Networks difference between wireless access point and wireless router?

alright, so im thinking of making a jump to wireless to eliminate some cable clutter in the house. i've been looking around at the options and i fancy a linksys WAP54G, but i was reading a review that listed the differences between a wireless access point and a wireless router, and am now confused.

can more than one pc connect to a wireless access point?

would i need a wireless router to connect more than one pc wirelessly?

and now, for the question that makes me seem as if i have a clue as to whats going on: in the new italian job, was a wireless access point the device lyle used to connect to the train station network as to get a stronger signal?

thanks for your help - Sunny-D

 

you can conect more than one pc to a wireless access point. that is what you will need unless you have broadband and want to get ride of a router and just have one box, then you nedd a wireless router.

dont know about the italian job as have never seen it

edit: they would have conected to a wireless access point but i dont now about bossting the signal

 

normaly a WAP (Wireless Acess point) does not have any real routing capability and is just a bridge to convert your already inplace wired network to wireless (or more commonly to just add wireless access to the network).

now a Wireless router is a normaly home/office level router with a WAP built in to it.


WAP just gives wireless access toa wired network , great for adding wireless aceess in a large building that has wired nodes at fair ends of a large building for low cost. and a Wireless router is normaly used in a house that has broadband, but not a router as of yet, and you need/want the wireless capability aswell as a wired portion of the network.

Hope this helps.

 

thanks guys. i've already got a wired router, and i didnt want to replace it as of yet as i can source a cheap wireless WAP on ebay.

 

i dont mean to hijack this theard, but a biddy of mine down the road has wireless system and he has cable. i also have a wireless router but no cable yet. could i use my wireless router to connect into his network so i can use the cable on my non-wireless machines. he gave me permission to use

 

In the the Italian Job the only thing that would work like what he was doing would be a wireless bridge, it connects to a wireless network and expands the wifi network and sometimes has a switch builtin.

YOu would need a wireless bridge for this to work, the bridge connects to his network and puts it on your basically, also most isps do not allow sharing of a internet connection to another household, your friend mght want to check out his terms of service.

 

well he doesnt mind breaking the law and neither do i, but we both have the same router its a linksys befw11s4 v4 and i know the wap54g you can turn of dchp and use some feature to link them wirelesely but im not sure on the befw11s4, any insight