Short Bytes:Switch vs router – which one works where? Which one should be used for faster communication and which one is more secure? Well, we answer all the aspects of using a switch and a router in this article.
Let’s take a look:
Switch vs Router — Comparison and differences
Switch’s properties:
Router’s properties:
Working differences — Switch vs router
Before you proceed to further reading, have a look at the basic concepts of thedifferent networking devices and hardware types— hub, switch, router, modem, bridge, repeater.
Let’s say around fifty computers are connected in a local area network. In the network, there is also a common resource from where computers can download data locally. So, this network forms a kind of a private network. However, when one of the computers would want to get some data from online sites like Facebook or Google, they will have to go to the internet and fetch the data and that makes a public network
So, when a computer wants to access a public network, it sends a data packet to the Switch which is the next immediate device in terms of data transmission. The switch opens up the packet and looks for the destination where the request packet wants to go.
The packet is directed for the public internet or world wide internet and Switch has no idea about it. So, Switch forwards this packet to the router — ‘The default gateway’. A router works as a gateway that is more like it is a door to the outside world and gets the data that a particular computer wants.
However, inside the campus, all the computers are a part of the private network which is not known to the outside world. So, it tweaks the private packet into the public packet and vice versa. This is called NATting which we will cover in the later topics.
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