Router or modem?
| Router or modem? | |
22 July 2005
This is a question many people ask when buying a broadband connection for the first time or migrating to a new service provider. And, while the question may appear on the surface to be a no-brainer, there are many good reasons to choose a router over a free modem. To make an informed choice, users must first look at their needs before deciding on which piece of broadband connection hardware to go for. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of modems and routers and establish which kit suits you best. Starting with modems, then, these are normally supplied free of charge by broadband companies. Primarily, the modem is aimed at the consumer market as a cheap and easy set up solution. The major attraction – apart from the price – is that a modem supplied by a broadband ISP will be fully supported by their helpdesk, an important consideration if you’re non-technical and run into difficulties with your broadband connectivity. The drawback with modems is that they are fairly limited and usually only suitable for connecting one computer to a broadband service. Routers, meanwhile, cost on average about £50 or £60 but offer much greater functionality and the flexibility to share your broadband connection across multiple users. This is very handy, for example, if you have a desktop machine and family members with laptops and games consoles they want to plug in, or are a small company that needs to share broadband across four or five users. There are important differences, too, in how modems and routers provide the “always on” broadband service. In their role as a conduit between the internet and your home or office, modems act as a direct connection between the net and the computer, using the individual machine’s personal identity, its IP address. This, with certain qualifications, makes a modem more of a security risk, potentially allowing hackers easier access to your computer and its contents. In the worst case scenario, a hacker could gain access to a router but is unlikely to get any further. So long as all vulnerable services are locked down, the router is an impassable doorman (door-person/door-thing/door-ware?) Although routers represent an important extra defensive rampart to the net, their main function and selling point is as a control station that enables networked computers or devices to share broadband connectivity. The downside is that a broadband service provider is unlikely to provide technical support for a router unless they themselves have supplied it to the end user. This article has so far reduced the connection argument to just two protagonists, but there is a third option – a PCI ADSL modem. This is an internal card that can be installed to replace a standard 56k internal modem. Some knowledge is required to retro-fit a PCI ADSL modem but, on the plus side, an internal broadband modem does not take up valuable desk space. And online gamers will be interested to hear that, in general, an internal modem provides the best response times. The trade off for reducing latency is that a PCI modem demands CPU processing power, so gains could be cancelled out if the computer is nearing capacity with little to spare. To help choose the right kit, check the table below for guidance: ease of use price multiple connections games consoles Ethernet/wireless Modem √ √ X √ X PCI modem X √ X √ √ Router X X √ √ √
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