Network Repeater

A repeater connects two segments of your network cable. It retimes and regenerates
signals to proper amplitudes and sends them to the other segments. Repeaters require a
small amount of time to regenerate a signal. This can cause a propagation delay which
can affect network communication when there are several repeaters in a row. Many
network architectures limit the number of repeaters that can be used in a row. Repeaters
work only at the physical layer of the OSI network model.

Bridge

A bridge is a device that filters data traffic at a network boundary. A Bridge reduces the
amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments.

Bridges operate at the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Bridges inspect
incoming traffic and decide whether to forward or discard it. An Ethernet bridge, for
example, inspects each incoming Ethernet frame - including the source and destination
MAC addresses, and sometimes the frame size - in making individual forwarding
decisions.

Bridges serve a similar function as switches, which also operate at Layer 2.

Network Router

A router is used to route data packets between two networks. It reads the information in
each packet to tell where it is going. If it is destined for an immediate network it has
access to, it will strip the outer packet, readdress the packet to the proper ethernet
address, and transmit it on that network. If it is destined for another network and must be
sent to another router, it will re-package the outer packet to be received by the next router
and send it to the next router. Routing occurs at the network layer of the OSI model. They
can connect networks with different architectures such as Token Ring and Ethernet. If
the routing table does not indicate the proper address of a packet, the packet is discarded.

HUBS

A hub joins multiple computers ,or other network devices together, to form a single
network segment. On this network segment, all computers can communicate directly with
each other. Hubs classify as Layer 1 devices in the OSI layer. At the physical layer, hubs
can support little in the way of sophisticated networking. Hubs do not read any of the
data passing through them and are not aware of their source or destination. Essentially, a
hub simply receives incoming packets, possibly amplifies the electrical signal, and
broadcasts these packets out to all devices on the network - including the one that
originally sent the packet!