1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,960 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette. I'm 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: an editor at how stuff works dot com, and as usual, 6 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: sitting across from me, I have senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 7 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: We're on a road to nowhere, which just goes to 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:33,880 Speaker 1: show you that we're not a couple of talking heads. 9 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:37,199 Speaker 1: That's right, Before we get into this topic, we have 10 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,160 Speaker 1: actually it's a two fur First, we have a little 11 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: listener mail. This listener mail comes from Sam, and Sam says, Hello, 12 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: John and Chris. I really enjoy your show and I 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: appreciate all the wonderful information you provide about various tech 14 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 1: Keep up the good work, could you, guys, perhaps to 15 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: a podcast that covers how network routers such as links 16 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: Us and other's work for and their role in office 17 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: and home networks. That'd be swell if you did. Thank 18 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,559 Speaker 1: you guys for making such entertaining yet informative podcast. Cheers. PS. 19 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: Is there any chance that the old listener mail audio 20 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: clip might be played again? You know, the one with 21 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: the annoying alarm. I like the new one, and I 22 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: know it is stuck, but there are times where I 23 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: yearned to hear the old one. Sam. This is for you. 24 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: Everyone else, please turn down the volume on your your 25 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: various playback devices. You have been warned, and now that 26 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: I have warned you, here comes a little old school 27 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: sound effect for listener. But on top of the listener 28 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: mail that we just read from Sam from Austin, Texas, 29 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: we also had a little Facebook feedback you be This 30 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 1: comes from Scott, who says, Hey, I was wondering if 31 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: you guys could do a podcast about routers, the different 32 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,640 Speaker 1: uses for them and which is best for gaming, streaming, video, etcetera. 33 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Your episode on I p V six 34 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: was great and the number of IP address as was nuts. 35 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: You're telling me, Scott, I'm still trying to get my 36 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: breath back. So we are going to talk about routers. 37 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: And before we get too far into this, I want 38 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: to say we have some great articles on how stuff 39 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: works dot Com about routers, so if you want to 40 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,640 Speaker 1: get more information, I recommend checking out how routers work, 41 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,600 Speaker 1: also how network address translation works. Both of those are 42 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,920 Speaker 1: going to be important in this discussion. Um, so let's 43 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:26,639 Speaker 1: talk about what a roller is and what it does 44 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: and why it's important, yes, and talking about what value 45 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: it has to the Internet. Let's just say there wouldn't 46 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: be one without routers because you know, of course, the 47 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: Internet is a network of computers. It's just networks. Yes, 48 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:47,960 Speaker 1: it's exactly. It's a it's a basically, it's a vast 49 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:52,639 Speaker 1: system of computers talking to one another via multiple networks 50 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: and protocols. So yes, well yeah, they use the protocols 51 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 1: to talk to us. But yeah, I mean you have 52 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: you might have only one computer in your house and 53 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: it hooks up to you know, the networks at the 54 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: Internet service provider, and then those go to other networks 55 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: and it just goes on and on and on. Or 56 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,519 Speaker 1: you might even have multiple computers in your house running 57 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: on another network which is attached to the other networks. 58 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: That's why they call it a cloud, because there's no 59 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: definite shape to the Internet. It all. It all depends 60 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 1: on what's on and what's off at any given time, 61 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: and these routers make it possible, especially when you do 62 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: have one line coming into your house and you have 63 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: multiple computers. Yeah, So what routers allow is the transfer 64 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: of information across different layers of communication. Now, what I 65 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: mean by that is that the Open Systems inter Connection 66 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: or os I model of communication divides up communication into 67 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: seven layers. And uh, really we're just going to be 68 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: thinking about the first three layers here. Actually now I'm 69 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: thinking about seven layer bars. Yeah, I'm thinking about seven 70 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: layer dip so um dip so. The the the seven 71 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: layers are. This was a system that was proposed by 72 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 1: Charles Bachman of a Honeywell Information Services. Honeywell, of course, 73 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: is one of those big names that's important in uh 74 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: in computer science. Yeah, they they've done all kinds of 75 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: technological things. Yes, So the seven layers are sort of 76 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: as a concepts so that you can break down what 77 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: sort of communication happens between various components within a communication system. 78 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: And it's uh so that you can really figure out, 79 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: all right, well, how do we have these various layers 80 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,359 Speaker 1: interact with one another, which ones need to be, you know, 81 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: segregated from the rest and uh and just kind of 82 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: a way of defining it, at least from an ideal 83 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 1: perspective as opposed to necessarily a physical one. But layer 84 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: one is what we call the bit layer it's the 85 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: physical layer of data communication. So we're talking about physical 86 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: elements such as pens and uh the voltage, it's act 87 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,040 Speaker 1: also electrical layout. It's the voltage that you need it 88 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: transfer information. And really you're talking about a single device 89 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: communicating through some sort of medium. So this is where 90 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,760 Speaker 1: we were talking about one device. We're not connecting it 91 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: to anything else at on a layer one layer of communication. 