wan lan ports in routers

Hi,
What is the difference between 100Mbit WAN port and e.g four100Mbit LAN
ports?
Andrew

Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 06:11, Due to a catastrophic
Andrzej error:
> Hi,
> What is the difference between 100Mbit WAN port and e.g four100Mbit LAN
> ports?

From an ethernet point of view, only the speed. From a routing point of view,
you usually will only able to route between the WAN port and the LAN ports,
while the LAN ports will all have to be on the same subnet.

On top of it, most routers destined for home usage will have extra features that
will only work on specific ports, e.g. be a DHCP client on the WAN port, act as
a DHCP server on the LAN ports, NAT/PAT from the LAN ports to the WAN port, etc...

Read your hardware's documentation to see which specific features are available
and where.

--
Francois Labreque | The surest sign of the existence of extra-
flabreque | terrestrial intelligence is that they never
@ | bothered to come down here and visit us!
videotron.ca | - Calvin

Uzytkownik "Francois Labreque" <(E-Mail Removed)> napisal w wiadomosci
news:HJ_5b.3554$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 06:11, Due to a catastrophic
> Andrzej error:
> > Hi,
> > What is the difference between 100Mbit WAN port and e.g four100Mbit LAN
> > ports?
>
> From an ethernet point of view, only the speed. From a routing point of
view,
> you usually will only able to route between the WAN port and the LAN
ports,
> while the LAN ports will all have to be on the same subnet.
So, can I say that LAN ports work in the same TCP layer, and LAN and WAN in
various layers? And LAN and WAN can use vaious protocols and conversion is
needed to switch packets between them, when it's impossible on LAN ports?
Thanks for reply

> On top of it, most routers destined for home usage will have extra
features that
> will only work on specific ports, e.g. be a DHCP client on the WAN port,
act as
> a DHCP server on the LAN ports, NAT/PAT from the LAN ports to the WAN
port, etc...
>
> Read your hardware's documentation to see which specific features are
available
> and where.
>
> --
> Francois Labreque | The surest sign of the existence of extra-
> flabreque | terrestrial intelligence is that they never
> @ | bothered to come down here and visit us!
> videotron.ca | - Calvin
>

Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 08:32, Due to a catastrophic
Andrzej error:

> Uzytkownik "Francois Labreque" <(E-Mail Removed)> napisal w wiadomosci
> news:HJ_5b.3554$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>
>>Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 06:11, Due to a catastrophic
>>Andrzej error:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>What is the difference between 100Mbit WAN port and e.g four100Mbit LAN
>>>ports?
>>
>> From an ethernet point of view, only the speed. From a routing point of
>
> view,
>
>>you usually will only able to route between the WAN port and the LAN
>
> ports,
>
>>while the LAN ports will all have to be on the same subnet.
>
> So, can I say that LAN ports work in the same TCP layer, and LAN and WAN in
> various layers?

Replace "Layer" with "subnet" and "TCP" with "IP" and you're right. "Layer"
usually means something different.

And LAN and WAN can use vaious protocols and conversion is
> needed to switch packets between them,

The LAN and WAN subnets *could* use different protocols, but in the case of most
home routers, there's ethernet and IP on both sides, so no protocol conversion
happens. What you have is "routing", i.e. the act of taking a packet from one
segment and sending it to another segment based on the destination IP address of
that packet.

> when it's impossible on LAN ports?

Indeed, if you have an IPX machine and an IP machine on your LAN ports, they
wouldn't be able to talk to each other. This being said, unless your particular
router had some internal IPX-to-IP gateway software, it would be impossible
between the LAN and WAN ports too.


--
Francois Labreque | The surest sign of the existence of extra-
flabreque | terrestrial intelligence is that they never
@ | bothered to come down here and visit us!
videotron.ca | - Calvin

U¿ytkownik Francois Labreque <(E-Mail Removed)> w wiadomooci do grup
dyskusyjnych napisa³:3Ed6b.5917$(E-Mail Removed).. .
>
>
> Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 08:32, Due to a catastrophic
> Andrzej error:
>
> > Uzytkownik "Francois Labreque" <(E-Mail Removed)> napisal w
wiadomosci
> > news:HJ_5b.3554$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> >>
> >>Program ended abnormally on 05/09/2003 06:11, Due to a catastrophic
> >>Andrzej error:
> >>
> >>>Hi,
> >>>What is the difference between 100Mbit WAN port and e.g four100Mbit LAN
> >>>ports?
> >>
> >> From an ethernet point of view, only the speed. From a routing point
of
> >
> > view,
> >
> >>you usually will only able to route between the WAN port and the LAN
> >
> > ports,
> >
> >>while the LAN ports will all have to be on the same subnet.
> >
> > So, can I say that LAN ports work in the same TCP layer, and LAN and WAN
in
> > various layers?
>
> Replace "Layer" with "subnet" and "TCP" with "IP" and you're right.
"Layer"
> usually means something different.
>
I meant 3rd Layer in 4-layers DoD model. However-it's my mistake- cant't it
be like that: LAN ports work on 2nd Layer of 7-layers IOS/OSI model- so they
can't route packets from various subnets and WAN on 3rd-layer so it can do
that? I've found that we have 3 Layer switches which also can switch
packets from various subnets. So what's the difference?
I'm sorry for my complication. I'm trying to order my knowledge.
Thaks for help.

> And LAN and WAN can use vaious protocols and conversion is
> > needed to switch packets between them,
>
> The LAN and WAN subnets *could* use different protocols, but in the case
of most
> home routers, there's ethernet and IP on both sides, so no protocol
conversion
> happens. What you have is "routing", i.e. the act of taking a packet from
one
> segment and sending it to another segment based on the destination IP
address of
> that packet.
>
> > when it's impossible on LAN ports?
>
> Indeed, if you have an IPX machine and an IP machine on your LAN ports,
they
> wouldn't be able to talk to each other. This being said, unless your
particular
> router had some internal IPX-to-IP gateway software, it would be
impossible
> between the LAN and WAN ports too.
>
>
> --
> Francois Labreque | The surest sign of the existence of extra-
> flabreque | terrestrial intelligence is that they never
> @ | bothered to come down here and visit us!
> videotron.ca | - Calvin
>