[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

So then a Decker just targets your internal router and shuts everything down with it?

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer has some nuance, but still ends up ultimately being mostly yes.

[Xenon]

So then a Decker just targets your internal router and shuts everything down with it?

The Internal Router just let your augmentations gain wireless bonus without being wireless enabled.
If the Internal Router is bricked then your augmentations no longer gain wireless bonus without being wireless enabled.

For example; Your reaction enhancers + wired reflexes will no longer break the +4 augmented limit (but they still increase reaction and initiative) and your smarteyes no longer provide your smartgun system with a positive dice pool modifier (but they still provide you with perfect eyesight and if you connect your smartgun with a wire to your datajack instead of wireless they also increase accuracy by 2 and let you fire around corners without the blind fire modifier etc).


Your augmentations still also have their own wireless capability that you can choose to turn ON...
...and if you do then they will once again provide you with their wireless bonus
(but without the Internal Router they will then obviously also get exposed to the matrix)

[RickDeckard]

Doesn't really seem worth it to me. If your internal router still shows up as a device on the Matrix then you're just as exposed as if you just ran wireless.

[Xenon]

It let you gain wireless bonus without risk of losing basic functionality.

Depending on how frequent wireless devices get attacked at your table and depending on how paranoid you (or your character) are this might or might not be a useful augmentation.

[RickDeckard]

I guess it's a bonus that you don't light up like a Christmas tree on the Matrix.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

My belief is that the intent was to allow cyberware to talk to each other without having to be wireless enabled.  It's neat in theory that your cyberware can talk to each other without wireless, but in practice it's of very limited mechanical benefit... because you can already employ your cyberware via mental or muscular command anyway.

In practice, you'd have to find a combination of cyberware wireless bonuses that don't involve outside input... which is by definition nearly impossible!

Although one potential interaction I'd allow as a GM is Wired Reflexes and Reaction Enhancers.  It passes my personal sniff test to allow their wireless bonus to not require any outside input from the matrix at large... and would be an example of an internal router permitting a wireless bonus without actually having any of the three pieces of cyberware being wireless on!

Edit: barring the possibility of making a home ruling that certain wireless bonuses don't need outside matrix input... there's still a couple perfectly RAW benefits to linking your cyberware to an internal router:

1) you protect all your cyberware at the cost of one device slot rather than every piece of cyberware eating into your device budget  (see PANs and WANs, pg 233 SR5)
1a) of course the downside to putting all the eggs in one basket is all your cyberware can then be hacked without needing to be individually marked after the router is marked, but pros and cons, man.

2) You can already spend a free action to turn wireless off for ALL your devices (see Turning it Off, pg 421 SR5) but there is no corresponding ability to re-engage wireless for ALL your devices simultaneously.  But if all your cyber is direct connected to your internal router, you only have to turn wireless back on for that 1 device to restore all your cyberware wireless bonuses!  Important nuance for combat and other time-sensitive crises where you're also getting hacked!

[Xenon]

Actually re-reading the rules for internal router it seem as if the internal router does not have to be wireless enabled after all. Sorry for the confusion. Parts of 5th edition ruleset seem to have slipped my mind lately


Devices in SR5 dynamically self-organize, self-configure and automatically connect to other devices in their vicinity (Google Mesh Networking to get an idea of a 2020 technology that have similar traits). This give individual devices a huge boost in efficiency and performance (Google Distributed Computing to get an idea of a 2020 technology that have similar traits) and this in turn is one of the reasons why you are granted a wireless bonus when your device is wireless enabled and connected to other wireless enabled devices in its vicinity. With an Internal Router you get this benefit by connecting all your augmentations via your nervous system into an internal meshnet of sorts, without actually exposing your augmentations to devices outside your body or the matrix as a whole. This give your reaction enhancers and wireless reflexes the computing power and the increased performance to break the +4 augmentation limit, even though they are not wireless enabled and even though they are not exposed to the matrix as a whole.

CF p. 84 Internal Router
Using the body’s internal neural network as “wires,” the internal router allows the user’s cybernetics to communicate with one another as if they were wirelessly connected



Then you have augmentations that might need to connect to an external device of sorts (like your smarteyes that need to connect to your wireless enabled smartgun). With a wireless enabled datajack (or wireless enabled internal commlink, wireless enabled internal cyberdeck or perhaps a wireless enabled control rig) this can be made possible while your other augmentations are wireless disabled (if you have an internal router that is). For example, if you have a wireless enabled smartgun, an internal router (which can be wireless disabled, I said something else a few posts above - sorry) and a wireless enabled datajack then you get to establish a wireless smartgun system connection even if your smarteyes are wireless disabled (this will obviously stop working if someone brick your wireless enabled datajack or your wireless enabled smartgun, but at least your internal router, your smarteyes, your reflex enhancers and your wired reflexes are 'safe').

CF p. 84 Internal Router
...and, if expanded via a datajack or similar broadcast-enabled piece of cyberware, with the rest of the user’s gear.
This allows the use of some wireless functionality, such as the quick-loading function of a smartgun or the engagement of a smuggling compartment



A third reason why your devices tend to give you a wireless bonus is because they also, in addition to increased computing power and performance, get to access various matrix resources (like skillwires if you have a wireless skillsoft subscription). This is, however, not something that internal router will help out with (your skillwires still have to be wireless enabled if you wish to make use of your wireless skillsoft subscription - having an internal router does not change this fact).

CF p. 84 Internal Router
...but not those that require an outside network or similar function, such as skillwire downloads.