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Routers for a dummy

  • 30-09-2004 5:59pm
    #1
    Seeker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 178 ✭✭


    Im thinking about getting a broadband internet connection. Im not very in the know when it comes to routers and hubs and stuff. I'd like to know what other people use routers for. Do they offer a better connection than with just a broadband modem? I have an XBox at home so if I get broadband connection from eircom i'd like to set up Xbox live at home and the only use i've seen for a router is to allow both the PC and Xbox to be connected both at once. When Halo was being previewed in EDGE magazine one Bungie staff member said "Get a good router". Does this mean playing with a router is better than just connecting the Broadband modem into the back of the Xbox?


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  • #2
    Ripwave
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,188 ✭✭✭Ripwave


    Seeker wrote:
    Im thinking about getting a broadband internet connection. Im not very in the know when it comes to routers and hubs and stuff. I'd like to know what other people use routers for. Do they offer a better connection than with just a broadband modem? I have an XBox at home so if I get broadband connection from eircom i'd like to set up Xbox live at home and the only use i've seen for a router is to allow both the PC and Xbox to be connected both at once. When Halo was being previewed in EDGE magazine one Bungie staff member said "Get a good router". Does this mean playing with a router is better than just connecting the Broadband modem into the back of the Xbox?
    Eircom and IOL/ESAT both provide routers when you get DSL from them (so do most of the smaller companies, such as Digiweb and Netsource, as far as I know). They started providing devices with dual interfaces (one USB and one ethernet) about this time last year, largely to support XBox Live. You can have your XBox plugged into the Ethernet port and your PC plugged into the USB port, and use them both at the same time without any additional expense or configuration headaches.

    UTV only provide a device with a single USB interface by default, and will charge an additional €50 for a router with both ethernet and USB interfaces.

    The major advantage of the ethernet interface is its ubiquity - just about every type of device that you might conceivably want to network supports ethernet, and by plugging a hub into that single ethernet interface, you can easily share it between multiple devices (You can even get cameras with ethernet ports that you can plug into the internet without a PC, for example). Most PCs have USB, but it's pretty hard to share a single USB port between 2 PCs, and USB drivers are more complicated than ethernet drivers, which have been around for a very long time, and have pretty much had all the wrinkles worked out by now.

    So when you order your DSL connection from IOL (not eircom - you'd only be encouraging their anti-consumer tendencies), you'll be able to use your PC and your XBox at the same time, without any problems.


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