92 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,680 Speaker 1: Layer two is where we start talking about communication between devices, 93 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:24,920 Speaker 1: and in this case we're talking about communication between devices 94 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: within a local area network or land. All right, so 95 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: a land you do not need a router. We actually 96 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: had another fellow right in UM recently on on our 97 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: Facebook page, I posted a quiz about routers, and he 98 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: pointed out that actually this is Carl who said this 99 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,839 Speaker 1: is called me pedantic. But question one, A home network 100 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: does not require a router to operate either. Carl is 101 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: absolutely correct. You do not need a router to allow 102 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: communication within a local area network. You need a switch 103 00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: that can switch the data back and forth, but you 104 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: don't need a router. Right, So this is layer to 105 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: all that all that communication within layer two within a 106 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: local area network, a single network can be uh controlled 107 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: through a switch. You don't have to worry about a 108 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,920 Speaker 1: router at that point. Now, if you want to communicate 109 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 1: to a device, it's on another network. This is where 110 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: the Internet comes in. The Internet is that network of networks. 111 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: So let's say I want to visit a website and 112 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: the server that has that websites information on it is 113 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:31,919 Speaker 1: not on my local area network, but is on some 114 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:35,279 Speaker 1: other network, possibly on the other side of the world. 115 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 1: That's when you need a router, because what the router 116 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,160 Speaker 1: does is it controls the the information moving from your 117 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: local area network to the Internet so that it will 118 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: go to the proper place. And it also receives information 119 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: from the Internet and transfers it to your local area 120 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: network so that you can view it or interact with 121 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:59,160 Speaker 1: it in whatever way. So that's the basic purpose of 122 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: a router, uh And it's you know, when you break 123 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:04,479 Speaker 1: it down that way, it kind of it makes it 124 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,040 Speaker 1: easier to understand why routers are important. Without a router, 125 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: you would not be able to have this this data 126 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: transfer between a larger network or or a computer on 127 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: another network and your computer you would just have You'd 128 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: be able to have communication through a local system, but 129 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: not through a global system. Unless you have a really 130 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: long cable. Yeah. That's especially important for the Internet because 131 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: as as you will remember, or at least as a 132 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 1: long time listeners will remember, Uh, traffic on the Internet 133 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: goes in little uh pieces or packets. They're actually called packets, um, 134 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: and they're sent uh redundantly. So you know, you might 135 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: take a file, uh say, an email and break it 136 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: down into a series of packets. Each of those has 137 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: some information that tells where it's going, UM, where it's 138 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: coming from, and what piece it is. It might be, 139 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: you know, piece three of packet three of forty, let's say, um, 140 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: so it tells uh the network where to send it 141 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,120 Speaker 1: and how to reassemble it when it gets there. On 142 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: the other side, Well, the thing is, uh, it might say, okay, well, 143 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: I'm going from uh computer A to computer B, to 144 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: computer C to computer D. Well, all of a sudden, 145 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: there's a power failure at computer C, so it goes 146 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:25,559 Speaker 1: from A to B. Oh it's stuck. Well, in the Internet, Uh, 147 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: it's set up where the packets can be sent and 148 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: re routed around computer C. So you might go to 149 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 1: computer F and then back to computer D. Because they 150 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: can be sent at multiple directions. At the same time, 151 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: and then you know with the idea that one set 152 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: of packets will be reassembled into the file on the 153 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: other end. And the router is crucial to making this happen. Yeah, 154 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: Routers have this thing called a routing table, and routing 155 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: table is essentially a guide saying this is where, this 156 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: is the direction you need to send packets in order 157 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: for information to come to go from to this machine 158 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: and get to that machine. So machine A and machine 159 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: beat will say, alright, So a routing table will in 160 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,199 Speaker 1: general give the fastest uh route. Now, the fastest route 161 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:15,120 Speaker 1: is not necessarily the shortest route, true, And it's the 162 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: same as if you live in a city. All right, 163 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,680 Speaker 1: So let's say let's let's let's take the city as 164 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: a kind of a metaphor here. We're gonna look at 165 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: the city as an analog to the internet. It's not 166 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: it's not entirely analogous, but we're going to kind of 167 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:31,600 Speaker 1: make some jumps here. So let's say you live in 168 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 1: a city and the city tends to have a lot 169 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 1: of traffic in it, and you may be at your 170 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: house and you want to go eat at a popular 171 00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: restaurant that's across town. And so you know three different 172 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: ways of getting to the place across town. One of 173 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: them takes the least number of turns. It's it's the 174 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 1: most direct route, but it's also the most heavily traffic route. 