Difference between a wireless router and a wireless access point?

[Nessal]

Help please? I'm trying to setup a wireless broadband network in my house but I'm confused on what is required. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[nrgonline]

wireless router is a wireless access point built in the router..
wireless access point is a device that you can hook up to a wired router to give out wireless access

so lets say you already have a network router that is wired.. and you want to add wireless. you can either buy an access point, which is an add on, or you can replace your current router with a wireless router =D

 

[wjsulliv]

Router:
Splits/shares a single public ip address into several local ip addresses. Can assigns IP addresses. If you want to share broadband without having a master computer share the connection with all the others this is your thing to do.

Access Point:
A wireless hub. Allows other computers to access a network. Does not assign ip addresses. If you want to share broadband and have a master computer always on managing the shared connection this is what you want to do.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: wjsulliv
Router:
Splits/shares a single public ip address into several local ip addresses. Can assigns IP addresses. If you want to share broadband without having a master computer share the connection with all the others this is your thing to do.

Access Point:
A wireless hub. Allows other computers to access a network. Does not assign ip addresses. If you want to share broadband and have a master computer always on managing the shared connection this is what you want to do.

Not true for wireless access point, you dont need any master computer to manage the shared connection.
Think of it as a wired hub, you just automatically get your ip on each comp assigned by the ISP while in a router, the router acutally does the work of internet sharing.

In my experience wireless access points works better than wireless router, because often with a router, you will have problems in peer to peer transfers, and there is some configuration to do to get that to work.

Wireless access point can act as a direct connection to the internet without a third party doing some kinda work, think of the access point as a cable tv splitter(all it does is allow you to have multiple connections but does not manipulate the information itself) and a router as a external cable tuner.