What technical benefits does a router have over tethering with a smartphone?

Question

What benefits does a traditional router and modem grant over the same functionality from a modern smartphone?

I consider things such as reliability, accessibility and speed as major reasons to disregard smartphones as a sole use for my own purposes. Can things such as ports to games come in the way for a smartphone? Even though settings for wifi from smartphones are often simplifies, I've rarely required even a third of all functionality a router can give me.

So the question; What makes a router and modem worth keeping or purchasing with todays smartphones around?

Answer 1

This is a very subjective question. You are comparing an unspecified router against an unspecified phone, not to mention ISP's and carriers. However, I think some more obvious points can be highlighted:

• A reasonable router is almost always going to have better wireless range and performance because it's designed specifically to do what it does. Those antennae aren't just for show. I don't know what range you can achieve with your phone but I'm guessing it's not great.

• A decent router can operate multiple networks types simultaneously - this enables modern/high-end devices to get maximum speed on the LAN whilst still allowing older devices to connect. For instance, a router may support 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n simultaneously, and it may support dual-band to run 802.11n at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The advantage of using a 5GHz mode is that there is typically less interference as there are fewer devices using the frequency.

• Some routers now support 802.11ac which is a new much faster standard starting to gain popularity (e.g. on the MacBook Air). Of course this is not really relevant at the moment as you probably don't yet have a device that supports it or a need for those kind of speeds.

• Ping times/latency could be poor using the kind of setup you are talking about. This will be down to a combination of the hardware (i.e. an old phone may make things worse) but also the nature of the specific mobile network you are connecting to and quality of reception.

• A router will also have wired Ethernet ports. Those with Gigabit Ethernet allow a max. speed of around 100 MBytes/sec which may prove beneficial in some cases, e.g. transferring large files between two machines on the network.

• Unlike say, a cable connection, a 3G internet connection is not going to get its own IP address. This only becomes a problem if you need to connect externally.

• Some routers have extra features, like the ability to share files on an attached USB hard drive / memory stick. Some go even further with NAS type features and support things like DLNA streaming.

• Most wireless routers can have dozens of wireless clients connected simultaneously. Most mobile phones don't seem to allow more than 5 connected devices.

• A mobile phone used continously as a Wi-Fi hotspot may damage its battery over time. High temperatures and high current drain are a great way to reduce the life expectancy of a battery.

• You are basically wasting a mobile phone - if you decide to use it as a mobile phone again then your home network is gone when you leave.