Do I need a router??

[Boxy]

I make use of a router on my PC set-up as I used to run a laptop of it in addition to the desktop. Have just bought a new PC for the father in law. His old one had a weird collection of wires, some left over from his dial up days. I expected to plug the cable from the filter on his phone socket to the back of the PC but whilst it seemed to fit there was no internet connection. Off to PC World who convinced me I needed a router and I parted with £45.

Question is - does a (erthernet??)cable exist that has the small connector required at the phone filter end but the larger one for the back of the PC which I could use instead of a router? Or does the router perform some additional function as well as taking the signal from the phone socket cable and sending via the ethernet cable.Hope this makes sense, I'm not very techy

[GeoffR]

I make use of a router on my PC set-up as I used to run a laptop of it in addition to the desktop. Have just bought a new PC for the father in law. His old one had a weird collection of wires, some left over from his dial up days. I expected to plug the cable from the filter on his phone socket to the back of the PC but whilst it seemed to fit there was no internet connection. Off to PC World who convinced me I needed a router and I parted with £45.

Question is - does a (erthernet??)cable exist that has the small connector required at the phone filter end but the larger one for the back of the PC which I could use instead of a router? Or does the router perform some additional function as well as taking the signal from the phone socket cable and sending via the ethernet cable.Hope this makes sense, I'm not very techy

You don't need a router, you need an ADSL modem with a router built-in. The line from the filter is ADSL, the output from the ADSL modem is Ethernet. A router merely lets you share the connection between computers.

[BigWill]

I make use of a router on my PC set-up as I used to run a laptop of it in addition to the desktop. Have just bought a new PC for the father in law. His old one had a weird collection of wires, some left over from his dial up days. I expected to plug the cable from the filter on his phone socket to the back of the PC but whilst it seemed to fit there was no internet connection. Off to PC World who convinced me I needed a router and I parted with £45.

Question is - does a (erthernet??)cable exist that has the small connector required at the phone filter end but the larger one for the back of the PC which I could use instead of a router? Or does the router perform some additional function as well as taking the signal from the phone socket cable and sending via the ethernet cable.Hope this makes sense, I'm not very techy

You don't need a router, you need an ADSL modem with a router built-in. The line from the filter is ADSL, the output from the ADSL modem is Ethernet. A router merely lets you share the connection between computers.

Yep, Geoff is quite right. I do hope PC world sold you an ADSL Modem/router (or more likely an ADSL modem/wireless router these days!) because if it's just a router with no ADSL modem in it then it's not going to be of much use to you and I'd take it back to PC world and get them to give you the proper ADSL modem/wireless router.

As Geoff has already explained, don't get your telephone line (which carries the broadband ADSL signal to the ADSL modem/wireless router) mixed up with your ethernet line. The telephone line from the phone filter plugs into the telephone socket on the ADSL modem/wireless router and then an ethernet cable (which has a wider connector than the telephone line cable and won't fit into a standard telephone socket) connects the ADSL modem/wireless router to the PC by plugging into the PC's ethernet connector and the other end of the ethernet cable plugging into one of the (commonly 4) ethernet connectors on the ADSL modem/wireless router. If your father in law has more than one computer then he can connect them also by wireless means if he wishes provided the other computers have wireless receivers in them. Hope I haven't confused you.

BigWill

[TH-Photos]

I make use of a router on my PC set-up as I used to run a laptop of it in addition to the desktop. Have just bought a new PC for the father in law. His old one had a weird collection of wires, some left over from his dial up days. I expected to plug the cable from the filter on his phone socket to the back of the PC but whilst it seemed to fit there was no internet connection. Off to PC World who convinced me I needed a router and I parted with £45.

Question is - does a (erthernet??)cable exist that has the small connector required at the phone filter end but the larger one for the back of the PC which I could use instead of a router? Or does the router perform some additional function as well as taking the signal from the phone socket cable and sending via the ethernet cable.Hope this makes sense, I'm not very techy

You don't need a router, you need an ADSL modem with a router built-in. The line from the filter is ADSL, the output from the ADSL modem is Ethernet. A router merely lets you share the connection between computers.

Yep, Geoff is quite right. I do hope PC world sold you an ADSL Modem/router (or more likely an ADSL modem/wireless router these days!) because if it's just a router with no ADSL modem in it then it's not going to be of much use to you and I'd take it back to PC world and get them to give you the proper ADSL modem/wireless router.

As Geoff has already explained, don't get your telephone line (which carries the broadband ADSL signal to the ADSL modem/wireless router) mixed up with your ethernet line. The telephone line from the phone filter plugs into the telephone socket on the ADSL modem/wireless router and then an ethernet cable (which has a wider connector than the telephone line cable and won't fit into a standard telephone socket) connects the ADSL modem/wireless router to the PC by plugging into the PC's ethernet connector and the other end of the ethernet cable plugging into one of the (commonly 4) ethernet connectors on the ADSL modem/wireless router. If your father in law has more than one computer then he can connect them also by wireless means if he wishes provided the other computers have wireless receivers in them. Hope I haven't confused you.

BigWill

Will, it also gets a little more complicated when you have computers with different wireless cards all connecting to the same wireless router wirelessly if you want to get the most from your network. Currently 'domestic' routers are available in 'G', 'N', or 'dual band N'. Basically the single band wireless network will default to the speed of the slowest device connected. The dual band one will use the 5GHz band to communicate at N speeds but only if the computer(s) has/have a dual band card fitted leaving the 2.4GHz band for G devices. You can upgrade the wireless capability by using an upgrade dongle.

[Boxy]

Thanks for your replies. Haven't had a chance to sort it today but your responses have helped me understand what I need to do.

[Grierson]

I wonder who provides your Broadband, You would normally expect BT and the like to provide the hardware. - John