A Wireless Access Point (AP), is a simple device that creates a Wi-Fi signal that your phones, laptops and other devices can connect to. That is its only job.

This is the single most commonly misunderstood piece of home networking equipment. Every wireless router has an access point built inside it, but an access point on its own is not a router.

It cannot create a network by itself, and it cannot connect directly to the internet. All it does is take an existing working network, and turn it into good quality Wi-Fi.

If you have a router that works great, but its Wi-Fi doesn’t reach the back bedroom or the garden, an access point is the correct thing to add. They are massively better than cheap Wi-Fi extenders, because they give you full speed Wi-Fi with no slowdown, rather than just repeating an existing weak signal.

Access points are also what every cafe, hotel, office and airport uses to provide reliable Wi-Fi to lots of people at the same time.

Common uses: Adding better Wi-Fi coverage to an existing network, extending Wi-Fi to large homes or multiple floors, providing Wi-Fi for lots of devices

Related terms: Wireless Router, Router, Mesh Router, Wi-Fi Extender, SSID, Ethernet, Modem Router, Gateway, Wi-Fi 6