Home Networking: The Missing Manual

Picking Out Your Wireless Hardware

Wireless networks use the same basic type of equipment as a wired network, but while the wireless hardware serves a similar function, it looks and acts a bit differently.

Wireless Routers

The central point of any WiFi network is the wireless router or wireless access point. Both these devices contain the antenna that broadcasts your network's signal. But a wireless router goes beyond simple beaming duty: as the name suggests, it also acts as a router. If you're just looking to set up a basic WiFi network and want to cut down on the number of boxes you've got cluttering your house, you want a wireless router (also sometimes known as a WiFi router).

Tip

Why would you buy a wireless access point? If you've already got a plain vanilla Ethernet router (Section 1.1) handling your router duties, then you could just go for the wireless access point. But, honestly, WiFi gear is getting so inexpensive these days that it's almost always worth it to get the whole enchilada—router and WiFi antenna—packed into one box: the WiFi router.

You probably want your wireless router to have a built-in Ethernet switch (Section 1.2), because this gives you several Ethernet ports on your router (Figure 3-2). That's useful if you want to give access to your network to someone such as a visiting cousin with no wireless card for her laptop.

Figure 3-2. Top: A WiFi router beams ...