For less than $100, it is now possible to buy a router, a firewall, an Ethernet hub and a wireless hub in one small package. A good example is the Linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router. It is a cable/DSL router with a built-in, four-port, 10/100-megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet hub and support for up to 8 megabytes (MB) of bi-directional throughput (sends data both ways) at a time. Computers in your home network connect to this little box with a wireless card or with a network cable, and it in turn is connected to either a cable or DSL modem. You configure the box using a Web-based interface that you reach through the browser on your computer. However, you can simply plug it in and in 95% of the cases it will start working without any configuration at all.

Much of the work required to get information from one computer to another is done by routers -- they're the crucial devices that let information flow between, rather than within, networks. Routers are specialized computers that send your messages, and those of every other Internet user, speeding to their destinations along thousands of pathways. When information needs to travel between networks, routers determine how to get it there. A router has two separate but related jobs:

• It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the connections of "innocent bystanders."


• It makes sure that information makes it to the intended destination(s).

In performing these two jobs, a router is extremely useful in dealing with two separate computer networks. It joins the two networks, your home network and the Internet in this case, passing information from one to the other. It also protects the networks from one another, preventing the traffic on one from unnecessarily spilling over to the other. Regardless of how many networks are attached, the basic operation and function of the router remains the same. Since the Internet is one huge network made up of tens of thousands of smaller networks, routers are an absolute necessity. For more information, see How Routers Work.