If you want to make full use of the Internet for your business, you've got to be selling online.

An e-commerce platform offers a tantalizing array of opportunities for companies in virtually every industry, including access to a national if not global audience, easier access to suppliers, more promotional opportunities for customers, and an ability to do at least most of your transactions online.

At the heart of a robust e-commerce infrastructure is the router. In simple terms, a router separates networks. It lets information from one network flow to a point on another network. This capability allows you to easily share your Internet access across multiple users.

Once found only in the core of large enterprise networks and in the "cloud" of service provider networks, routers today are the linchpins of virtually any corporate network with an e-commerce component.

Here's a look at what you need in a router.

1. Go business class.

Business class isn't just about comfortable air travel. Business class also refers to the class of small-business routers designed for both affordability and robust performance.

Some routers marketed to small businesses are actually consumer-grade routers designed for home users who need simple Internet access. With a business-class router, your company can build a reliable, secure, high-performance, cost-effective, and easy-to-manage network that can support even the most ambitious e-commerce visions.

2. Select the right hardware.

There are three things to consider when evaluating router hardware:

• How many ports the router has.
• What type of wide-area network (WAN) line the router operates over — for example, ADSL, DSL, ISDN, Fractional T1, T1, etc.
• Whether the router's wide-area network (WAN) interfaces are modular or fixed.

The first two considerations are fairly straightforward, based on the number of devices connected to the router (port capacity), and the WAN services that are appropriate for the traffic load on the network. The third consideration — fixed or modular configuration — depends on a company's growth requirements.

A modular router can be customized with a wide range of WAN and voice interface cards, which makes it a more flexible solution for companies that are in a period of rapid growth, or whose e-commerce initiatives might include multimedia services requiring some combination of data/voice/video/fax integration.

3. Know the load.

One of the key considerations in selecting a router is how much traffic it will be expected to handle — or, put another way, how much bandwidth the company needs.

Bandwidth is not dependent only on the company's size, but also on the type of business applications that are running on the network. For example, a network with a relatively small volume of e-mail but a lot of large file attachments (such as CAD files, graphics files, or video clips) may actually require more bandwidth than a network with lots of e-mail traffic but few file attachments. Similarly, two companies with the same number of online users may have different bandwidth requirements if all of the users are on the network simultaneously versus accessing the network at different times during the day.

4. Security, security, security!

The openness and availability of the Internet is both its great strength and its glaring weakness. By joining the Internet economy, companies find themselves more vulnerable to attacks of all types, from destructive viruses hitching a ride on e-mail messages to unauthorized access to sensitive data. A business-class router's security features include a built-in firewall that ensures that outsiders cannot access the internal network, thereby protecting a company's data and applications.

In addition, a router should promote affordability through a technique called network address translation (NAT). NAT lets multiple users share a single IP address, thereby minimizing the need to purchase multiple, costly IP addresses from your Internet service provider (ISP). By implementing a NAT-capable router, an office with as many as 10 users can share just one IP address. Larger offices can buy blocks of IP addresses, then share them.

Integrated Intrusion Detection System (IDS) security is another important capability. With IDS, the router will analyze packets and data streams continuously, searching for signs of unauthorized activity. If any activity is detected, the router will automatically generate an alarm to alert the network manager.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow you to set up a temporary but secure link between sites (or even a single mobile worker and headquarters), eliminating the need for inflexible and expensive leased lines. If there's a VPN in your future, look for a business-class router that offers secure, high-performance VPN support.

5. Think quality and reliability.

Once a company commits its business, or some portion of it, to e-commerce, reliability becomes a primary concern. Companies don't want to offer a new service to customers, only to find that the service operates sporadically due to network problems. Reliability considerations include router hardware and software reliability and built-in Quality of Service.

Quality of Service is an increasingly important consideration as companies mix low-level traffic (such as e-mail), with mission-critical business or time-sensitive applications (such as Voice-over IP). Without Quality of Service, these applications compete with each other for bandwidth, and the lowest priority traffic can crowd out the higher priority applications, causing them to time out or degrade in performance.

6. Make it easy on yourself.

Routers have a reputation for being tough to manage, but a true business-class router is designed with usability and lower cost of ownership in mind. Look for a fixed-configuration router that does not require a technical person to support setup and one that has a Web-based graphical user interface (modular routers may require professional installation support).

If the router has built-in VPN support, look for the ability to "push" security policies (including encryption and authentication algorithms) to the remote router, so there is no need for technical intervention at the remote end, saving valuable time and money.

7. Plan ahead: You need a system that will support changes in technology.

For most companies, the future is a single network that carries both voice conversations and data transmissions. More and more small businesses are interested in using data and voice integration because it can save money and administrative overhead, provide more flexibility for growth, and other important business benefits.

A single voice and data network infrastructure is referred to as a "converged network," and "packetizing" voice to run over a converged network is called Voice-over IP or, more broadly, IP telephony (which includes video).

In a small office or home office, look for a router that will support an IP phone. At headquarters, make sure you have a router that supports full multi-service data/voice/video/fax integration.