What is the difference

[TEEB]

...between a Cable/DSL Internet Gateway and a router. Both are availabe and I wonder at the difference?

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

There is the obvious - one comes down a cable line, the other a phone line. (But you already knew that). I believe that a Cable connection is shared between the neighbourhood (hence why my 750K cable goes up to 200KBps sometimes, yet me friend who connects to a different place only goes up to 100KBps, unless its 3 in the mourning.) Yet with *DSL you get a direct connection to the exchange, and it is capped there. Also, at least here in the UK, DSL comes standard with a USB modem, and my cable a dual ethernet and USB modem (one or the other, not both).

[neouser99]

yea, but you didn't answer what a router is...

It takes a connection, from a ISP, or nothing at all, and generates ips for the computers connected to it, most consumer routers can take up to 255 connections...it also allows you to setup a lan with multiple computers. it does this by assigning each mac address an ip address, usually in the 192.168.x.x range. the consumer routers almost always also come with some features, like a nat firewall (very useful in todays windows world), virtual server, DMZ, mac filters, built-in access points, 4 port switch, etc. etc...

a basic home network topology

.............router..............
................|..................
.............switch..............
............./.......\.............
........comp1....comp2......

comp1 = 192.168.1.1
comp2 = 192.168.1.2

(wifi from router) -> comp3 192.168.1.3

all of those would be sharing one ip from your isp, if the router was hooked upto an ISP

-neo

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Originally Posted by neouser99 yea, but you didn't answer what a router is...

Sorry, I took it to mean, a Cable connection with a Router against a DSL connection.

One thing to add to neo's post, most commercial routers have a switch built in, so you don't have to buy one.

[piasabird]

Cable Networking provides you with a network connection. The traffic on any network can slow you down. So if your ISP has too many connections through too little bandwidth, things will slow down a bit. This depends on the ISP. If they advertised a 1 Megabit connection and you are not getting that speed tell them you want a refund. They probably write the agreements so you can not affect them too much. I keep hearing Up to 50 times faster. Which is kind of a subjective and misleading claim. My cable network reading is 3.2Mbps. I only signed up for about 650kbps or something close to that, so I dont know how they are limiting it. I dont think my speed is really that fast.

DSL can be as fast, and sometimes faster than Cable Modem networking. However, it matters how far you are from the nearest switch. This distance to the switch is a limiting factor with your networking speed.

[Trent Steel]

Originally Posted by TEEB ...between a Cable/DSL Internet Gateway and a router. Both are availabe and I wonder at the difference?

The Cable/DSL Internet Gateway will hook up to your phone/cable connection and it will allow for an internet connection using lan cable (or sometimes USB) which you can connect directly to your computer. This is fine, but if you need more than one connection then you will have to go for a router which will assign a seperate IP to each machine (although you are connected to the Internet through a single IP through the router). You need a Cable/DSL Internet Gateway to actually get highspeed internet into your home but you don't need a router, although it is recommended for its hardware firewall and multiple connection ability.

[TEEB]

Thanks for the help guys!! Trent, your answer was the one I needed. I couldn't tell if the gateway had any ports to allow for networking. Now I know!!! Thanks again.

[CaptTuna]

So, a Cable/DSL Internet Gateway is another name for a cable/DSL modem? I am being confused now.