[Isabelle Tubbs]

A SOHO (small office home office) router is similar to a standard router, but it gives more network control because of its greater number of functions. Most use private IP ranges and give access control features, and it is essentially a network node.

Because a SOHO router is such an important device, it contains many different parts and features. In itself, it should have memory, a CPU, an OS, and storage like most computers have. Typically, it also contains a switch, DHCP server, and firewall. A network switch “is responsible for filtering and forwarding the packets between LAN segments based on MAC address” (GeeksforGeeks, 2024). A DHCP server assigns IP addresses and additional settings, and a firewall controls the network traffic, making sure no unauthorized things come to the software.

There are different situations that call for different structures of SOHO routers, so there are some additional features. There could be static IP assignment instead of a DHCP server, or it could contain a wireless access point (WAP), VPN concentrator, or broadband modem.

References
GeeksforGeeks. (2024, August 13). What is a Network Switch and How Does it Work? https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-a-network-switch-and-how-does-it-work/