What is the difference between router and switch

Five major differences between routers and switches:

1. The switch uses a network cable to access the Internet, but everyone dials up separately when accessing the Internet, and each uses its own broadband. Influence. Routers have one more virtual dial-up function than switches. Computers that access the Internet through the same router share a broadband account, and everyone has to interact with each other when accessing the Internet.

2. The switch works at the relay layer, and the switch is addressed according to the MAC address. The router works at the network layer. According to IP address addressing, the router can handle the TCP/IP protocol, but the switch cannot.

3. The switch can form a LAN with multiple computers connected to it. If there is a proxy server, it can also achieve simultaneous Internet access and all computers in the LAN share its bandwidth rate, but the switch does not have the automatic function of the router. The function of identifying the sending and arriving addresses of data packets.

(Study recommendation: java quick start)

The router can automatically identify the address where the data packet is sent and arrived. The router is equivalent to the police on the road, responsible for traffic guidance and Guiding.

4. To give a few examples, the router is a small post office, with just one address (IP), responsible for sending and receiving in one place (personal computer, a certain server, so you need this thing to access the Internet at home), and the switch is a provincial The large postal center here is responsible for contacting various small places from one address.

To put it simply, the router is responsible for accessing the network, the switch is only responsible for distribution, the router is to find a way for you to access the Internet, the switch is only responsible for opening the door, and if there is no route on the switch, you will not be able to access the Internet.

5. The router provides firewall services. The router only forwards data packets with specific addresses and does not transmit data packets that do not support routing protocols and data packets with unknown destination networks, thereby preventing broadcast storms.

The above is the detailed content of What is the difference between router and switch. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!