Is my router using wireless at all?

[anatta]

Bear with me please, lol, I'm hungry and in a rush and I hope this makes sense:

I just got a Broadband router from a company that asked if I had a particular telephone line, which I have, to make sure it would work here. It arrived with instructions to connect the router to the telephone socket via its DSL socket, which I have done, so I assumed from this that I am connected to the Internet via the telephone line and not the antenna on the router, but I have a very shaky understanding of how Internet connection works so I'm wondering if I'm mistaken. I'm using Ethernet to connect the PC to the router so that's not involving its wireless signals either. Yet the green light on the router indicates that the wireless is switched on.

Is it transmitting signals that aren't being used for anything (in which case I'd like to turn them off) or are these signals actually playing a role in getting me online?

[Fugs]

The purpose of a router is to send/receive an internet signal to/from the area around the router through the air. The actual internet still has to be *routed* through the telephone lines but having the router there eliminates the need for excessive cables running around your home or business.

As long as you have a wireless internet card on your computer (if not you can buy them at most electronics stores or regular shopping centers) it should be able to pick up the signal from around the router.

[anatta]

Originally Posted by Fugs

The purpose of a router is to send/receive an internet signal to/from the area around the router through the air. The actual internet still has to be *routed* through the telephone lines but having the router there eliminates the need for excessive cables running around your home or business.

As long as you have a wireless internet card on your computer (if not you can buy them at most electronics stores or regular shopping centers) it should be able to pick up the signal from around the router.

Thanks for the reply!

Are you saying that the only connections that can be wireless on a wireless router are the ones between the router and the LAN machines? The Internet access doesn't involve wireless signals? If so, then I should be able to switch the wireless off without losing it, is that right?

The thing is, I have fully functioning access already with the Ethernet cable, it's not taking up space, and I understand it should be faster than using wireless would be anyway. The problem isn't that I want to use the wireless, it's that I'd like to turn it off if it's not doing anything, so I don't have to worry about securing it or about possible effects of the waves on my brain cells (the only cells in my body I care much about...)

I almost turned it off through my ISP's website but stopped because I thought if this takes me offline, I won't be able to switch it back on, LOL.

PS. I actually started an IT course recently but we've only just started looking at networks, so that's another reason I'd like to understand how what I have is working.

[Fugs]

Well first off, radio waves don't mess with your brain cells. You are constantly being bombarded by radio waves, there is no getting around it. That's all wireless is, radio waves. You are in no more danger of getting brain cancer while listening to the stereo in your car than you are using wireless internet.

As for security, the router is the only real hack risk but as long as you set a password on the router you should be fine. Most come with their own password and you only have to set it up, on some you can set your own, the directions should come with the router itself. People who hack into your router mostly do so for the free internet, and if you don't live in an apartment and the router's range isn't too wide it should be obvious if it's happening. Just look out for some one on a laptop in your front yard

Turning the router off will only stop it from sending the internet signal around your home, so if your computers are all wireless none of them will get internet until you turn it back on by flipping the switch on your router again. Remember, the router is like a satellite, it receives information and broadcasts it around an area.

Your LAN line as it is currently is probably not going to get hacked into. All that stuff in the movies where the bad guys splice the cords and hack into the buildings, while possible, don't happen. Not to hurt your feelings or anything but you probably aren't interesting enough to be hacked. It would just take too much time and effort for such a little payoff.

The only security risks you are likely to come across are viruses, Trojans, and other malware that you can get from websites and such. Those are automated and don't require any human input other than your own, but those are mostly dealt with by most anti-virus software. If you don't have one I'd suggest Avast!, there is a free version that works very well and is easy to set up.

[Ridiculous]

A router is not the same as a wireless access point (WAP).

A lot of routers have a WAP built in, but it isn't required and it certainly isn't a necessity. There are definitely routers without any sort of wireless connectivity.

A router is a device that determines where packets should be sent to on a network. When you, say, search for something on Google, your computer sends a little packet of information to your router saying "Go to this website and ask for this page". The router then forwards this packet to your ISP, who then communicates with the appropriate locations (in this case, the Google servers).

The main job of the router is to determine the route for the packet to take and then send it there, as it isn't much use if the search results are sent to a different computer on the network than the one that asked for the search in the first place.

You may only have one computer on your network, in which case a router is pretty much useless because there's only one option to go to. However home-use routers also (usually) have modulator/demodulators (modems) built in as well, which are required to convert between the analogue signal of the ISP's lines and the digital communication used by your computer. Back in the old days where it was common for just a single computer per household, routers weren't used and there was just a standalone modem (sometimes built into the PC itself) that the telephone cable plugged into.

Your router is acting as a modem in this situation as you are connecting it to a phone line. If you turn the router itself off you will not have any access at all, cabled or wireless, because you'll also be turning off the modem.



