Users who establish a wireless Wi-Fi connection are often confused and do not understand the difference between an access point and a router, although they are principled.
Access point and router
An access point is essentially a wireless base station that provides a user with wireless access to an existing network. In addition, the access point is also designed to create a new wireless Wi-Fi network. As for the router or router itself, this is a device that already has a built-in access point.
Advantages and disadvantages
It is worth noting that the differences between these two devices also lie in the fact that if the user directly purchases an access point and installs it, then he will need to set the provider's TCP / IP protocol settings, and also, he will not be able to connect to the access point for more than 1 device. The thing is that in order to connect more devices to one access point, the user will need to get an additional address (MAC address) from the provider, which is often impossible to achieve just like that.
The main disadvantage and one of the differences is that the access point is not able to protect your device (for example, a laptop) from various intrusions, and in order to ensure a good level of security when working on the Internet, the user will need a firewall. Naturally, such a point has some advantages, among which it is worth noting that the user does not need to configure or redirect ports for DC or torrents.
As for the router, it receives the settings automatically, and in order to work in the network, it is enough to configure the router only once. All other devices that will be connected to the router will use its settings. To ensure security, the router uses hardware protection, which protects the user from various external threats.
Most often, an access point is purchased solely in order to increase the working space of the router. As a result, it turns out that the router distributes the Internet over a certain area, and the access point connected to the router expands its boundaries.
Summing up, we can say that the access point acts as a hub, that is, it allows you to connect several devices via a wireless Wi-Fi network into one, but in order to access the Internet, you will definitely need a router, since it sets the IP address for each device …
