Routers are small electronic devices that join computer networks together through wired or wireless connections. Also, the router can be defined as a hardware device used to receive incoming packets, analyze them and forward them to their source destination. A router has a lot more capabilities than other network devices such as a hub or switch that are only able to perform basic network functions.

Routers are most commonly used in home networks to share a single connection between multiple devices. It provides the best way to receive and forward packet data from a source to the destination address. Few popular routers to be mentioned are Cisco network operating system(CIOS) & DD-WRT.These operating systems are manufactured into a binary firmware image and are commonly known as router firmware.

How does it work

The router takes your computer’s local IP address out of the packet’s source address and puts it in a table called routing table.It then puts the external IP into the packet’s source address space.The router also copies the destination address IP from the packet along with your local IP.

What Technology does useit

The router works on a  3 layer network gateway device and operates on the network layer of the OSI model.It contains a processor, several kinds of digital memory and I/O interfaces.The router’s memory stores an embedded operating system.The latest technology the wifi router is using is wireless AC replacing its previous standards and its successor will be wireless AX  which is due 2019.If we are using a router on complete IP address, it is going, to begin with, either 198.168.0 or 10.0.0

Types of Routers:

Home based:

Home-based routers are used in our homes and can connect to multiple devices.We can connect to the router and play our favorite applications like youtube, facebook, do video calling or whatsoever we may like to browse.The latest technology used in the latest routers is 802.11 AC which is mostly available in all the latest phones or computers.

Gaming based:

Gaming based routers are used for gaming consoles and the best gaming routers will avoid lagging, provide fast speed and efficiency no matter how many gaming devices are connected.The main aim is to provide smooth better refresh rates and extremely fast file-sharing.Unlike every PC user wants a normal hi speed router, gaming users have more specialized needs in this area.Most of us don't want a wired connection so we opt for a fast router.The main function that a gaming user would be needing is QOS(QUALITY OF SERVICE).

This helps to prioritize gaming traffic over other content like streaming videos, video calling or content which utilizes more bandwidth ensuring low latency during our gameplay.The common aspects are, it should be solid throughput on all tests and should have an excellent QOS.An integrated 8 ethernet port switch is good enough but to attain excellence you should go for an eight-gigabit ethernet port supporting link aggregation and dual WAN’s.A good gaming router can provide up to 1000 Mbps on 2.4 GHz and 2167 Mbps on the 5 GHz frequency.

HOW WILL YOU EXPLAIN TO AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD KID WHAT IS ROUTING

An eight-year-old kid would probably be knowing only about Youtube, Facebook, Gaming stuff or any other good application.But today’s generation is more smart, intelligent and gives preference to knowledge over ignorance.An eight-year-old kid would know the password of wifi but it’s doubtful that he would be knowing about how the process works.So we will try to focus to stay less complicated and provide the easiest of ways for the kid to understand.

A wifi router is a device to which our phones & laptops are connected through a specific password which provides security to the device owner.We can stream videos, play games, listen to music through Wi-Fi router as it transmits signals or packets of data through one end to another end.One end is called the source end and other is the destination end.A wifi router manages the incoming data, analyzes it and forward it to the destination end.This data is provided by our internet service provider.Just as we cannot see oxygen but can breathe it, the same way we cannot see the signals or packets of data but can use them on our devices.