Switch, Hub and Router

Question

Can someone explain me the difference between those three devices?

In: 1512

Answer 1

hub is layer 1. think of it as a repeater. any data that hits one port, is repeated on all other ports

switch is layer 2. it has some smarts

when data hits a port, the switch reads the hardware address (Mac address) and only forwards data to the port that has that destination

router is layer 3. it reads ip addresses.

so when data hits a port, it reads the destination ip, and forwards data to only that appropriate port