WiFi access point What are they and how do they differ from the Router and the Modem?

With the passage of time, the use of WiFi technology, especially since it offers a plethora of benefits for homes, businesses and companies. This is how, due to the growth of all this technology, what are Wi-Fi hotspots.

Wi-Fi points are commonly used in the big companies where do you have a high traffic that needs to be connected to a wireless signal most of the time. Therefore, this type of device is mainly used in places of great extensions.

Unlike the routers which are normally used in homes or small offices where you don’t need to be signal covers large areas of coverage. This is how here we are going to teach you a little more about what the Wi-Fi hotspots and its main differences with modems and router.

What is a WiFi access point or hotspot device and what is it for?

access points They are a device that handles create a wireless local area network in large buildings or spaces. As its name indicates, its main objective is create a hotspot where there isn’t onehe usually acts as if he were a second router able to offer a better connectivity where the main router is not capable of offering its coverage.

This device must be connected to a router via an Ethernet cable, the same you will receive the maximum possible speed of the network for it to be able to distribute it through a wireless connection for a given space. It is important that this device connect directly to the Ethernet cable of the router main, because if you connect through the wireless signal it will not work for what it is designed to do.

This is because this appliance is not a Signal repeaterwhich do take care of take the signal they receive and repeat it to a specific area where the signal did not reach. Bearing this in mind, Access points are devices that are responsible for improving the Internet connection in those places where these are scarce or do not have good coverage.. Furthermore, it is frequently used in houses with two or more floors, buildings or large areas where the coverage of the router remains scarce.

What are the main characteristics of an access point?

These devices are mainly characterized by offering a large number of benefits to most usersespecially to those who by bad luck have little access to the Internet either at home or at work. This is how these devices are responsible for being able to carry the network signal to those places where it does not reach or is very scarce.

For this, it has 3 important characteristics which we show you below:

Speed

We can say that the main advantage this offers is speedsince these devices are connected through the Ethernet cable with the router, This allows them to be able to take all the speed of the main device in order to distribute it in a specific area through a wireless signal. Therefore, its speed will be equal to that of the main router.

This has certainly become a great benefit for most users, since those who connect to this access point they will also be receiving the maximum speed of the main equipmentwhich allows them to have a excellent connection at all times.

Setting

Another of its main characteristics is your settingsit stands out for being very simple and quick to perform as well as your installation. In this case the user has the opportunity to set an access password to restrict connections to the computer and do it a lot more privatethus avoiding the network is congested for a large amount of devices connected to it.

Therefore, the user will have the possibility to configure all the necessary details of the access points in a very simple and fast way.

Security

Finally, we find what is safety, another point to keep in mind that is extremely important. Usually when the access point it’s found connected to a wired network whose security is based on a physical access control it can become a unstable and insecure networksince any user of the local network could enter the connection and cause significant damage to it.

In this case one of the best options for protect and ensure excellent connection performance is creating a network encryption. today the new hotspot devices are able to support WPA2 encryptionthis being one of the most reliable ciphers currently. While older equipment only support WEP encryptionwhich not completely safe for the cyber attacks that are presented today.

In this case it is important that you can set a password whatever sure enough and that it has different characters that make it difficult to guess. Similarly, it is recommended create a guest network with another password different so that it can be used only by those people who want it.

Hotspot vs Modem vs Router. How is each one different and which one is better?

These three devices are often constantly confused by most people, despite the fact that all three perform similar functions what is the of offer an internet connection, each of them performs a different task. Furthermore, for a router can work You need to have a prior modem, And for what the access point can work you will need to have a router. Therefore, each of them depends on the other for their functioning.

According to this, here we are going to teach you What are the main differences that exist between each of the teams.

Facility

The installation of these three devices is very simple, as it was mentioned before, each one of them needs the other to be able to work. Therefore, in the case of the modems these are found installed directly to the telephone line, which is in charge of transmit analog signal so that this device can convert it to a digital signal through the demodulation process.

once the modem is installed and operational, you can add what is the router, which must be connected directly to the modem since this will be the one in charge of transmit internet signal. In other words, the router without the modem could not work since this device is not capable of obtaining a Internet connection.

And finally, we find what it is the access pointthis team will meet connected directly to the router via an Ethernet cable where will you receive internet signalas in the previous case, the access point without the router would be nothing, since by itself you will not be able to obtain the network connection.

Speed

In the case of speed, it will depend mainly on each of the the teamsbut usually between these three devices the fastest is the modem. This device is capable of offering Faster connection speeds than routers and WiFi hotspots.

Next we find the routersthese devices being many faster than hotspots even though these teams usually take the maximum speed offered by the router when providing the Internet signal through the Ethernet cable. But despite this, they are still the slowest of the three.

Therefore, if we compare these three gadgets as to speeds of Connection we can locate them as follows: Modem > Router > Hotspot. Being the modem the device that will offer you the best browsing speeds.

Security

As to safetywe can say that All three devices have very stable and secure security encryption. However, if we make a comparison between these three devices in terms of security we can say that in the case of the modems these make use of basic safety standardsas in the case of the routersalthough these are more prone to any type of attack.

In the case of the hotspots these appliances commonly use what is encryption WEP this being a very unreliable security protocol currently. Although, the new access point models offered in the market have the capacity to accept WPA2 encryption which provides a greater security. But, in the case of defining which of them is the safest it can be said that he is modem, followed by the router and being the hotspot the most insecure or weak of the three.

Setting

Regarding the configuration, it can be said that All three teams are extremely easy to configure. However, the one lower complexity of the three presents is the modemsince this simply takes care of offer Internet connection to a single computer Y does not offer a wireless connectionthis being one less factor to configure as in the case of routers or access points where should it be set various parameters related to the wireless connection.

Meanwhile in routers and hotspot must be configured both wired and wireless network like set a username and password to prevent anyone from access the network. In the same way, it must create both main network and guest network in order to get a greater security and avoid possible network attacks.

How can I configure my WiFi access point to improve its speed and security to connect to the Internet?

It is very possible that you have bought a access point to improve the coverage, speed and security of your Internet connection at home or in your work office, keeping in mind that this will allow you to obtain a network signal where before it did not reach.

So if you’re looking for the way how to configure your hotspot here we are going to teach you how to do it, for it simply Follow the steps that we will explain below:

• To start with this setup process you will need to enter the computer settings panelfor this you can connect it directly by cable to the computer and enter your IP from the browser of your choice.
• When you have entered the configuration panel you must look for the section of “Wi-Fi settings”, in the options that you will find there you must make the following modifications:
  • SSID or network name: In this case it is recommended that both the router as the hotspot have the same network name, security, password and encryption type.
  • Channel: In this case, it is recommended that each of the teams have a different channel.
• When you have changed these two items in the settings, the following will be save changes for these to apply. Note that if you perform a search with your laptop or smartphone you will only find the closest network to your locationbut if you do a deeper scan you will see that There are two exactly the same networks, but on different channels.
• In case you are closer to the main router your mobile will automatically connect to it, but if you are in a strategic place where your terminal can receive both signalsthen it will connect to the one that offers a best signal.
• If the configuration is done wrong waythen each of the networks will have different passwords and SSIDswhich will lead you to have to disconnect from one to connect to the other.
• If on the contrary, the two networks are located in the same channel, your smartphone or computer will not know which of the two to connect to since a kind of confusion will be created in the system since these are not capable of interpret these changes.