A home wireless gateway connects a home network to a larger network or the internet. Originally, it was a collection of devices, but now it’s a single wireless router that connects to a modem. It provides basic security and can accept an unlimited number of wireless connections.
A home wireless gateway connects a home network to a larger network or directly to the Internet. Gateway can refer to the actual devices used to connect networks or to the software component of those devices themselves. As the technology merges multiple network devices into individual components, home wireless gateway has become a rare term. It is more likely to be called a wireless modem or a wireless router, depending on its other functions.
Originally, a home wireless gateway was a collection of devices that allowed multiple computers to connect to a single external network. The signal would enter the house through a modem, they would go through a router and then through a hub. The hub would disrupt the signal, allowing multiple computers to connect through a single internet address. The wireless component was a wireless antenna attached to one of the lines in the hub.
These early gateway systems were complex and prone to problems. The large number of components involved has made maintenance and troubleshooting very difficult for many users. To counter these problems, components began to blend. Hub, wireless antennas and router combined into one wireless router that does everything the original components did. Wireless modems do exist, they do everything the whole old system did, but they are rare due to restrictions from high speed internet providers.
In the past there was an important distinction between home gateways and enterprise gateways. Home gateways had fewer options and features than those used in a corporate network. This distinction began to change during the mid-1990s until there was virtually no difference between the systems. In the few cases where the term “gateway” is still used, the distinction between “home” and “business” is often omitted.
A modern wireless gateway for the home is made up of a handful of different pieces. A modem connects the local area network (LAN) to the wide area network (WAN). The WAN could be the Internet or another network. Modems are often single-function devices provided by an Internet service provider. The two most common high-speed modems are cable modems, which connect to your home cable television system, and digital subscriber line (DSL), which connects to your telephone line.
Routers are the center of the inside of the home wireless gateway. A wireless router connects to your modem and computers through a wireless or wired connection. Most wireless routers have two or four points for connecting wired computers and can accept an almost unlimited number of wireless connections, giving them flexibility. These devices take the signal from the LAN and WAN and organize them so that they don’t interfere with each other. They also provide basic security to the LAN from external network attacks.
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