Hi Franklin,
From: Franklin Maurer [mailto:nebbish@sprynet.com] On Monday 22 September 2003 6:54 pm, pheonix1t wrote: [snip] I know the definitions of router and switch but haven't actually configured either. I'm also poor and I thought switches were more expensive than routers.In fact I'm only getting the internet access because it will come through my job at Comcast.
If you could point out some good info for the right time to use a switch versus a router I'd appreciate it.
Are you aware of the OSI layers? 1) Physical layer 2) Media access / Data Link 3) Network 4) Transport 5) Session 6) Presentation 7) Application Switches are (normally) working in layer 2 - this is the ethernet layer (or token ring or atm or isdn or whatever). Routers work in layer 3. This is where IP comes in. So routers route the traffic between IP-subnets (this is why you need the netmasks), and switches "route" the traffic according to the ARP-table (MAC-addresses). If you need IP-filters and NAT and stuff you'll need a firewall which takes care of the routing too (this could be a linux-box, a cable-router or a cisco, if you have that much money ;-)
Or how to have linux take care of the routing info.
There's a good linux routing howto. Have a look at http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Adv-Routing-HOWTO/ cheers, Stefan