I'm a programmer. Although I want to, I don't "get" networking. I don't know the difference between a mixer and a meetup. Is there a good primer on these thing

I'm a programmer. Although I want to, I don't "get" networking. I don't know the difference between a mixer and a meetup. Is there a good primer on these things from which the "getting" could start? But seriously, you want to look into the OSI network model. This may be helpful http://www.routeralley.com/completed/ccna_studyguide.pdf http://www.routeralley.com/completed/ccna_studyguide.pdf As for your question, I believe (and someone better informed then me is bound to come along) that a switch basically connects computers to make a network, and may or may not be very smart about how it does that, as it may broadcast everything to every computer in the network initially. A router routes communications from an outside network like the internet to another network's computers, using address translation to determine what to send where. Routers assign a ip address to computers within the network and does network address translation, so that externally you can use one ip address to the internet that represents multiple computers. It can track which internal ip address is associated with a request, but computers outside your intranet can't, which is why you often use routers to assign specific ports to specific computers in your network so that you can play video games or use bittorrent, as that lets the external networks initiate a connection by using a specified port.