QUESTION POSED ON: 10 October 2006 What is the main advantage of having an L3 switch over a router?
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EXPERT RESPONSE
With an L3 switch, you get the functionality of routing and more ports for access in a single box. The only additional hardware that you do not have is WAN (serial) ports. So that's the difference; with a router you get WAN ports, L3 functionality and two or three Ethernet ports (though for some of the Cisco router models you can buy a 16-port EtherSwitch module which will give you 16 10/100 802.3 ports).
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