Choosing a Wireless or Wired Router
If you plan to share your Internet connection among multiple
machines in your house, a wireless router will make your life easier. The cost a
router adds to a wireless access point (Figure 9.1), typically less than $50, makes a combination
access point and router a smart purchase.
Buying a bundled router and access point will also save you
from making one more connection. Some access points include other helpful
features as well, including a hub, printer server, or analog modem connection as
a backup to your broadband connection. As prices fall for wireless access points
with routers, manufacturers will continue adding features to remain competitive.
That's good news for folks with home and small office LANs.
In the next section we consider who might be a good candidate
for purchasing a separate wired router for a wireless network.
Already have a wired network? You can connect a wireless access
point to a wired router, if you have one (Figure 9.2). Besides the differences in setup (basically
connecting an Ethernet cable between the access point and wired router), there's
no difference in how a standalone router or one built into an access point
operates. And configuring a wired router is handled the same way as configuring
a wireless one. We take a look at router setup later in this chapter.
A likely scenario for needing a wired router in a home
environment is the use of no-new-wires technology, such as phoneline or
powerline networking hardware. Phoneline networking equipment is inexpensive and
powerline equipment offers more opportunity for making network connections, so
it's likely both of these technologies will remain on the networking scene for
some time.
Since phoneline equipment might interest those on a budget, you
could use a phoneline-to-Ethernet bridge connected to a hub, which connects your
access point to all your wireless network adapters. You mix the two technologies
and potentially save yourself some money, as phoneline network adapters often
run less than half the cost of a wireless network adapter, and offer similar
speeds.
Here are some of the possible ways to use a wired router in
your wireless network:
If you already have a wired router, there's no reason to spend
the extra money on a wireless router, and your access point will be less costly.
Just keep in mind that wired hardware can extend your network and allow you to
make use of multiple networking technologies. | 
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