Home users use routers to surf the Internet, so how many mobile phones can be connected to one router at most?

I think everyone is still curious about this question. Theoretically, a router can have up to 253 terminals connected to it to access the Internet.

So how is this theoretical value calculated? First of all, we need to understand that when our mobile phones and other devices connect to the Internet through a router, they do not directly obtain the IP address on the Internet, but obtain the address assigned by the router through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). This address must go through NAT (Network Address Translation Protocol) to connect to the Internet.

The IP address pool allocated by the router is generally between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.254. However, this is only a theoretical value. In practice, the number of connections that a router can make is also affected by the router hardware itself.

A router can also be seen as a small computer that processes information from various devices connected to it. The more devices connected, the higher the requirements for its own hardware such as CPU and memory.

Not only that, if we want everyone to be able to access the Internet smoothly, this is still related to the network bandwidth we use.

Therefore, in actual circumstances, a general router can connect up to about 20 terminals. However, if each person wants to watch the live video individually, a bandwidth of 100M can only connect about 5 terminals to ensure smooth viewing.