I can see now that this is a terminology issue.
!= = Not equal for all you non programmers..
Cable Modem + Router != Cable router
ADSL Modem + Router != ADSL router
A cable router actually route cable. One of these is actually $12,000.
Stolen ones sell in south america for about $10,000. These actually route cable and in coax cable.
An adsl router costs about as much. It is a large switch that sits at a telco that just directs packets.
An ethernet router is a consumer level device that is used to route ethernet signals.
Most modem+router combinations are advertised as modem + router.
Also, you are partially correct.
Routers, switches and hubs perform the same action of bridging networks.
They just use different packet stripping algorithms.
ALL are used to router internet traffic from the modem, the technology horizon must have skipped over the UK i guess....
Basically, in the beginning there was a hub. The technology used was slow and interative. The first tests of ethernet.
Basically, this was the start of the OSI model.
This was basically stage one of the osi model.
A switch came later. This increased speed over the hub, and used both level 1 and leve 2 of the osi model.
Finally, a router came along. This switching device utilizes all 7 layers of the OSI model.
A router is the most prefferred type of switch in a school/home/office/business environment.
How can you tell the company your working for is cheap?
They still use switches and hubs....
The proper term for the router spoken about in this room would be
BROADBAND ROUTERS.
Such routers are specifically designed to route broadband signals. These routers contain wan ports. Regular routers do not.
All switches, routers and hub can be set up to pipe broadband.
I, myself, have gone through a hoard of hubs, switches, routers, pbx switches(try asterisk for linux its very good) and broadband routers.
Remember.
A true cable router cost $12,000.
The so called cable router here is actually a broadband router + modem.
A true ADSL switch costs about the same.
The so called ADSL router is an ADSL modem+router(yes, our telcos in the states give them out like trash too but people dont know how to configure them and wardrivers like me have free internet when we need driving directions).
A true flat screen is not just a flat panel lcd, but can also be a flat crt(still preferable for color accuracy)
Also, plug-n-play is useless when you have vpn network that spans two separate continents, running a fileserve, webserver, or ssh/telnet terminal.
Plug-n-play seems to get in the way most when running an ftp server, i know from experience.....
As now I have sorted out the misuse of terminology.
Its funny, that electroslang is not only a problem in the states.....