Whats the difference between a router and access point?

[Denvers Dawgs]

I have a linksys wireless(g) router..... and am just curious about the differences between routers & access points?

[ferreter]

Wireless Access Points (WAPs) just provide wireless connectivity to other wireless devices.

Wireless routers are WAPs that also provide routing, security (NAT and Firewall) and dish out network addresses (DHCP).

You can find out a lot more over on the Wireless Forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com

[Perro Grande]

Access points behave like hubs.

The version that contains the router still exhibits essentially hub-behavior on the wireless side, but can route from the wireless segment to a wired segment.

Your Linksys routes between your wireless machines and whatever you have connected to its WAN port (typically a cable/dsl modem). It also provides such goodies as DNS, NAT, and performs some basic firewall functions.