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General Information - 

For information on Router Hardware go to the Routers-Hardware page.

A Router is a device that routes network/internet packets between Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks. There are two types of routers , Hardware devices and Software programs that emulate the hardware routers.

The common protocol used by routers to determine the path to a destination is Routing Information Protocol (RIP). RIP periodically broadcasts routing information for a network hosts. Routing tables are maintained in a database that are used in reaching a host's destination. The hop count (number of times a packet crosses a router) is used by RIP.

Novell's Netware uses an IPX version of RIP.

Windows® NT 4.0 can be configured to act as a Software Router and it is equivalent to a mid-range hardware router. The routing functionality only requires that the service is running and a second network card added to the NT server that is used as the router..

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