Hi. I am very confused on what is a router. I looked on the internet for the difinition. All I got was:
A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect.
Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts.

I got a little more info on it but still a little confused. The reason why I ask is becuase I have this game called "Home World 2" and play on multiplayer mode. When more than 2 players get in the game my ping goes over the limit (gets higher than .500 ping). One of the players asked me if I was behind a router (firewall). Can any1 tell me what s/he meant? Is router the same as a firewall? Also, if there is more to the definition to a router? Thank you for your time.

Router and firewall are not the same thing, but
on a Linux system you'd be likely to use iptables
(the kernel's built-in firewalling functionality) to
achieve NAT (network address translation - allows
several machines on a private LAN to share a
common IP on the internet) .

However, neither a router nor a firewall should
add too much latency to a ping. What kind of connection
to the internet are you using?


Cheers,
Tink

Well, the type of connection I have is dialup. Does this have anything to do with the ping being so high? If it is, is there anything I can do to lower the ping? Thank you for your time.

The only thing you can do it to a) get broadband
or b) only play people on your ISP ;} ...

Other things to consider:
reduce packet counts (if game settings allow)
lock modem to high baud rate (>= 115200)

I know what I'm talking about, I've been
playing descent over a modem-line, and
even 64K ISDN wasn't joy with more
than one other player ...


Cheers,
Tink

Adding what TinksterA said. A router works at the Network OSI layer. What this means it rewrites the network header information where the packets will go. The router stores information in its memory about your IP address, MAC address and what packets that your need.

For your game, it matters on how many people you are playing with, how many routes you are taking, how much ping each route has, how much traffic each route has, and the list goes on.

Thanks guys. You were a lot of help. I now understand more about what a router is. I will keep reading more about it. I'll try to figure out a way to lower the pings so I can be able to play with the rest of the players. If i can't I'll just get broadband. Thanks again.