175 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: So in other words, you could go that way and 176 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:59,200 Speaker 1: you wouldn't have to turn as frequently, but because of 177 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 1: the the number of cars on that route, it will 178 00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: actually take you longer to get there than if you 179 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,960 Speaker 1: took a slightly more circuitous route that would have less 180 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:09,960 Speaker 1: traffic on it. So in that case, you say, you 181 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:12,440 Speaker 1: know what, I know that this is the direct path, 182 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: but I'm going to take this more out of the 183 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 1: way path. This it's it's a shortcut in time, but 184 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:20,040 Speaker 1: not in distance. And the same thing is true on 185 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: the internet. You might be able to find a route 186 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,080 Speaker 1: to push traffic through that's going to be faster, even 187 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:29,120 Speaker 1: though it's not as direct. By the way, if you 188 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:31,600 Speaker 1: happen to live in Los Angeles, I understand that this 189 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: is a sport that in Los Angeles, if you have 190 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: a group of people and you have all decided to 191 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,719 Speaker 1: go someplace, the first hour of your travel time will 192 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: actually be taken up spending time talking about the best 193 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: way to get to where you're going. Okay, yeah, very 194 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:51,280 Speaker 1: little driving in LA so well that's it's. What's required 195 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: is that you and at least one other person each 196 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,560 Speaker 1: in their own vehicles, have to be going to a 197 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: specific place, leaving from the same location. And at that 198 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 1: point you have launched into the game where then you 199 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: say no, no, no, you don't want to do that. 200 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:06,880 Speaker 1: That's going to take you on the four oh five 201 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: And haven't you heard of Carmageddon? And um so, yeah, 202 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: it's the same sort of thing. Now. Granted, if if 203 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: the city were empty, then the direct route would be 204 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,599 Speaker 1: the shortest, but the city is never empty because the 205 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,440 Speaker 1: zombie apocalypse hasn't happened yet, at least at the time 206 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast. Yes so, and by 207 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,320 Speaker 1: the way, if by the zombie apocalypse has happened since 208 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: we record this podcast, I would like to have a 209 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: shout out to all of our new listeners with BRAT. 210 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: We're great with the zombie demographic. Oh I'm a little 211 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,200 Speaker 1: loopy today, Yeah you know, I hadn't noticed. Yeah, so anyway, 212 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: The routing table is this list of essentially rules that 213 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 1: the router follows in order to send packets across the network. 214 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 1: And you might say, well, that seems pretty um stiff 215 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,120 Speaker 1: and and and inflexible. What happens when things change, Well, 216 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: routing tables are not static. They are dynamic. They change 217 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 1: all the time. And what's happening is routers are actually 218 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: communicating with each other across the Internet constantly updating this 219 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:16,120 Speaker 1: information and changing it so that the most uh, the 220 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:21,680 Speaker 1: most efficient route is constantly being adjusted. And they're doing 221 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 1: this through various protocols. Routing Information Protocol or r I 222 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: p RIP that would be the one of the common 223 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: protocols used. Another one is the Open Shortest Path First 224 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: or OSPF protocol. These protocols are what routers use in 225 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,640 Speaker 1: order to update these routing tables so that data will 226 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:45,280 Speaker 1: co go across the network, across the Internet in the 227 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:49,120 Speaker 1: most efficient way possible, the way that's got the best 228 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:51,200 Speaker 1: guarantee that your information is going to get to where 229 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: it needs to be. And each packet that Chris was 230 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,680 Speaker 1: talking about earlier has data in it that allows it 231 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:02,559 Speaker 1: to um well, allows it to the system to keep 232 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:04,560 Speaker 1: track of it. So let's say that you've sent a 233 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 1: file like let's say I'm sending a file to Chris 234 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:09,400 Speaker 1: and Chris is on one network and I'm on another network, 235 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: and uh, some of my packets don't get through. Well, 236 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:16,679 Speaker 1: the system keeps track of that. The what will happen 237 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: is the information will come back to my computer and 238 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 1: it will say, hey, packets three, seven, and twelve out 239 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:25,520 Speaker 1: of the forty that you sent never made it to 240 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: Chris's machine. Then my machine will automatically re send those 241 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: packets so that they will hopefully get to Chris's machine. Now, granted, 242 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: all this is happening at near the speed of light, 243 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:39,520 Speaker 1: so you don't really notice the delay unless something's really 244 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: really bad has happened. Um. And so this is all 245 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 1: happening in the blink of an eye, but it's happening 246 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:51,559 Speaker 1: over and over and over across the Internet, right, um 247 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:53,880 Speaker 1: and and yes it's um just to go back to 248 00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:57,920 Speaker 1: protocols to the protocols are basically, uh, languages that the 249 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,480 Speaker 1: routers used to speak to one another. Um. It's it 250 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:06,880 Speaker 1: enables people multiple manufacturers to make devices that will communicate 251 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: with one another and be interoperable, which is you know, 252 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: we talked about that actually on our podcast about how 253 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,440 Speaker 1: the Internet works, and we mentioned on some of the others. 