Routers

Introduction

Welcome to the Routers section. Here we will analyse routers quite some depth; what they do and how they work. I point out to you that you should have some knowledge

on the OSI model and understand how data is sent across the network medium. If you find the information a bit too confusing or don't quite understand it, I would suggest you go back to the networking section and do some reading on the OSI model and Protocols.

You will find information on Cisco routers at the end of this page.

What are they and what do they do ?

Routers are very common today in every network area, this is mainly because every network these days connect to some other network, whether it's the Internet or some other remote site. Routers get their name from what they do.... which is route data from one network to another.

For example, if you had a company which had an office in Sydney and another one in Melbourne, then to connect the two you would use a leased line to which you would connect a router at each end. Any traffic which needs to travel from one site to another will be routed via the routers, while all the other unnecessary

traffic is filtered (blocked), thus saving you valuable bandwidth and money.

There are two type of routers: 1) Hardware routers 2) Software routers.

So what's the difference ?

When people talk about routers, they usually don't use the terms "hardware" or "software" router but we are, for the purpose of distinguishing between the two.

Hardware routers are small boxes which run special software created by their vendors to give them the routing capability and the only thing they do is simply route data from one network to another. Most companies prefer hardware routers because they are faster and more reliable, even though their cost is considerably more when compared with a software router.

So what does a hardware router look like? Check the picture below, it displays a Cisco 1600 and 2500 series router along with a Netgear RT338 router. They look like a small box and run special software as we said.