.
At the end of the day, if you are installing a broadband connection, then it’s a given that a router will be installed as well. There is absolutely no reason not use a router. Visit the web to know more about the best broadband deals.