What's the difference between a router and a modem?

[ry4n_1337]

Hey guys, I've been dealing with the * ISP provided router/modem black box combo plastic piece of * for the last 3 years throughout all my moves, and I'm wondering if I pickup a new router will the packet loss be gone?

By packet loss i mean if i run a continous ping via cmd.exe, the first 10 packets will be fine, then all of a suddden i get downtime and Request timed out for the next 5 then it resumes back to normal. Basically the internet is so * and it's just going out (not what im paying for lmaooo).


So if i go ahead and get a new router from best buy or walmart, will it be dope? If so which one? And whats the difference btwn a router and a modem and are they easy to setup 😛

 

[kanewolf]

A modem converts from one type of network to another. Cable to Ethernet, Dsl to Ethernet, phone to serial port. A router (in a home network) allows many devices to share a single external connection. It may do this via wired ethernet or WIFI.

 

[USAFRet]

Modem. Short for Modulator/Demodulator.
The main interface between the signal that comes from the ISP, and your internal devices. It converts the signal into something a router or PC can use.

Router.
It routes the signals, internally. It can serve up multiple internal IP addresses on your LAN. Generally 192.168.x.x.
This is what is known as Network Address Translation (NAT.

The outside world see your house and connection with a public IP address. Maybe something like 108.8.254.28.
This is what the ISP gives you, and what the modem sees.
The modem then passes the signal to the router.
The router hands out one or more internal IP addresses. 192.168.x.x to different devices.

Often, the 'modem' and the 'router' are in the same physical plastic box.


For your specific issue....
1. What ISP do you have?
2. Is this cable, DSL, fiber?
3. What speed do you pay the ISP for?
4. Have you talked to the ISP about this?
5. What specific make/model modem/router do you have?

 

[jsmithepa]

Quick answer to your question, unlikely your equipment is the problem.

If this is a DSL provider you maybe able to request they reconfigure your line from FAST to INTERLEAVE. This introduces some self-correction mechanism in lieu of a slight degrade in performance.