Network devices that forward data packets between computer networks, directing traffic along the most efficient paths. Also refers to woodworking tools that hollow out or cut grooves in materials.
From 'route' plus agent suffix '-er', originally meaning 'one who routes'. The woodworking tool sense came first in the 1800s, while the networking meaning emerged in the 1960s with early computer networks, both sharing the concept of directing paths.
Your home router makes billions of routing decisions per second, essentially acting like a super-fast postal worker who instantly knows the best path to send every piece of digital mail to its destination across the global internet!
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