The Difference between Switches And Routers

1, the difference between switches and routers?

From the application:

Switch and router in the use of the biggest difference is no more than the router can be achieved within the dial-up Internet, and then through the sharing of multiple computers at the same time to access the Internet, while the switch does not have the internal dial-up function, but the role of the switch is to divert the network signals in order to achieve more computers connected to share the Internet.

We can think of it this way, the switch can be connected to multiple computers, and the computer interconnected with the switch itself has the function of communicating with each other, forming an internal LAN, but need to access the Internet also need to have network support, so the switch needs to be connected to the router, the router can be switched to achieve the function, but also dial-up, broadband connection, and broadband resources will be allocated to a switch! This enables multiple computers to share the Internet.

Conceptually:

Routing, a Layer 3 device, has the role of choosing the road. For example, if you go to Rome, there are many ways to go, how to go to save money and time, is the route to do, to solve the problem that you should follow that road. Of course there are other functions based on layer three.

Switch, is a layer 2 device. He is like the front of your house such as or your building, the nearby residents know how to go to several floors and several numbers how to go.

To give an example of the router and switch with: I have to go to find Xiaoming borrow computer, Xiaoming said he is not at home, told me to go get it, but also told me the address of his home (as if the ip address), I according to Xiaoming told me the address to find Xiaoming's home (the function of the router to find the path). I entered and found that there were actually 10 computers in his house, which one was the one lent to me? It turns out that Ming also told me the number (MAC address) of the computer he was lending me, so I could find the corresponding computer according to the number.

In the above example, if I didn't have a router, I wouldn't know how to get to Ming's house, let alone get a computer; if I didn't have the number of the computer I needed, I wouldn't be able to get the computer because there are ten computers and I can't mess around with them; and there is a special case, what if Ming's house only has one computer? Then I don't need a number to determine which computer to take, that is, I don't need a switch.

2、Why is it sometimes necessary to connect a switch to the back of the router before connecting a computer?

Router can be directly connected to computers and other terminal equipment, why the standard is the router connected to the switch and then connected to computers and other terminals, because the router is originally a routing device, used to select the route, not suitable for large amounts of data exchange, switch is used for large amounts of data exchange, the terminal in the nature of the network is the need to use the switch, so the standard is the form of the router underground connected to the switch.

Generally is the case is under the router connected to the switch, the router is mainly from the data forwarding, that is, addressing, routing function, the switch to play the purpose of user access. But the home router, then directly connected to the computer can be, and do not have to consider connecting to the switch.