Reading through my RSS feeds I found an article from ExtremeTech comparing routers and switches and how most home based routers, i.e. Linksys, D-Link, are not really routers.
Here’s my favorite quote:
“…it is technically incorrect to call most home routers, well, routers. I’m about to go off on a rabbit trail here, but this can be a fun piece of trivia to stump your local tech store rep with…(or not).”
Now, I’ve only been doing this for 13 years, but the author of the article is completely incorrect. His reasoning that these “routers” aren’t routers is because they don’t use routing protocols such is BGP, OSPF, RIPv1, RIPv2 etc.
“Most home routers do not run any routing protocols (EIGRP, BGP, OSPF, etc). Some do support RIP for very basic networks, but RIP is not needed for home use (as you only have one routable IP address issued to you by your ISP), and your ISP, and the Internet for that matter, know where to find you.”
I may just be argumentative today, but these routers ARE routers. Why, do you ask? They do not run any routing protocols, but inherently connect one network (an internal network) to an external network (the Internet). They have an internal ROUTING table that routers use because they ROUTE traffic between two separate networks. This is the true definition of routing. The existence of routing protocols has no bearing on a Linksys home router being a router, considering that they have ONE static route based on information it receives from the ISP.
If you want to be more technically informed, these home routers are a basic OSI Layer 3 switch, which has ROUTING functionality. They have ONE static route based on the DHCP address that the router receives via the ISP. The router uses the DHCP packet to collect the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway.
Yes, everyone, it IS a router. And a switch.
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