Bridge or gateway

jwillsjwills Member Posts: 44 ■■□□□□□□□□
Which do you use to connect two ntwks with different network access protocols? A bridge or a gateway? This book i'm reading actually says its a gateway and in another place its says its a bridge. Example: Connecting a Ethernet lan and a Token Ring lan.

Comments

  • royalroyal Member Posts: 3,352 ■■■■□□□□□□
    The answer is most definitely gateway.

    A gateway "can" work on all layers of the OSI model. Because of this, there are many different functions of a gateway. A gateway can be used to translate different network architectures and protocols so the other network can understand what was transmitted by a foreign network. A gateway will translate and repackage data and transmit that data to the other network.

    A bridge is basically a switch and works on the Datalink layer which means its job is to learn what what MAC addresses are associated to a given port. When a frame is being sent on the local network, the bridge can look at the destination MAC on that frame and see which port has that MAC assigned to it. It will then create a virtual circuit between the sending port and the receiving port and send the data directly between that virtual circuit. Because of this, it greatly reduces unneeded network chatter due to the data not being sent to every single port much like it would on a Layer 1 device, such as a hub. Having a bridge being able to send data directly to a port reduces the chance that collisions will occur. Because of this, each port is known to be in its own collision domain.

    Does this help?
    “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” - Harry F. Banks
  • PlantwizPlantwiz Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
    Boy you're quick to post royal! :)


    I was just getting the link for the TechNotes book N10-003
    http://www.techexams.net/technotes/networkplus/pdf.shtml



    And yes, Gateways connect dissimilar networks.


    jwills, which book are you reading?
    Plantwiz
    _____
    "Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux

    ***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.

    'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird?
  • seuss_ssuesseuss_ssues Member Posts: 629
    royal is correct


    Like he said the easy way to answer this is to know which layer of the osi each device works on.

    a bridge is on the secound layer the "Data link layer" which is not concerned with protocols
  • jwillsjwills Member Posts: 44 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Yes that does help. Thanks. I'm reading exam cram2 practice ntwk questions by Charles Brooks. Thats where i read the two conflicting statements. I'm also reading The complete guide to networking and ntwk+ by Michael Graves. Also i have downloaded the technotes. Appreciate the feedback.
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