Chapter 9

Connecting Networks with Routers

Routers expand networks by allowing you to create multiple subnets or subnetworks. Routers are the traffic cops on a network that direct all the traffic from one subnetwork to another. At the very least, you need a router to access the Internet, and most networks in organizations include multiple routers.

Although the administration of routers is minimal in small networks, you should know some basics. For example, a router needs to know the path to all subnets in your network and the path to the Internet. Routers include a routing table that lists all of these paths, and the routing table can be updated manually or automatically. This chapter covers these topics and shows you how you can configure a Windows Server 2008 server as a software router.