Network Routers Versus Switches
Consumer Network Routers and Switches look very similar. However, there is a major difference between these two devices.
Network Routers
A router is a computer networking device that forwards data to connected devices. It is able to share a single internet connection by splitting the connection among multiple ports. It does this by assigning a sub-network address to each computer it is hosting. This is done through DHCP.
Network Switch
A switch is a computer networking device that splits a single ethernet connection among multiple ports. It does not assign IP addresses and therefore only multiplies the connections on the network.