254 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: I think we probably did on IPv six that, uh, 255 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 1: there are certain protocols that allow MC to talk to 256 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: a Linux box and the Linux box to talk to 257 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:26,600 Speaker 1: a PC and etcetera. Right, they're all they're all using 258 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:32,880 Speaker 1: the computer equivalent of Esperanto. Yes, no, anyway, Yeah, that's 259 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: that's what that's what our protocol is. And route routers 260 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: do have those, uh, protocols that are specific to routers, 261 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: and that that does help them balance the load somewhat 262 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:42,680 Speaker 1: on the Internet. Yeah, we should should say, I guess 263 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,440 Speaker 1: that a router really is a very specific computer. It's 264 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 1: not just this box that you buy and you know 265 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 1: it's got lights on it and when it's lit up, 266 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: you know that the information is going through it is 267 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: actually a very specific type of computer. Yeah, very specialized device. 268 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: And and a lot of the routers, like the home 269 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,200 Speaker 1: routers that you purchase for your your home network, whether 270 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: it's wireless or wired, also tend to act as a switch. 271 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaker 1: And what by by that, I mean that it allows 272 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:10,440 Speaker 1: you to have your computers talk to one another. So 273 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 1: if you have multiple computers at your house, you can 274 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:15,880 Speaker 1: send files from one machine to another machine without having 275 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: to set up like some weird email thing or whatever, 276 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: you can actually send it directly through your home network 277 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:23,280 Speaker 1: because your router also can be a switch. It's not 278 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:27,040 Speaker 1: just a router that sends information from your network to 279 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: the Internet and back. Um. Also, when we were talking 280 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: about information going across the network and figuring out the 281 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: most efficient way, in the sense of routers, what they 282 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: do is they calculate the cost of a of any 283 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:47,960 Speaker 1: particular data transmission, and cost does not mean dollars. It 284 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: means hops, alright, So when a router sends information across 285 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,200 Speaker 1: the network, information may go from one router to another 286 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: router to another router until it finally gets to wherever 287 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: it's going. All right, Each time that information goes from 288 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 1: one route or to another, that's called a hop, right now. Protocols, 289 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,600 Speaker 1: certain protocols have a limited number of hops that are 290 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,760 Speaker 1: built into uh any sort of data transference, and that 291 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: information is stored in the data packet. Okay, So it's 292 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: almost like I'm passing a note in class, and the 293 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 1: note can only pass through three other people before it 294 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 1: gets to my destination. It's one of them, the teacher. 295 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:31,920 Speaker 1: The teacher accesses the the packet of information it gets discarded, 296 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,880 Speaker 1: which is very much like what happens on the internet. Actually, so, 297 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:38,680 Speaker 1: so let's say that again. But now we're talking about 298 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:42,640 Speaker 1: a classroom. So Chris is sitting across the class from 299 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: from me. I'm on one side, he's on the other side. 300 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: I want to pass him a note that says something like, uh, 301 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: I don't know the didn't the teacher wear that same 302 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: outfit yesterday? And so I'm trying to send the the 303 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: note across the class and it can only pass through 304 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:01,320 Speaker 1: three other hands up before it hits Chris. If it 305 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,480 Speaker 1: passes through more than that, then whoever the fourth person 306 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,040 Speaker 1: is is like, this is not worthwhile and just tosses 307 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:10,240 Speaker 1: the note away. The same thing is happening with hop 308 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,120 Speaker 1: counts if I send a packet of information. If I'm 309 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: sending a file to Chris and it's going across the Internet, 310 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,399 Speaker 1: there's a certain number of hops that packet will go 311 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,600 Speaker 1: through before it hits the maximum number of hop count. 312 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:23,680 Speaker 1: Now that does not mean that the packet just automatically 313 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,119 Speaker 1: gets thrown away. It means that the system says, you 314 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: know what, this packet has gone through this kind of 315 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:32,000 Speaker 1: serpentine pathway in order to get to where it's going. 