7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Router | Drawbacks & Benefits of Router

What is Router ?

Routers are networking devices which interconnects two different networks. For an example your home router connects your internet connection with a private local network. Apart from that it also does many functions of creating and maintaining a local network. Unlike other forms of networking devices, a router can efficiently determine the path of source and destination. All the routing of packets is done using routing table. 

 

What are the types of Routers ?

Routers can be of different capacities ranging from small home routers to massive edge routers where it connects dozens of networks. In fact routers are recommended by many of the latest communication setups for the best functioning. However this way of routing traffic opens the way for disadvantages too. One such is security vulnerabilities. Therefore, these pros and cons needs to be considered before needing to buy a router.

 

In this article, I will be illustrating the 7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Router | Drawbacks & Benefits of Router. Through this post, you will know pros and cons of using routers.

 

Let's get started,

 

 

Advantages of Router

 

1. Connection

 

The primary function of router is to share a single network connection among different machines. Using this multiple users can be connected to the internet so that overall productivity can be increased. Besides that routers also functions to connect different network architectures and medias. 

 

 

2. Security

 

Having a router is surely a first step towards securing a network connection. Because connecting to the internet directly with a modem exposes your PC to variety of security threats. Therefore, routers can be used as a intermediately between 2 networks so that the environment is secure to some extent. While this is not a replacement for a antivirus or a firewall, certainly it is worthy.

 

 

3. Dynamic Routing

 

For facilitating internetwork communication, the router uses dynamic routing techniques. Dynamic routing determines the best path available for the internetwork. And also it creates broadcast and collision domains. This can overall reduce the network traffic.

 

 

4. Packet Filtering

 

Other services of router includes packet switching and packet filtering. Routers filter the network using a set of filtering rules. According to this rules the packets are either allowed  or passed through.

 

 

5. Backup Plan

 

In case if one of the external network components happens to fail, routers make use of alternative parts for avoiding problems in routing traffic. Organizations especially of large scale take use of this to manage traffic efficiently.

 

 

6. NAT Usage

 

Routers take use of Network Address Translation (NAT). With NAT routers can share the connection by using single public IP address and share of UDP ports. Moreover it is almost impossible for large companies to connect to the internet without NAT.

 

 

7. Integrations

 

Routers can usually be integrated with modems. This ensures that Wireless Access Points are provided to create small networks.

 

 

Disadvantages of Router

 

1. Speed

 

Unlike repeaters and bridges, routers does not just read 2 layers of informations. It completely analyzes data from physical to network layer. As a result the connection could become slow. Moreover using routers, multiple computers can share the network for which the router undergoes a situation known as '' Connection Wait ''. This possibly slows the connection more.

 

 

2. Cost

 

Routers are costly more than any other networking devices. This includes hub, bridge and security. Therefore, routers are not always the greatest option in terms of cost.

 

 

3. Compatibility

 

There is also a compatibility issues for the router especially for the 5GHz frequency. Unless your PC and its adapters do support configurations of 5GHz frequency you cannot acquire its benefits. Hence, you should consider going for a more cheaper router.

 

 

4. Reliability

 

Not all the time routers are reliable. Still some modern devices use 2.4GHz spectrum which frequently gets disconnected. Most at times these types of disconnections are experienced by the people residing in flats and apartments.

 

 

5. Implementation

 

A typical router requires lots of initial configurations and NAT to setup. And also even for the simplest connection there should be a private IP address assigned. If there are more services enabled it needs more configurations as well. This in essence creates more complications in the setup.

 

 

6. Bandwidth Shortage

 

Dynamic routing techniques are used by the routers for the communication purposes. This potentially causes more networking overheads. Networking overheads consume large amount of bandwidths resulting in bandwidth shortages. Additionally for maintaining routing tables, routers regularly update on the network. This too can cause bandwidth consumption.

 

 

7. Protocol Support

 

Routers only does it operations using routable protocols. A protocol that is routable can provide unique IP addresses to the devices so that it can be identified across networks.