Some of the people who have gone to the wireless realm, most especially those who have just switched (from wired to wireless) recently, are asking questions about wireless routers and wireless access points.

Since we will be talking about routers and access points, it is only fitting that we first define what these two are. Basically, both provide Internet access to your network but that's where their similarity stops. A wireless access point serves as a WLAN communication station where it provides wireless point of access to the Internet. Meanwhile, you can treat a wireless router as a wireless access point with additional functions. Routers can direct incoming data coming from different places towards their respective destination. It also acts as a server which designates unique IP addresses to the computers connected to the network.

Wireless routers may be the obvious choice between the two but there are times when you'll only need an access point. So if ever you have decided to make your router serve as an access point, here are the steps that you should follow.

1.Before we actually get to the set-up, here's a little list of materials that you will need.

a.Wireless Router

b.Network Ethernet Cable

2.When you have all the materials, you should then decide where to place your router. After that, you must power it on and log onto the router.

3.When you have logged onto the router, you must change a few settings. You must disable the DHCP server and assign a unique IP address to your router. Also, you need to disable the UPnP and the firewall.

4.After that, configure the wireless settings of the router to Only¯ as it provides the best performance compared to mixed mode. You can also set-up the SSID so you can easily identify the network.

5.Now that the router is up, attach the Ethernet cable to a spare LAN port on the main router and attach the other end to the modified router.

6.After you've revived the router, you should be able to see and connect to two wireless networks. When you first connect to your modified router, nothing will happen. You wouldn't be able to access the Internet yet.

7.To be able to establish a connection, you must manually setup a LAN IP address for your modified router and that's it, you're done.