316 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,199 Speaker 1: It's not getting there efficiently. Chances are this packet has 317 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: already made it to the destination through a fewer number 318 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,679 Speaker 1: of hops. So I'm just going to toss the packet 319 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: aside because otherwise, because the Internet is a redundant system, 320 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,040 Speaker 1: and because it's meant to be robust, and it's meant 321 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 1: to get a packet of information to the destination through 322 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:56,440 Speaker 1: whatever means possible within the parameters of the Internet. If 323 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: you didn't have these sort of uh discards them is 324 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: put into place, the Internet would become overrun with packets. Yeah, 325 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: because you know, if I'm sending that file to Chris 326 00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: and there's these duplicate packets going across the network, what 327 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,679 Speaker 1: happens when one packet gets to the destination and the 328 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,119 Speaker 1: other packets are still out there trying to trying to 329 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:18,560 Speaker 1: get to the destination. You're starting to clog up the 330 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,680 Speaker 1: Internet with all of this data. So these these fail 331 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: safes are in place in order to prevent the Internet 332 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:30,199 Speaker 1: from just bogging down with too much data. And they 333 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,680 Speaker 1: didn't have to buy a like a digital router and 334 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: go in and yeah, we've got we've got the routers, 335 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: but not the routers router routers. I had to call 336 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,880 Speaker 1: them once it was did not go well, No, it's 337 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: never anyway. Um. So in order to make all this work, 338 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:49,160 Speaker 1: in addition to your router and your network, you also 339 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: have to have an address, a unique address for each 340 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 1: item on the network. And this we've talked about in 341 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: the I p V four versus I p V six podcast. 342 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: Ideally you would have every single device that connects to 343 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:08,160 Speaker 1: the Internet would have its own unique address, so that 344 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:11,679 Speaker 1: whenever I want to send something to another device or 345 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 1: receive information from another device, it would always go to 346 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,680 Speaker 1: the same address. And that way, it's just it's just efficient. 347 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,040 Speaker 1: It's a clean, efficient system. But we don't have enough 348 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:25,560 Speaker 1: addresses to do that, right. But each item and you 349 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,640 Speaker 1: may have actually seen this when you're going into your 350 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: computer or you know, other devices like tablets and smartphones 351 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:36,120 Speaker 1: that use Internet networks, or video game systems, video game systems, uh, 352 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,679 Speaker 1: set top boxes, TVs. There's a lot of different devices 353 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: that do it now, which is again part of the problem. Yeah, 354 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 1: that this is called a MAC address. It's known as 355 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 1: Media Access control and it doesn't look like well, actually, 356 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:53,240 Speaker 1: it kind of resembles an IP address because it has 357 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 1: a series of letters and numbers separated by by colon's 358 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:00,920 Speaker 1: and that this is how you can identify I. Um, 359 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: you know, say you have been foolish and have left 360 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:11,160 Speaker 1: your wireless network open to the public, and you have 361 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 1: let's say a computer and a tablet and wait a minute, 362 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: there are three things on your network. Well, then you 363 00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 1: can look at the MAC address on your computer, and 364 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:23,480 Speaker 1: you can look at the MAC address and your tablet 365 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,760 Speaker 1: and UH by process of elimination, figure out what the 366 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,800 Speaker 1: other device is and maybe even get an idea. If 367 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: you can access the uh um the routers information page, 368 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,399 Speaker 1: you can you can see what what's going on, how 369 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,359 Speaker 1: much traffic it's using, and hopefully shut it down. You 370 00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: can even on on some uh probably on most of them, 371 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: I would guess. I just don't want to be absolute um, 372 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 1: you know, restricted to certain Mac addresses, so you can 373 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,159 Speaker 1: you can actually add you can on mind on the 374 00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: device I have at home. You can say, you know, 375 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,679 Speaker 1: I'm adding this tablet, I'm adding this game console, I'm 376 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:06,879 Speaker 1: adding this uh smartphone, I actually use WiFi calling on 377 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: my smartphone, you know, and things like that, and say, okay, 378 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,200 Speaker 1: I'm only allowing MAC addresses that I know to join 379 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:17,160 Speaker 1: this network. But Basically, this is a way for um, 380 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:20,840 Speaker 1: you know, local networks to identify the devices and send 381 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,960 Speaker 1: the packets that go to that device, so they know, 382 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 1: um that if you are reading how Stuff Works dot 383 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: Com and your spouse is looking at a news network 384 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,359 Speaker 1: and you know you don't get the packets mixed up. 385 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:36,440 Speaker 1: It says, oh, well, these belong to this address, these 386 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: belong to that address, and I'm going to be the 387 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,440 Speaker 1: traffic cop and send the right packets to the right place, right. Yeah. 388 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: This this kind of ties into network address translation, which 389 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:47,960 Speaker 1: I referred to at the beginning of the podcast. We've 390 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:49,800 Speaker 1: also talked about that in the I p V four 391 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: versus I p V six. Yes, it's one of the 392 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,960 Speaker 1: ways to address the problem of having more devices in 393 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,400 Speaker 1: the world than we have available IP addresses for those 394 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,119 Speaker 1: devices to connect to the Internet. Now, for information to 395 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:05,840 Speaker 1: travel across the Internet, it means that you have to 396 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:11,199 Speaker 1: have an Internet Protocol address. This allows the information to 397 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: travel across it allows it allows other computers to find you, 398 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,640 Speaker 1: and allows your computer to send information to other computers. Uh. 399 