Dumb Doubts

Hey all ..
The good old books classify a Router and a Gateway as two different devices. But sometimes i hear people calling Router a Gateway :confused:. So is any device that connects one network to a totally different network called a gateway?. Also the good old books say that the Router works in the network layer. But can we say that routers belong to the network layer because it works in the application layer (IOS) too??. And Finally how is the word router pronounced( i must be nuts! :rolleyes: ) " roooter" or "rowter" ??:p


the confused packetthirst

I could well be wrong here, as it was many years ago.................but back then a "gateway" connected you to the WAN or whatever passed for an internet. The "router" just handled your local LAN communications.

As for the second question, the answer must be; are you an English Gentleman, such as myself, or are you President of the USA? :D

Americans would probably say something sounding like "Rowter"...............I would say something sounding like "Roooter" (as in root kits ?) That is because the other pronunciation means a wood carving tool (router) over here...............

The spelling is the same, just the pronunciation is different.............

Also the way to get from point A to point B is called a route................we pronounce that "rooot" (like what trees have :) ), but I believe that Americans would say rooot also (as in "get your kicks on route 66?................hell I am showing my age)

There is also the Imperial rout...............which is pronounced "rowt"............as in "Caesar crossed the river and routed the Carthaginian forces".................and if you don't understand that context, just thank God you were not made to study Latin and Ancient Greek at school.

I hope that serves to confuse you further :D

Thanks nihil ...

Wat about calling Router a Network Layer Device ???

As nihil said (but in a different way) a router can be just a router or it also can be a gateway. Gateway meaning whatever connects you to the internet (in my understanding any way).

But then again, a cable modem (or DSL modem) could also be your gateway. A PC that other boxes are connected to and providing the internet connection for them, would also be a gateway.

But, I will disagree with the fine english gentalman in the pronunciation of router. Route (as in route 66) is pronounced 'rowt' so a router should be pronounced 'rowter' and the channel cuting wood working tool should also be pronounce 'rowter'. Rooter being a fan at a british football game (not to be considered the same a a rowdy at an american football game) (or vise~a~versa)

But what can you expect from a country that pronounces Lieutenant as Leftenant, although the discription implied is probably correct.

Hi,

PacketThirst regarding the pronounciation ...................what you are experiencing is the great British - American Divide :D.

Most of the older people (generation) in India Still speaks english with a British Accent ........................calling Lieutenant as Leftenant and schedule as sechedule ..same applies to Rooters and rowters :p.............and the newer generation speaking American Accent ..............................and which inturn is leaving a few people confused to which accent is rite:rolleyes:

oo and by the way i pronounce it as rooter .....................my teacher was adament on pronuncing it as Rowter.

--Good Luck--

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Originally posted here by moxnix

But, I will disagree with the fine english gentalman in the pronunciation of router. Route (as in route 66) is pronounced 'rowt' so a router should be pronounced 'rowter' and the channel cuting wood working tool should also be pronounce 'rowter'. Rooter being a fan at a british football game (not to be considered the same a a rowdy at an american football game) (or vise~a~versa)

But what can you expect from a country that pronounces Lieutenant as Leftenant, although the discription implied is probably correct.

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Have got to disagree with the above, and agree with nihil on this. In the UK "Route (as in route 66) is pronounced 'root' ", regardless of which part of the UK one is from. I must admit I have never heard of a fan at a British football game, (assume you means real football,what you would call soccer and not the American variety) being termed a rooter :D

Quote:

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Originally posted here by jm459
Have got to disagree with the above, and agree with nihil on this. In the UK "Route (as in route 66) is pronounced 'root' ", regardless of which part of the UK one is from. I must admit I have never heard of a fan at a British football game, (assume you means real football,what you would call soccer and not the American variety) being termed a rooter :D

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jm459, comman pronuniation in the states is to pronounce route (as in route 66) as root also. Although the 'proper' school taught pronunciation is 'rowt'. Even in the old jingle for the show Route 66 was pronounced 'root'. Add regional accents to that and you would find several different pronuniations of the word.

And I purposely scrambled the order of rooter and rowdy, as we have not had any riots (that I am aware of) in any (American style) football game, yet (English football ~soccer) has quite a few riots by its fans( hense the rowdies).

Because of the multipal word pronunciations and the different collocial word usage in english (not to even mention slang) make english one of the hardest langueges to learn, much less to keep up with.

So my comments were more tongue in cheek than serious in any way.

The "correct" pronunciation depends where you're from just like many other words. Where I'm from it would be pronounced "rowter" just like the wood working tool. "roooter" is not something I've ever heard used for anything except Roto-Rooter - the company that cleans the roots out of my sewer system every few years.

I woudl think that the main difference between a router and a gatweay is that a router just routes traffic. Most gateways do that too, but they generall also perform application-layer proxying services for things like FTP and HTTP.

A gateway doesn't necsarrily connect clients behind it to the Internet, though, although it usually does. It might perhaps be a gateway between two or more large divisions within a coporate network, a kind of shortcut. The *Internet* gateway then is the gate through which all the Internet traffic must pass.

And In North America the router (both the network device and the woodworking device) are pronounced and spelled the same. It confuses me when I am told things like "go look under that router for it"

[on the sidetopic] Route is a dual pronounciation noun. Route (Route 66 - root) Route (My child has a paper route - rowt). I'm not completely certain how the Brits decided to pronounce it for Router, but given their left-handed driving, I'm not surprised in the least if they pronounce it 'rooter'. (You say 'mayters, I say mahters, let's call the bloody thing off').[/on the sidetopic]

From my limited understanding, a gateway is comprised of a csu/dsu to set up for highspeed internet access or a wan link, and usually had a router immediately 'behind' them to act as firewall. A router sets up routing tables and acts as the 'traffic cop' for a network. I have no doubt in this day and age that they can be (and are) combined in certain circumstances, but in old school, they were two very different devices.

OSI Model
gateway - an device that acts on Application/presentation Layer, usually converting something. Usually acts like a proxy. Example: you are on a ipx network and needs to connect to a mainframe (sna only). You use a terminal emulator that send ipx (spx in fact) packets to a GATEWAY, that will handle the conversation with mainframe (thru sna) doing the appropriate conversion
router - a device that connect diferent networks and maintain "routes".
TCP/MODEL
gateway = router

In the begining of TCP/IP, they called the router as "gateway". after OSI model, they started to use "router", but a lot of places still named it as "gateway" (as default gateway on tcp/ip configuration).

Since OSI is (mostly) used only academically (is there such words???) nowadays everybody use gateway/router as synonyms -- they adopt the "tcp/ip naming convention"