What is Routers?

   What is Routers

                       Routers are devices (computers) containing software that help in determining the best path, out of the available paths, for a particular transmission . They consists of a combination of hardware and software. The hardware includes the physical interfaces to the various networks in the internetwork. The two main pieces of software in a router are the operating system and the routing protocol.


     
                       Router use logical and physical addressing two connect two or more logically separate networks. They accomplish this connection by organizing the large network into logical network segments or sub-networks. This allow the networks to be separate but still access each other and exchange data when necessary. Data is grouped into packets or blocks of data. Each packet, in addition to having a physical devices address, has a logical network address.

 
   
                      Routers are frequently used to interconnect identical networks as well as to interconnect networks with different types of hardware.

Benefits of Using Routers

               

1. The foremost of these security. LANs operate in broadcast mode. Information retrieved or transmitted goes on to the network and traverses the entire cable system. Only the station specifically addressed actually reads the data, but the data is physically to each station.
2. If one network goes down because the server has stopped functioning or because of a fault in the cable, other networks and departments served by routers are not affected. The interconnecting routers isolate the affected network. hence , the unaffected networks, although connected, experience no work stoppage or data loss.
3. Suppose that, a network has 12 workstations, each of which generates approximately the same amount of traffic. In a single network environment, all the  traffic for those 12 workstations goes on the same cable. But if the network is split  into 2 networks of 6 workstations each, the traffic load is cut to half. Each network has its own server and hard disk and is largely self-contained; so , fewer Personal Computers make demand on the network cabling system.
   
4. A final benefit of routers is greater networking range. In some networks, for instance, cable length cannot exceed 1,000 meters. A router effectively nullifies this limitations by preforming the function of a repeater and reconstituting the signal. Physical range can be whatever is required by the particular installation, provided the router is installed before the maximum cable range is exceeded.

  

       

Networks connected by routers