Router is a networking device that forwards data packets between one computer network to another. They are very common today in every network area, this is mainly because every network these days connect to some other network, whether it is internet or a local area network. Routers route data from one network to another.

For example, if your company has an office in Sydney and another one in Melbourne, then to connect the two you would use a leased line to which you would connect a router at each end. Any traffic which needs to travel from one site to another will be routed via the routers.

There are two type of routers:

1) Hardware routers: Hardware routers are dedicated hardware that run special software created by their vendors to give them the routing capabilities, plus a whole lot more functions. Hardware routers a most common amongst companies as they are faster and more reliable.

2) Software routers: Software routers perform similar tasks as the above hardware routers (route data), but they don’t come as dedicated hardware. A software router could be an Windows , Linux or Novell server. All network servers have built-in routing capabilities.