Wireless router

A wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router and also includes the functions of a wireless access point. It is used to provide access to the Internet or a private computer network. It can function in a wired LAN (local area network), in a wireless-only LAN (WLAN), or in a mixed wired/wireless network, depending on the manufacturer and model.

Most current wireless routers have the following characteristics:

The most common operating system on such embedded devices is Linux. More seldomly, VxWorks is being used. The devices are configured over a web user interface served by a light web server software running on the device.

It is possible for a computer running a desktop operating system such as Windows to, with appropriate software, act as a wireless router. This is commonly referred to as a SoftAP, or "Software Access Point".

In 2003, Linksys was forced to open-source the firmware of its WRT54G router after people on the Linux Kernel Mailing List discovered that it used GPL Linux code. In 2008, Cisco was sued in Free Software Foundation, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc due to similar issues with Linksys routers.

Since then, various open-source projects have built on this foundation, including OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato.

In 2016, various manufacturers changed their firmware to block custom installations after an FCC ruling. However, some companies plan to continue to officially support open-source firmware, including Linksys and Asus.

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