Router info

[Flawizz]

guys, im still confused with routers, can someone explain how these work and what they do / what they're used for?

[Sir Asvald]

 

[Flawizz]

i only have a modem at home, i connect 4 smartphones via wifi and one ethernet cable goes to a switch thats connected to 2 computers, (because one room is way to far from the modem).

 

why would a router be usefull in my case? if not, in what case would it be usefull? i still dont get it.

[beersykins]

What model of modem is it?  Sounds like an all in one device that combines a modem and a router, since you have wireless this is 100% the case.

[Flawizz]

2 hours ago, beersykins said:

What model of modem is it?  Sounds like an all in one device that combines a modem and a router, since you have wireless this is 100% the case.

im not sure, but its a normal modem that comes with the isp, from telenet in belgium, the model is 

24*8 DOC 3 WIRELESS(DOCSIS)

EURODOCSIS 3.0

 

[schizznick]

Routers are often used to break up what are called broadcast domains. All computers connected to a switch use broadcast traffic regularly, if this network gets too big all of that broadcast traffic begins to cause issues, as a result, we break this network up into smaller networks using subnetting and use routers to communicate between these 2 networks. In most cases, home's and small businesses do not have need of routers with the exception of the connection to the internet. The internet is one network and the home/small business network is the other. Other possible uses would be breaking up a business network by department or organizational group thereby needing routers for these groups to communicate. The IP address with the subnet mask can tell you how big the network is and what the boundaries are, but that is a larger topic beyond the scope of your question. I hope this simplifies it enough for you.