I just read the good article HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware.
Very useful. The discussion about switches raises a question:
If I copy files between two computers, say from computer A to computer B on the same WiFi LAN, does the data go directly between the 2 computers, A -> B. Or does it go A -> Router -> B ? I am assuming the router must always be the intermediary, but maybe not and networking is smarter than I realize. At least as I am thinking about it, if the copy could be directly between the two computers once initiated, the overall amount of data traffic would be roughly half as much as if the router has to be in the loop. True ? And if the network were wired, not wireless, would that change the answer ?