Shoutbox

yea...what's the differnce?

a switch is something to connect computers together. a router is something that splits an IP, to enable 2 or more computers connect to the internet using the same ip address.

so you cant share the internet using a swicth?

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Originally posted by - keef
so you cant share the internet using a swicth?

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no, unless it has a router build into it aswell.

There are lots of diferences apart from that, Toddy, and also what you said is not very correct.

A switch and a router connects 2 networks, each one with one or more computers. The diference is that the switch only knows about the 2nd level of the ISO/OSI network protocol stack (link layer), ie: it only knows about hardware addresses. A hardware address is similar to the IP address but it identifies the network card. Each network card has an unique hw address. So the switch knows (or may know) which network cards are in each of all the networks that it connects and when some data is sent from one to another it can transmit the data through the needed network.

The routers, however, work at an higher level: the 3rd of the ISO/OSI architecture (network layer). They know about IP address and with them you can do advanced things, like route a packet (data transmited) following some rules.

Err.... this is quite complex to explain to me, because there are quite technican differences and my english isn't good enough to describe them. Also, I don't know what's your knowledge about these things and that makes things harder

So, sumarzing, - keef: routers are like switches (both connect 2 networks but they offer "advanced" features based on working with IP addresses. (<- please, note that that isn't exactly true, that's an aproximation to the truth, so you can easyly understand me )






edit:

quote:

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Originally posted by - keef
so you cant share the internet using a swicth?

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there are the called level-3 switches that you can share internet with them. However, a router is much better. (level-3 switches doesn't offer all the features of routers)

lol...ok thxs for the info...so...if i used a router...would it make the internet faster than using a swicth?

quote:

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Originally posted by - keef
lol...ok thxs for the info...so...if i used a router...would it make the internet faster than using a swicth?

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no, the speed * doesn't depend on if you're unsing a router or a switch.

* -> of course, i mean the speed for home internet connection. For very big companies, very high speed / very high load networks and such scenarios, the difference of speed may be noticeable. However, in those cases the routers/switches used are way better (and faster and more expensive) than the ones you use at home.