From the course: Computer Science Principles: The Internet

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Routers and directing requests

Routers and directing requests

From the course: Computer Science Principles: The Internet

Start my 1-month free trial

Routers and directing requests

“

- Routers are the signposts that packets use to travel across the Internet and over private networks within an organization. Using the header information in data packets, routers read the information in the header to direct packets to go to the right location. In your home, you might have a router that is connected to your home Internet Service Provider. When your computer sends out a request for information or is sending packets of information to another computer, the first place the request goes is the router. The router looks at the information in the header and sees where it needs to send the information. In a home network, that could be one of two places. It could be something that is sent out to the Internet to connect to another computer or it could be to another computer or device on your own home network. When you have a home network, all of your devices including your computers, tablets, phones, game consoles, and even smart devices like light bulbs, wireless speaker…

Contents