The difference between a wireless router and an access point?

[mirkazemisaman]

What is exactly the difference between a wireless router and an access point?
Sorry if I have been making a lot of traffic in this wireless area lately, but I just setup my first WLAN a few days back after working on it for like 5 hrs (I had no idea what I was doing!).

[Janak Parekh]

An access point merely bridges an existing network setup (i.e., a wireless extension of an existing network). A wireless router usually adds "Internet Sharing" and firewalling features and is what's usually used in a SOHO environment, i.e., to share a cable connection.

--janak

[brntcrsp]

Some routers can be configured as access points too.

[mirkazemisaman]

Can a wireless access point be connected to an existing network wirelessly or do you need to use ethernet cables?

[Janak Parekh]

Some routers can be configured as access points too.
Good call. In fact, most of them can. Just turn off the NAT/Firewall options.

Can a wireless access point be connected to an existing network wirelessly or do you need to use ethernet cables?
There are wireless-to-wireless bridge setups, but they're rare. They assume that you already have one AP, of course. If you don't have any APs yet, then no, the first AP must be hardwired into the network. (How else would you do it?)

You can compose an entirely-wireless network and use the AP as a base station. It's less important in that case, as you could also use Ad-Hoc networking (although an AP typically provides some more security options than an Ad-Hoc setup).

--janak

[mirkazemisaman]

Thank you Janak for your explanation.

[ajf]

However, many of the (cheaper) combined router and access points are really routers with the access points added later. This in only a concern in that dedicated access points usually come with more features for tweaking security and logging than the combined boxes.

The other issue is that the combined box is cheaper than two separate boxes.

I personally perfer the two box solution as I have a hybrid wired and wireless LAN, so I can physically turn of the wireless component by flicking a switch rather than having to log into the router/access point and turn it off in software, which I would probably never bother to do.

Cheers,
ajf

[Janak Parekh]

However, many of the (cheaper) combined router and access points are really routers with the access points added later. This in only a concern in that dedicated access points usually come with more features for tweaking security and logging than the combined boxes.
While this is true, for most SOHO apps the combined box works fine. Most of the APs with extra features, like RADIUS or 802.1x authentication support, are second-tier anyway; the cheap APs have little additional functionality above and beyond a wireless router.

--janak