What is the difference between a router and a switch(hub)?

Answer: A router is a more sophisticated network device than either a switch or a hub. Like hubs and switches, network routers are typically small, box-like pieces of equipment that multiple computers can connect to. Each features a number of "ports" the front or back that provide the connection points for these computers, a connection for electric power, and a number of LED lights to display device status. While routers, hubs and switches all share similiar physical appearance, routers differ substantially in their inner workings.





Traditional routers are designed to join multiple area networks (LANs and WANs). On the Internet or on a large corporate network, for example, routers serve as intermediate destinations for network traffic. These routers receive TCP/IP packets, look inside each packet to identify the source and target IP addresses, then forward these packets as needed to ensure the data reaches its final destination.





Routers for home networks (often called broadband routers) also can join multiple networks. These routers are designed specifically to join the home (LAN) to the Internet (WAN) for the purpose of Internet connection sharing. In contrast, neither hubs nor switches are capable of joining multiple networks or sharing an Internet connection. A home network with only hubs and switches must designate one computer as the gateway to the Internet, and that device must possess two network adapters for sharing, one for the home LAN and one for the Internet WAN. With a router, all home computers connect to the router equally, and it performs the equivalent gateway functions.





Additionally, broadband routers contain several features beyond those of traditional routers. Broadband routers provide DHCP server and proxy support, for example. Most of these routers also offer integrated firewalls. Finally, wired Ethernet broadband routers typically incorporate a built-in Ethernet switch. These routers allow several hubs or switches to be connected to them, as a means to expand the local network to accomodate more Ethernet devices.





In home networking, hubs and switches technically exist only for wired networks. Wi-Fi wireless routers incorporate a built-in access point that is roughly equivalent to a wired switch.
What is the difference between a router and a switch(hub)?
Router brideges between networks (example your internal network is routed to the internet through the router)





Switch/Hub is used connect computers winthin your network.





Most routers also have 4 port switches. The router portion is the connector to the WAN.
What is the difference between a router and a switch(hub)?
Both join parts of a computer network together. Imagine a firm in two buildings. If they used switches to connect the two together, all the data would be sent to the other half. Cheap %26amp; cheerful, but a bit wasteful of network resources. If they used routers, only the data that needed to go to the other half would be sent there. A bit more expensive and complicated to set up, but much more efficient.
Reply:A router is a computer whose software and hardware are usually tailored to the tasks of routing and forwarding information.





Routers connect two or more logical subnets, which do not necessarily map one-to-one to the physical interfaces of the router.





The term layer 3 switch often is used interchangeably with router, but switch is really a general term without a rigorous technical definition. In marketing usage, it is generally optimized for Ethernet LAN interfaces and may not have other physical interface types.





Routers operate in two different planes :





Control Plane, in which the router learns the outgoing interface that is most appropriate for forwarding specific packets to specific destinations,





Forwarding Plane, which is responsible for the actual process of sending a packet received on a logical interface to an outbound logical interface.





A network hub or concentrator is a device for connecting multiple twisted pair or fiber optic Ethernet devices together, making them act as a single network segment. Hubs work at the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model, and the term layer 1 switch is often used interchangeably with hub. The device is thus a form of multiport repeater. Network hubs are also responsible for forwarding a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision.





Hubs also often come with a BNC and/or AUI connector to allow connection to legacy 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 network segments. The availability of low-priced network switches has largely rendered hubs obsolete but they are still seen in older installations and more specialized applications
Reply:A router works on Layer 3 and uses IP addresses to send packet from one port to another. Generally a router also contains other function than just routing of packets, i.e. it may also contain a firewall that will filter out undesirable (bad) IP packets. It can also do address translation called NAT, which allows for Internet Access sharing, i.e. many computers to be connected to the Internet at the same time.





A switch works on Layer 2 and uses MAC addresses to send packets from one port to another. Layer 3 packets are contained inside of Layer 2 packets. Sort of like putting an envelope inside of another envelope, with each envelope having a different addressing scheme.





An example of a Layer 2 packet is an Ethernet Packet, while an example of a Layer 3 packet is an IP Packet. There are many different type of Layer 2 and Layer 3 packets, but in general in today's Internet age, Ethernet and IP packets are the norm.





The Internet, being Layer 3, is a network of computer networks, thus the name Inter-Networking. Layer 3 IP packets does not aways have to be contained inside of Layer 2 packets. An example is when IP packets are carried on T1 circuits. In this case there are no MAC addresses associated with T1 or for that matter a dialup connection. In this example the Layer 2 address is the telephone number.





A Layer 2 transfer of packets from one port to another is called switching, while the same thing in Layer 3 is called routing. They are just names. Networks at the Layer 2 level uses Spanning Tree to determine the topology of the network, i.e. what MAC addresses are connect to what, while Layer 3 IP network uses either RIP, OSPF, or BGP4 to determine the network topologies.
Reply:Simply,


the switch is physical device connect the computers just like bus of just like connected cables


but


the router


smart device, make many of things, giving IPs distributing transmitting etc..