If it doesn't say your router has wireless on the box, then it probably doesn't. If you don't have the box, then there will be a model number somewhere on the router itself, and you can do a search for this plus the brand name to find the specification.

If it does have a WAP built in, then you will have to access the router's control panel (usually by going into a web browser on a computer connected to the router and typing 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in the address bar, which signifies the local IP address of the router; which one depends on what the manufacturer decided to use. You'll probably have to type in a username and password, defaults are in the manual or possibly just "admin" for both as a default) and configure the wireless. You should be able to turn it off in here.


A WAP is a substitute for cables as Fugs said. Turning off the wireless will not affect your usage at all as you have your computer connected to the router with a physical cable. You can just view wireless as a bunch of extra cables coming out of the router that other computers can connect to; it isn't going to affect anything it you take the unused cables away.

[anatta]

Originally Posted by Fugs

Well first off, radio waves don't mess with your brain cells. You are constantly being bombarded by radio waves, there is no getting around it. That's all wireless is, radio waves. You are in no more danger of getting brain cancer while listening to the stereo in your car than you are using wireless internet.

As for security, the router is the only real hack risk but as long as you set a password on the router you should be fine. Most come with their own password and you only have to set it up, on some you can set your own, the directions should come with the router itself. People who hack into your router mostly do so for the free internet, and if you don't live in an apartment and the router's range isn't too wide it should be obvious if it's happening. Just look out for some one on a laptop in your front yard

Turning the router off will only stop it from sending the internet signal around your home, so if your computers are all wireless none of them will get internet until you turn it back on by flipping the switch on your router again. Remember, the router is like a satellite, it receives information and broadcasts it around an area.

Your LAN line as it is currently is probably not going to get hacked into. All that stuff in the movies where the bad guys splice the cords and hack into the buildings, while possible, don't happen. Not to hurt your feelings or anything but you probably aren't interesting enough to be hacked. It would just take too much time and effort for such a little payoff.

The only security risks you are likely to come across are viruses, Trojans, and other malware that you can get from websites and such. Those are automated and don't require any human input other than your own, but those are mostly dealt with by most anti-virus software. If you don't have one I'd suggest Avast!, there is a free version that works very well and is easy to set up.

Thanks for all the information (although I beg to differ on the radio wave issue - FM radio waves are significantly longer than the radio waves we're talking about, and the degree to which this could affect the population's cognitive abilities in the long term seems to be the last thing researchers are going to consider, just as it was with lead in Rome's water supply). I don't mean to go off on a heavy tangent, haha, but I'm a brain enthusiast and the fact that it's the organ in the body you LEAST often hear about how to look after, despite being the only one capable of figuring out how to fix all the others, comes up in many conversations.

Anyway, now I understand which cable is doing what, I've disabled the router's wireless interface, not turned off the router completely, and as you can see it's still working. In the future I might want to use the wireless capabilities but right now it's not necessary with my tiny LAN and as I said would limit the speed. Thanks very much for your explanations, I'm going to read around the subject now I have the first clue what's going on.

[Fugs]

Rid's putting my technical knowledge to shame

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by Fugs

Rid's putting my technical knowledge to shame

Your technical knowledge is fine, you just said "router" instead of "wireless access point" . Otherwise it is all correct.

[anatta]

Originally Posted by Ridiculous

A router is not the same as a wireless access point (WAP).

A lot of routers have a WAP built in, but it isn't required and it certainly isn't a necessity. There are definitely routers without any sort of wireless connectivity.

A router is a device that determines where packets should be sent to on a network. When you, say, search for something on Google, your computer sends a little packet of information to your router saying "Go to this website and ask for this page". The router then forwards this packet to your ISP, who then communicates with the appropriate locations (in this case, the Google servers).

The main job of the router is to determine the route for the packet to take and then send it there, as it isn't much use if the search results are sent to a different computer on the network than the one that asked for the search in the first place.

You may only have one computer on your network, in which case a router is pretty much useless because there's only one option to go to. However home-use routers also (usually) have modulator/demodulators (modems) built in as well, which are required to convert between the analogue signal of the ISP's lines and the digital communication used by your computer. Back in the old days where it was common for just a single computer per household, routers weren't used and there was just a standalone modem (sometimes built into the PC itself) that the telephone cable plugged into.

It seems then that my little box contains a modem, router, and a WAP. Good to know, even if I'm not using it for much right now.

[qboy]

Originally Posted by anatta

It seems then that my little box contains a modem, router, and a WAP. Good to know, even if I'm not using it for much right now.

They also contain a switch (allowing you to connect more than one device via ethernet) and a web server (for the admin pages). Surprising how many functions are actually in an "ADSL Wireless Router" - to think I used to have three different boxes to get me online! (ADSL Modem, Router/Switch with USB port for the ADSL modem, and Wireless Access Point!)