Author Archive

Routers

Conventional wisdom has held that routers are the best way to manage the backbone of an enterprise network. Switches, faster because they don't have to read information for each packet, are best for workgroup or LAN-to-LAN environments. Over the last few years, however, the role of the router and switch have radically changed. As users have migrated to gigabit-speed network technologies, switches, albeit often with integrated routing capability, have migrated to the corporate backbone.

• By John H. Mayer, GCN
• May 10, 1999