What is the difference between a router and a switch (In english please)?

Question

Looking for a good strong list of the main differences between a router and a switch.

Answer 1

The main difference is that a router will connect 2 completely different networks (your personal network and the Internet for example) and a switch will allow you to connect multiple computers together on the same network.

Answer 2

A switch knows about the computers attached it and can forward packets to any of them. A router is smarter and if it doesn't know about the device you're asking for, it will forward it on to another router until one of them knows about the device you want. So a switch is kinda like an intersection where a router is the cop standing in the intersection directing traffic.

Answer 3

A router is a computer networking device that buffers and forwards data packets across an internetwork toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 (the Network layer e.g. IP) of the OSI seven-layer protocol stack.

A network switch (or just switch) is a networking device that performs transparent bridging (connection of multiple network segments with forwarding based on MAC addresses) at up to the speed of the hardware. Common hardware includes switches, which can connect at 10, 100, or 1000 megabits per second (Mbit/s), at half or full duplex. Half duplex means that the device can only send or receive at any given time, whereas full duplex can send and receive at the same time. The use of specially designed expansion also makes it possible to have large numbers of connections utilizing different mediums of networking, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel, ATM, 802.11, to name frequently used technologies.

Answer 4

Lots of info at the links (TechWeb Encyclopedia). Happy reading!

The main difference, though, is that a router moves traffic from one network to another and a switch moves traffic from computer to computer within the same network.

Answer 5

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.

SWITCH:
Definition: A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one local area network (LAN). Technically, network switches operate at layer two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model.
Network switches appear nearly identical to network hubs, but a switch generally contains more "intelligence" (and a slightly higher price tag) than a hub. Unlike hubs, network switches are capable of inspecting data packets as they are received, determining the source and destination device of that packet, and forwarding it appropriately. By delivering each message only to the connected device it was intended for, a network switch conserves network bandwidth and offers generally better performance than a hub.

As with hubs, Ethernet implementations of network switches are the most common.
Mainstream Ethernet network switches support either 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 10/100 Mbps Ethernet standards.
Different models of network switches support differing numbers of connected devices. Most consumer-grade network switches provide either four or eight connections for Ethernet devices. Switches can be connected to each other. Such "daisy chaining" allows progressively larger number of devices to join the same LAN.

ROUTER:
Definition: Routers are physical devices that join multiple wired or wireless networks together. Technically, a wired or wireless router is a Layer 3 gateway, meaning that the wired/wireless router connects networks (as gateways do), and that the router operates at the network layer of the OSI model.
Home networkers often use an Internet Protocol (IP) wired or wireless router, IP being the most common OSI network layer protocol. An IP router such as a DSL or cable modem broadband router joins the home's local area network (LAN) to the wide-area network (WAN) of the Internet.

By maintaining configuration information in a piece of storage called the "routing table," wired or wireless routers also have the ability to filter traffic, either incoming or outgoing, based on the IP addresses of senders and receivers.

Some routers allow the home networker to update the routing table from a Web browser interface. Broadband routers combine the functions of a router with those of a network switch and a firewall in a single unit.