what do network switches do
In: Technology
Switches are used to route traffic based on the packets destination IP address, so it can send the traffic directly to the device or network segment on a specific port. This is more efficient than a dumb hub which just repeats all traffic to the connected devices on the physical layer, but since the switch needs to know where to route packets, it generally requires additional configuration.
You also have a router which works directly with the packets contents to deal with things like firewall, filtering, forwarding, and other things that require you to know more about the content than just the sender/recipient address.
A good resource with pics: https://medium.com/@fiberstoreorenda/do-you-know-the-difference-between-hub-switch-router-b74c2e8a8143
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