Technology

Should You Buy a Router If Your ISP Gives You a Combined Router/Modem?

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Many internet service providers are offering a two in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;wireless-wifi-router&sol;">one device that functions both as a modem and as a wireless router<&sol;a>&period; The internet companies have put a lot of thought into this&period; This eliminates the need of getting separate equipment and paying separately for each one of them&period; So&comma; in case you have a combined router&sol;modem units&comma; should you buy a separate router&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Well&comma; you do not need to&comma; but you can&period; There are pluses and minuses of both&period; Therefore&comma; we will be discussing all the good things and bad things about two different routers so that you do not have to&period; If the confusion persists then look for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;localcabledeals&period;com&sol;Spectrum&sol;CustomerService" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Spectrum’s phone number<&sol;a> to get a bit ofrightful advice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Why do these combined units exist in the very first place&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Internet service providers face a lot of problems if they provide routers and modems separately&period; I worked in the Sales Support of a provider and many customers didn’t know the basic difference between the two&period; They were under the impression that we are selling them extra equipment that might be of no use to them&period; Moreover&comma; the routers and modems had a separate monthly rental and customers were easily annoyed by this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The combined router&sol;modem unit makes things slightly simpler&period; The providers just have to hand the customers these simple units and they can connect their devices through these units&period; It eliminates the need of purchasing a separate router and the providers don’t have to face an influx of calls from customers confused setting up their routers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">How to use your own router&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The new combined units have this feature to disable the router functionality&period; This will make sure that the modem simply passes the connection to a separate router if connected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">After disabling the router functionality&comma; you can connect your other router with the help of an Ethernet cable&period; The router will be able to send traffic back and forth&period; If you don’t want to disable the built-in router&comma; you can even plug that separate router and both routers will function simultaneously&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There is one problem withthis&comma; we’ll discuss that at the end too&period; Whenever there are two routers working simultaneously&comma; the extra router receives a local IP from the unit&period; So&comma; at one time&comma; you’d be using a local network behind another local network&comma; this creates a mess with port-forwarding&period; Therefore&comma; it isn’t ideal yet possible&period; Disabling the router from the unit will leave you with one Wi-Fi network&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What is the benefit of using two routers&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The only benefit of getting an extra router is getting additional features that otherwise aren’t present in the unit&period; For example&comma; you want the fastest speeds possible and your unit doesn’t have 802&period;11ac&period; You can attach 802&period;11ac Wi-Fi with the unit&period; This will get you faster internet access&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What is the problem with double routers&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you think running two routers simultaneously on your home network will give you ultra-fast speeds&comma; you need to know that this exactly is the reason why these phantom problems arise&period;  So&comma; the modem you get from your internet service provider works as a modem and a wireless router&period; On top of that&comma; if you add another router&comma; this will create a problem&period; Why&quest; Because all the traffic is supposed to pass through your two separate routers&period; We’ll not get into the technical details of this issue&period; In most simple words&comma; this will introduce latency in your network connection&period; Ultimately&comma; your gaming experience will suffer a lot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Final Verdict <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">So&comma; should you get an additional router&quest; Well&comma; the answer depends on what you want&period; If you are happy and satisfied with what you have in the unit and you don’t need any additional features&comma; stick to the one provided by your ISP&period; Moreover&comma; if you are a gamer and can’t afford latency during online gaming&comma; there is no point in getting another router&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">On the other hand&comma; if your unit is old and doesn’t have any new additional features&comma; you can purchase another router and connect it with the unit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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