Router Picture

Router

A router is a device used to create connection between two different networks, most often located at a far distance from each other. It receives data packets from two interfaces, and sometimes more, and it sends information from one interface to another.

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How, Why, What, Where, and who uses a router?

The most frequent routers are the ones that are small, specifically used in homes and small offices that simply transfer data from one network to another. There is of course some more developed type of routers used by bigger organizations, used to connect more than two networks. Any person who uses a computer with internet service can use a router if he is aware of how to use it. But he will need to ask for the help of an IT specialist in the beginning, to connect the router to the concerned networks. You have to make sure than both computers that need to be connected are supplied with LAN cards. The router should have two Ethernet ports so that you could be able to connect it to both networks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(computing)

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What is the router composed from?

A router is composed of 7 components:

• CPU: The CPU functions just like a personal computer
• RAM (Random Access Memory): The information it contains are in continual change. Whenever we restart the router or turn it off, this component loses the information it carries.
• NVRAM (Non Volatile RAM): It saves all the configuration folders.  
• Flash: The flash is very necessary in a router because it carries all the memorized information.  
• ROM: It carries information about the hardware.
• Console: The plug and the jacks of a router, they enable it to receive configurations.
• Interfaces: They enable the router to be connected to LAN and WAN.

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