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:20,720 Speaker 1: Without the IP addresses, you of course would have no 400 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,040 Speaker 1: way of knowing how to get information from one machine 401 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,680 Speaker 1: to another. It's kind of like in a sense, it's 402 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,080 Speaker 1: kind of like a physical address or phone number. If 403 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 1: we didn't have phone numbers, if it was all a 404 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 1: party line, you would just have to pick up the 405 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,720 Speaker 1: phone and hope that whomever you're trying to contact is 406 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: also on the phone at that time, and everyone else 407 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,320 Speaker 1: will be able to hear your conversation at the same time. 408 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: And but in just curious, have we ever talked about 409 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,400 Speaker 1: party lines? I don't think, so that might be fun. 410 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,240 Speaker 1: Then we can add that to the to do list. 411 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:52,680 Speaker 1: So the network address translation, this is a layer that, 412 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: uh that could be very useful in this sense. You 413 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:57,960 Speaker 1: would have a router that would have a number of 414 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 1: static IP addresses, or it possibly would have a number 415 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 1: of addresses assigned to it by the whatever your Internet 416 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: service provider is. Your devices would not have static IP addresses. 417 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,159 Speaker 1: They would have like some non unique IP address and 418 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: dynamically assigned and and and because they are non unique, 419 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 1: that means you can't just automatically tag into the Internet 420 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,080 Speaker 1: and send stuff because if it's a non unique address, 421 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 1: I mean some other devices out there on the Internet 422 00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,600 Speaker 1: may also have that same address, So anything you request 423 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,040 Speaker 1: would be sent to all of them. So what happens 424 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,400 Speaker 1: is your router acts as kind of a postmaster. You 425 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: have this non unique address. You send information to the 426 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:43,800 Speaker 1: you're trying to get, uh, let's say again a website. 427 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,480 Speaker 1: I'm trying to visit a website. Uh. That request goes 428 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,520 Speaker 1: through to my router. My router then replaces my non 429 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: unique address with a unique static IP address and keeps 430 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:59,280 Speaker 1: track of that relationship within the routing table. When it's 431 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: own pro re calls, sends that request out to the internet. 432 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,720 Speaker 1: It eventually gets to the server that I want. The 433 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,639 Speaker 1: information comes back to the router. The routers says, all right, 434 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: this information is meant for static IP address whatever. Now 435 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,080 Speaker 1: it has to refer to its table and see which 436 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 1: of your devices on your home network, your local area 437 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:23,639 Speaker 1: network has temporarily been assigned that static address. It then 438 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: sends the information to you. If if you are no 439 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,479 Speaker 1: longer part of that network, or if it can identify it, 440 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:34,480 Speaker 1: it gets dumped. It dumps that information so it goes nowhere. Um. Now, 441 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: this is one of the things that kind of it 442 00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: depending on the type of engineer, it can really irritate 443 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,680 Speaker 1: engineers because it's a less efficient system and this is 444 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,520 Speaker 1: also one of the issues with gaming routers we talked about. 445 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:51,919 Speaker 1: You know, the request asked about what kind of routers 446 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:56,399 Speaker 1: are best for gaming. Well, because of the network address translation, 447 00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:01,440 Speaker 1: this can slow down data trans mission a little bit. 448 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,480 Speaker 1: I mean, there can also be some compatibility issues, um, 449 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 1: especially if the router has to change these the IP 450 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 1: address for whatever the device is. Like, if you've got 451 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: a lot of devices that are connecting to this router, 452 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,600 Speaker 1: there could be some complications and complications when you're gaming. 453 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,639 Speaker 1: That's a bad thing because it's going to affect how 454 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: fast that information is traveling to whichever device you're using 455 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: the game. It's complicated. Yeah, well that can that can 456 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,240 Speaker 1: mean that you will get lag in the game you're playing. 457 00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:32,359 Speaker 1: It means that you might get artifacts. Uh, the game 458 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: will not play as well as you would want it to. 459 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:40,720 Speaker 1: So any any device that's using that you're that's one 460 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,880 Speaker 1: of the things you gotta look at, like, well, how 461 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:48,640 Speaker 1: how well rated is this router for that particular function. Um. 462 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:51,959 Speaker 1: Also depending on well, if you are a serious gamer, 463 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,399 Speaker 1: you probably you probably want a wired router. Uh. A 464 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,040 Speaker 1: lot of the wireless routers also have wired connections to them. Yeah, 465 00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: so you probably want a wired connection, and the reason 466 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,280 Speaker 1: for that is that it's more reliable than wireless. You 467 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:10,439 Speaker 1: are less likely to have interference. Uh, you're not going 468 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,720 Speaker 1: to find a dead spot. Like you know, if you 469 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,560 Speaker 1: have your wireless network set up in one room and 470 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 1: you tend to game in a different room and uh, 471 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:23,240 Speaker 1: and there are certain materials in your walls, it may 472 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: end up blocking some of the signal, which means that 473 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:26,960 Speaker 1: you may not have a clear signal and that will 474 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,399 Speaker 1: affect your gaming. So a wired connection tends to be 475 