Mike McCarty wrote:
Switch
Disadvantages: Not secure.
Cannot act as a bridge.
What do you mean "Cannot act as a bridge"? When I was a network admin a switch _was_ a bridge (a multi-port one). Is the word used differently now? And what do you mean by 'not secure'?
Router
Advantages: Full-duplex, no collisions.
Can mix speeds.
Secure if has separate WAN/LAN.
Can do NAT.
Can act as a bridge.
Disadvantages: More difficult to configure.
More expensive (but not *much*
more)
Again, not all routers can necessarily do NAT (used to be quite the exception, though it certainly seems common enough with the cheap routers available for home use since they're usually used to access a broadband link with only one 'real' IP address.
John Stumbles