What is the point of a router?

[CSF]

At my house we only have a modem. I noticed my boyfriend has a modem and a router. I asked him what the point of the router was and he said it is so they can have wifi in the house. But we use wifi on all our devices in my house and only have a modem. So what's the point/difference?

[BILL]

Guess what? You also have a Router. The box that your modem is in is also a router.

One half of that little box is the modem and the other half is the Router.

[tumbleweed_biff]

If you have WiFi coming from your modem then it is also almost certainly a router as well.

A router is a device which provides the ability to have multiple devices use the same internet connection and at the same provides a certain degree of hardware firewall. There is more to it than that, but for what you as a consumer are doing, that is what you need to know.

[PokerPlayer]

If you have wifi then your modem is also a router.

Routers usually do two things, allow for wifi and allow multiple devices to plug directly into it. Modems usually just have one or maybe two plugs for you to connect other devices up to it. Usually a router.