![]() So the router, in effect, is also a switch. While other devices on the network, such as other notebooks and phones, connect through the Wi-Fi router, it still offers switching functions through the LAN. It routes to a broadband connection through its WAN port, but it usually also has additional Ethernet ports that you can use to connect an Ethernet cable for a computer, television, printer or even a gaming console. Of course, there are cases where switching functionality is built into a router hardware, and the router performs as the switch as well. ![]() This is the path a packet might take to reach the internet: device > hub > switch > router > internet. Devices connect locally through switches, and networks are connected to other networks through routers. ![]() Routers operate at Layer 3 - the network layer - and are used to connect networks to other networks.Īn easy way to think about the difference between switches and routers is to think about LANs and WANs. But they do this with a different purpose and location. Switches are sometimes confused with routers, which also offer forwarding and routing of network traffic, hence their name. What is the difference between a switch and a router? Because of this capability, switches make more efficient use of their own processing resources, as well as network bandwidth. Switches filter out traffic destined for devices on the same LAN segment. Switches typically connect LAN segments, so hubs attach to them. With a switch, packets are directed only to the port that leads to the addressed device. What is the difference between a switch and a hub?Ī hub can also connect several devices together for the purpose of sharing resources, and the collection of devices attached to a hub is known as a LAN segment.Ī hub differs from a switch in that packets sent from one of the connected devices are broadcast to all of the devices that are connected to the hub. In order for traffic to get from one subnet to another it must pass between switches, and this is facilitated by routing capabilities built into the switches. While it’s true that switches operate at Layer 2, they can also operate at Layer 3, which is necessary for them to support virtual LANs (VLANs), logical network segments that can span subnets. (Picture two people talking on smartphones as opposed to a walkie-talkie). To reduce the chance for collisions between network traffic going to and from a switch and a connected device at the same time, most switches offer full-duplex functionality in which packets coming from and going to a device have access to the full bandwidth of the switch connection. ![]() When a packet enters the switch, the switch reads its header, then matches the destination address or addresses and sends the packet out through the appropriate ports that lead to the destination devices. (Think of a MAC address as the VIN number on a car, and the IP address as the license plate.) The MAC address identifies the physical device and doesn’t change, while the network layer (Layer 3) IP address, can be assigned dynamically to a device and change over time. The switch uses the MAC address to identify which device’s outgoing packets are being sent, and where to deliver incoming packets. Once a device is connected to a switch, the switch notes its media access control (MAC) address, a code that’s baked into the device’s network-interface card (NIC).The NIC attaches to an Ethernet cable that connects to the switch.
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