Individual Family Web Surfing Made Possible with a Router

According to the experts, the simplest solution is to set up an Internet router. With an Internet router, several PCs can share a high speed Internet connection at the same time.

-An Internet router, a necessity for the era of households with multiple PCs

As the number of households with multiple PCs rises, the interests of computer users are shifting from the actual PC itself to the use of a high speed Internet connection.

Especially after the announcement from the Department of Educational Human Resource that the college entrance exam will now include questions from the EBS (Educational Broadcast Services) lecture, households with student examinees are in a hurry to obtain the Internet router.

In order to use more than two PCs with a high speed Internet connection, the household generally needs to apply for an additional wire from their Internet service company. In this case, it requires around an additional 15,000 won per month in fees.

However, since an Internet router enables the user to use several PCs with only one high speed Internet wire, users do not have to pay additional charges.

The principle of an Internet router is to attach an imaginary IP address to each PC that is jointly served by a high speed Internet wire with one IP address that enables connection with the Internet from outside.

To set up this installation requires an Internet router, a LAN card for each PC, and a LAN cable. The price for an Internet router is around 40,000-70,000 won.

-Wireless Joint Connection

For households with a notebook PC or a PDA, it is more convenient to share a high speed Internet connection by going wireless. Once a wireless LAN card is installed in a notebook PC or a PDA, it is possible to take advantage of a high speed Internet connection anywhere around the house.

In case of an internally built-in wireless LAN notebook or PDA that are currently on sale, there is no need to install a separate wireless LAN card.

There are two types of Internet routers that support the wireless function: an exclusive wireless router and wired-and-wireless joint router. A joint router is better suited for households that own a desktop PC.

If a household owns two desktop PCs, a notebook PC, and a PDA, it is recommended that they buy a wired-and-wireless joint Internet router so that they can share high speed Internet access by setting up the desktop PC as wired, and the notebook and PDA as wireless.

If the two desktop PCs are far apart, with one in the study and the other in the living room, after installing a wireless LAN card on the desktop that is further away from the router, there is no need to connect to a LAN cable, which makes the interior look neater.

The price for a joint router is around 110,000 won, and about 40,000-70,000 won for a wireless LAN card for notebook PCs and PDAs. The new wireless Internet router that boasts 54Mbps (802.11g), which is 5 times faster than the usual wireless LAN connection, is becoming more and more popular. Park Sang-hu, advertising manager of Techno-mart, stated, “As Internet routers these days are relatively inexpensive and their installation simple, they are becoming a necessity in the household.”

Tae-Han Kim freewill@donga.com