The boxes on the wire
Network devices, by the layer they work at.
A hub is not a switch, and a switch is not a router. The difference is which layer of the stack a box reads before it decides what to do. Drag or click any device onto the bench for the short version — or open its own page for the whole entry.
16
devices · 4 layers of the stack
The bench
Drag a device onto the reading table — or click it.The table is empty
Drop any device here to lay it out: which OSI layer it reads, what it does, the protocols it runs, and the devices it sits beside.
The index
Every device, filed by the highest layer it reads.Layer 2 — Data Link
Frame the bits and forward them by MAC on the local network.