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Routers and Switches - What's the difference?Routers and Switches are a common area where new PACS administrators who are not trained in the IT of PACS side have some confusion. Hopefully I can clear up some of that confusion. Network switches connect devices on the same subnet together. Within one area of your hospital, you undoubtedly notice that the IP addresses are similar, usually with the last section (octet) of the address as the different part. All of these devices are on the same network segment or subnet. When you plug a device into the wall, there is another cable behind the wall leading back to a switch. Other devices in the vicinity that are on the same subnet, all go back to the same switch. Those devices all communicate with each other through that switch. The router on the other hand, has the responsibility of connecting two or more subnets, or multiple switches together. A common example would be different floors of a hospital. Consider each floor its own subnet. In order for a PC on the first floor to talk to a computer on the third floor, its communications must travel back to the switch on the respective floor and the switches on each floor all connect back to a single router. The communications through a router must occur at layer three of the OSI model. Looking at the diagram below, you can see how each of the networks allows for all of the devices on the same network to talk to each other through the switch. However, for a PC on any network to talk to a PC on any other network, the path of communication goes through the router. 
Here is my practical example. If you live in Madison, Wisconsin and live on 123 Alpine Lane, all the other houses on Alpine Lane or in Madison for that matter are on the same subnet. You can send a letter to anybody else on Alpine Lane with out going through the post office; you can simply walk down the road and drop it in the desired mailbox. Now, suppose you want to send a letter to somebody on a different subnet, say perhaps in Cupertino, California. You can’t just jump on your bike and go there. You would have to take the letter to the post office (the router in this example) and the post office would take care of getting that letter to Cupertino.Now, if you are really new at this, that still may be a bit confusing, but visit my sections on subnets, the OSI Model, or networking for additional information.
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