What is the difference between a modem and wireless router?

Answer 1

Modems are hardware devices that translate an analog signal into a language your computer (or other digital device) can understand. They are often used to create an internet connection through telephone ("dial-up") or cable lines. Wireless modems are typically used in portable devices such as laptop computers, mobile phones, and PDAs. These modems receive a signal over the air, such as from a cellular network, and not from a physical ground line. Routers are used to share the Internet connection created by a modem with one or more other machines connected to it. To use a router for anything other than creating a local network, you would need to connect it to the Internet via a modem. Wireless routers can perform this function without the need for ethernet cables. In this case, each machine needs a compatible wireless network adapter that uses an antenna to receive the signal broadcasted from the router. Because household routers are almost always used with modems, some hardware manufacturers have begun combining the two in a single physical device: the modem router. A wireless modem router is typically a hybrid of a traditional modem (which receives data through a physical cable) and a wireless router (which broadcasts the connection over a wireless network).

Answer 2

Modem is used to connect cable, DSL and so type of network to LAN networks using twisted pair. Wireless routers are used (in most cases) to connect modem to LAN (wireless and wired).