Router Information

Question: Are routers able to edit packet details?

(Posted by: nit on 2010-03-10 20:00:56)

I read that in a computer network if there is congestion a way to help resolve the problem is by feedback: The router marks field in packet from sender to receiver. (receiver then notifies sender) Are routers able to do this easily? I thought they are only supposed to direct traffic and not change packet content!

Posted by: niteawul on 2010-03-10, 20:24:49

A router must edit packet headers in order to work in most home router setups. All home routers use a private IP address scheme, most use 192.168.x.x. These are not targets that are reachable from external networks, so the router strips off your IP address and puts it own in the packet header, then keeps a record of which requests were made so it can modify incoming packets to address them to the correct host. If you're interested more in how that works, look up network address translation (NAT).

Posted by: Fish Sticks on 2010-03-10, 20:05:51

Not a standard router, no.