Router

A piece of hardware that forwards data packets between two or more networks.

A piece of hardware that routes data from a local area network (LAN) to a phone line.

In data communications, a functional unit used to interconnect two or more networks. Note 1: Routers operate at the network layer (layer 3) of the ISO Open Systems Interconnection--Reference Model. Note 2: The router reads the network layer address of all packets transmitted by a network, and forwards only those addressed to another network.