Router & Modem ??

Guys i dono wither this sounds stupid , but i really don't get wat's the difference btw router and a Modem . i was having a conversation with my friend other day ,he told me that our ISP provided us modem which s also a router

and other ISP provide just modems .
i thought modem was used just to connect pc to internet through the connection to landline ph . so y do we need a router here , i thought routers were on the service provider side always lol

. i'm still just a noob in this field . Don Start flaming me now

for such queries !

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Comments

AvidNetworker

If you only have 1 computer, a modem is fine, but if you have multiple computers at home, and want them all to share the same connection, you will need a router, which makes sure the data from the modem gets to the proper computer, and the data from the individual computer gets to the modem.

Think of it like this. You have a main water line running into your home. You could just have one big area where you wash your dishes, take showers, wash your clothes, and go to the bathroom, or, like your house probably is setup, you have individual places, like sinks, toilets, showers, etc, where the water from the main line gets "routed" to. The router is where all the water splits out to various pipes.

impz

MaSterOfGRapes wrote: »

Guys i dono wither this sounds stupid , but i really don't get wat's the difference btw router and a Modem . i was having a conversation with my friend other day ,he told me that our ISP provided us modem which s also a router and other ISP provide just modems .
i thought modem was used just to connect pc to internet through the connection to landline ph . so y do we need a router here , i thought routers were on the service provider side always lol . i'm still just a noob in this field . Don Start flaming me now for such queries !

From what I know, the "modem" that ISP provide to home consumers are really, an "all in one device". It's like a combo of modem, router and in some cases, built in hub/switch ports and has built in wireless capabilities.

Also, note that "wireless routers" or wireless access points are referred to as just "routers" by non IT centric guys.

MaSterOfGRapes

thanks guys for the replies, making sense now . so Modem s just a cover up name !

earweed

Some modems that you get from your ISP will have a router. Others may have switches. There is a difference. With a router you can have different subnets in your house. Most people just have each computer on a different subnet. This makes doing a lot of things at home more difficult. The best thing to do is keep all your comps on one subnet (one of the outlets of the modem/router) and use a switch to connect all your comps. When it's a combo Modem/router/WAP then all the wireless devices are on the same subnet as the main outlet from the router (usually #1 from my experience). A wireless access point is in no way a router as all your wireless devices are on the same subnet and there is usually just an input and no wired output..
A plain router as you may get for your Cisco studies may be made into a modem/router by installing the correct WIC (wireless interface card)and having the input from your ISP (DSL for instance) coming in that way.
The modem (or modulator-demodulator) just translates the signal from the ISP to what you need for computers and vice versa while a router just divides your network into subnets (different small networks)

mattau

i am a tad confused also. i get the whole modem router thing but some customers of isp's that dont live in the metro region need a "router" as they call it that only has a WAN port on the back of it. i dont understand how that does anything and what plugs into the wan port to be able to get the internet.

earweed

With those types of modems you have a connection from the ISP and a connection for your computer. If the modem only has one "outlet" for computers then you'll need a switch to connect several computers. WAN refers to wide area network and really isn't the correct term to use there. LAN, or local area network" would be the correct term for this.
What being in a metro region has todo with it I don't understand.

mattau

sorry, was referring to wireless dsl people. whom some use a router with a wan port on it or something. sorry i dont know how to explain it.

earweed

That would just be a modem with a WAP included. The WAN port would be to connect to the ISP.