What is the difference between router and network switch?
the above posters are sorta of correct, but not really. To truly understand the difference between the two, you need to understand the OSI model. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model The 2 important layers we need to look at are layer 2 (the data layer), and layer 3 (the network layer). Switch (for the most part) can only do layer 2 type traffic. It can only switch traffic on one subnet Router can do both layer 2 and layer 3. It can switch traffic on multiple subnets. This is why you need a router from your ISP. The ISP uses a complete different subnet than your home network, so the router must switch traffic from one subnet to another via a layer 3 protocol.