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:34,119 Speaker 1: best if you want to go wireless. UH, the IN 476 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: protocol tends to be the best. It's the fastest, and 477 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: it has a really good penetration as far as various 478 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: materials goes. So if you have a wireless or other 479 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,000 Speaker 1: set up, it's a it's a pretty good bet. G 480 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,040 Speaker 1: is the next step. I would go with either INN 481 00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:52,320 Speaker 1: or G preferably. And now you have to make sure 482 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: that whatever devices you're using are compatible with that particular protocol. Yes, 483 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,080 Speaker 1: that's the eight O, two dot eleven. Yes, proto a 484 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:04,040 Speaker 1: call with with the various flavors A, B, G and yeah. 485 00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: And so if you have a if you have a 486 00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:11,080 Speaker 1: device that is running that it can accept G. I mean, 487 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,440 Speaker 1: these are all different kinds of radio frequencies, but it 488 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,640 Speaker 1: is designed for a G frequency then G rated. Yeah, 489 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,320 Speaker 1: and you have an N router, it's not gonna work. 490 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,919 Speaker 1: They are not compatible. You have to have one that 491 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,720 Speaker 1: can do I mean, they're great. There are plenty of 492 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: routers out there that will do multiple frequencies, and there 493 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:35,159 Speaker 1: are plenty of of UH wireless chips out there that 494 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: can do multiple frequencies as well, But you want to 495 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,120 Speaker 1: make sure that you do have that compatibility in there 496 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,840 Speaker 1: or else. You know, you might have the fastest connection 497 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: with the router possible, but your device is not compatible. 498 00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:50,959 Speaker 1: Also keep in mind this is also very heavily dependent 499 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: upon what your internet service provider plan is, because if 500 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,560 Speaker 1: you're you can have the if you have the fastest router, 501 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 1: and you think of it like a doorway, it could 502 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,520 Speaker 1: be a really really wide doorway, but the path is 503 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,959 Speaker 1: really narrow once you open the door, it doesn't help you. 504 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,399 Speaker 1: You have to have that broadband connection with a really 505 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,160 Speaker 1: good data transfer rate for the router to even make 506 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: a difference. Um, if you don't have that high speed 507 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: internet connection, if your cable modem or or however you're 508 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:23,080 Speaker 1: getting your your internet. If that is a bottleneck, the 509 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,280 Speaker 1: router is not gonna help. You have to have that too. Yeah. 510 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:28,359 Speaker 1: Keep in mind too that if your I s P 511 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:32,200 Speaker 1: caps data, you might keep an eye on that. Yeah, 512 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: I mean, depending on what you're doing, it may not 513 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,720 Speaker 1: make a difference. Most people never reach their I s 514 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,640 Speaker 1: P S data cap, although that's that's changing as people 515 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 1: are getting more into like consuming streaming video. You know. 516 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,400 Speaker 1: So if you are watching some streaming video service and 517 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: you're perhaps you have it on a couple of different televisions. 518 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,400 Speaker 1: I mean it's not unusual now. You might have a 519 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 1: Roku box on one machine one television. You might have 520 00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: a an Xbox three six yr ps three on another one. 521 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: You could potentially have five or six different televisions all 522 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,800 Speaker 1: consuming streaming video. That's gonna that's gonna cause a pretty 523 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: big bottleneck too. You've gotta have a really good Internet 524 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: connection and a decent router for that to work. It's 525 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: not impossible. Um, it's impossible with my setup, but because 526 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:18,880 Speaker 1: I have a I have a much slower home network. Uh. 527 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:22,480 Speaker 1: But yeah, if you don't, um, yeah, that's that's possible, 528 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:24,960 Speaker 1: and then that could very quickly run up against a 529 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: data cap right. Uh, did you want to touch on 530 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: There's one one issue I thought it might be interesting 531 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,120 Speaker 1: to touch on. UM. That's in the routers article on 532 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. And that's what happens when 533 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:44,280 Speaker 1: people intentionally try to clog a network hit me up 534 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,240 Speaker 1: with it. That would be a do OS denial of 535 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:54,000 Speaker 1: a denial of service attack. UM. And basically, in these attacks, UH, 536 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:59,320 Speaker 1: what happens is someone will intentionally send as many packets 537 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: as possible to the same spot. So basically, remember we 538 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:08,240 Speaker 1: were talking just a few moments ago about how routers 539 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 1: are aware of what else is going on in the network, 540 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,800 Speaker 1: and they talk to one another and they can they communicate. Well, 541 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: if you know where there is a specific router, uh. 542 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: And it leads to say, say you're some someone who 543 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: is who has a grievance against the company, and you 544 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:26,320 Speaker 1: know where their their router is, you can send you know, 545 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: billions of packets to it. Uh. Someone's going to correct 546 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,160 Speaker 1: me and say they can't be that many, but let's 547 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 1: say lots and lots of packets to it in an 548 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 1: attempt to overwhelm the router and give it so much 549 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,200 Speaker 1: traffic that it cannot UM handle it, and it will 550 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: cause it to UH have errors. Basically, it will become 551 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: really sluggish or possibly even have it just shut down. Yeah, 552 00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: it's certainly been known