[Discuss] Home Routers

[Daniel Hagerty]

    Typical wireless APs are built with a 6 port, vlan capable ethernet
switch.  One is the internet port, four are the internal "LAN" ports,
and one connects the system on a chip, with two vlans to allow the SoC
to access both the LAN and internet networks.

    The only traffic that's handled entirely by the switch in the
typical setup is traffic between the internal network ports.  Everything
else traverses the much slower SoC.  Perhaps bridged, perhaps routed,
but whatever it is, is done in software.

    It's worth keeping in mind if you're pushing one of these boxes
hard.