Understanding home/office routers

Most Broadband users choose to have a Home Network router. You can be connected to the GeorginaConnects broadband service directly with a computer, but if you have a Home router, you can have several devices connected to the Internet at the same time.

This is how it works: the provider (ISP) gives one connection and one IP address to each end user. The purpose of the router is to allow several devices get Internet connectivity out of this one connection that the ISP provided.

The router is called a router because it routes your home network (blue) to the Internet (red)

The router also provides connectivity between your different computers and devices; file sharing, printer sharing, etc.

The router gets its connectivity from the ISP (Internet Service Provider) through its Internet Interface (red in this illustration). It has a preprogmmed Home network (blue) to which the end user computers and devices connect.

There are hundreds of different Home and Office routers available. The terminology and setup screens look very different even within the popular Dlink and Linksys (Cisco) models.

It is not feasible for ISP's to provide technical support for the various routers available. However, we will give you some practical advice:

- most routers have the desired settings already in place, and will work out of the box
- however, you need to secure that the wireless interface is not open to the whole neighbourhood and criminals
- older routers almost always have the wireless interface open
- you configure the router by connecting to it with a computer through one of the Home Network (blue) interfaces.
- a Dlink router is almost always: http://192.168.0.1/ username admin no password
- a Cisco-Linksys router is almost always: http://192.168.1.1/ username admin password admin

Your router came with instructions, usually with a CD that has a setup wizard. Use that and keep it handy in case your router looses its settings.

ILS does not sell, configure or maintain home/office routers.