to happen in then variation of 553 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: this which is becoming more common as the d d 554 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,280 Speaker 1: O S or distributed denial of service attack, which happens 555 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: a lot in a lot of cases with UH bot 556 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 1: nets where people have UM installed some kind of malware 557 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,520 Speaker 1: on their computer and someone is running this attack to 558 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 1: UH you know, basically take over possibly thousands of computers 559 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:12,520 Speaker 1: and have all of them send an attack against one 560 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: target at the same time. Which, as you might imagine, 561 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,120 Speaker 1: if you had thousands of computers working on this problem 562 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,880 Speaker 1: as it were sending sending requests at the speed of 563 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: light all to a single target, it's it's very easy 564 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,479 Speaker 1: to overwhelm a single router with that kind of UH 565 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,600 Speaker 1: with that kind of traffic. So UM when you when 566 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: you hear about these attacks, you can keep that in mind, 567 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:38,560 Speaker 1: that that there's some router somewhere that it's doing its 568 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,280 Speaker 1: level best to handle the traffic, but it is just 569 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:45,600 Speaker 1: not keeping up with a flood of UH packets swarming 570 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: at it. And also on that same note, because a 571 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: router is essentially a computer. You can install software on 572 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: that router so that it has its own protections against 573 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:02,920 Speaker 1: such things. So when you hear about people talking about firewalls, 574 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,040 Speaker 1: there are various ways you can have a firewall. You 575 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: can a computer firewall, you can have it as a 576 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:08,959 Speaker 1: software layer, you can have it as a hardware layer. Well, 577 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: routers kind of a hardware layer level firewall. A lot 578 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,840 Speaker 1: of routers come with a firewall system in place that 579 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,719 Speaker 1: you can configure once you set up your router, and 580 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:22,160 Speaker 1: this will help protect your home network system from intrusions 581 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,239 Speaker 1: from malware coming in, uh, from unrequested data coming in, 582 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: so sort sort of a spam protector as well. UM, 583 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: and routers can also have other kinds of software programmed 584 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: into them, things like encryption, UM, intrusion detection, that kind 585 00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: of stuff. So, uh, depending on the model of router, 586 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,600 Speaker 1: that'll that'll tell you what kind of protection is built 587 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: into the system. And uh, you know, it's not uncommon 588 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:54,920 Speaker 1: to find routers come with firewall software and pre installed 589 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: in the router itself, which is also very useful. It 590 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 1: do highly recommend that if you know, if you're setting 591 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: up a home area network and you want to uh, 592 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:04,760 Speaker 1: you want to have a router there to connect to 593 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 1: the internet. Setting up a firewall is a very good stuff. 594 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: It's not just like any other security system on the Internet. 595 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,120 Speaker 1: I have to stress it's never full proof. You're never 596 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: going to have the perfect security system because people are 597 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:23,840 Speaker 1: ingenious at getting around uh firewalls and other kind of barriers. 598 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:28,200 Speaker 1: But it does mean that you're going to prevent the 599 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:32,240 Speaker 1: overwhelming percentage of attacks from getting to you because most 600 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: people are also lazy, so they're gonna aim for a 601 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,479 Speaker 1: wide array of targets and they're gonna be happy if 602 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:41,640 Speaker 1: they just hit a few of those targets. They're not 603 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 1: necessarily aiming directly for you, unless you're some sort of 604 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: important individual with like a government or perhaps a news 605 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: agency or something like that. If you have like a 606 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: high profile status, then you might have to worry about 607 00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,160 Speaker 1: more stringent security. But for the average user, it doesn't. 608 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 1: You know, a decent viral wall is enough. Yeah, Indecent 609 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,440 Speaker 1: fire walls are never enough. Well. I think that's a 610 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,279 Speaker 1: good discussion on routers. We really pretty much covered the 611 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:13,840 Speaker 1: basics there, and like I said, if you want to 612 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,480 Speaker 1: learn more, visit how stuff works dot com. Check out 613 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,520 Speaker 1: our articles on how routers work and how network address 614 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,239 Speaker 1: translation works. Um those those articles are very helpful to 615 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: understand the ins and outs of how this data goes across. 616 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:28,800 Speaker 1: There's also some great animations and everything that show this 617 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 1: in action. So if you have problems visualizing it, check 618 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,759 Speaker 1: out the website. It really does help. And guys, if 619 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: you have any requests that you would like us to 620 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,600 Speaker 1: address uh huh, you can let us know via email 621 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:46,400 Speaker 1: our addresses, text stuff at how stuff Works dot com, 622 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: or send us a little message on that Facebook or 623 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,960 Speaker 1: Twitter thing. Both of those places are handle is tech 624 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,840 Speaker 1: Stuff hs W and Chris and I will talk to 625 00:34:55,880 --> 00:35:01,080 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Be sure to check out our 626 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join How Stuff 627 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing 628 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:12,200 Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. 629 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes, brought to you by the 630 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,759 Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you