Somebody please double check me...

Ok, as some of you may know I am currently taking a CISCO networking course, I am in my 2nd semister, configuring Routers and learning about WANS. So far everything is great, but a question was posed by one of the students, and the student was very one way about his interpretation of what he read. Here is my question I need double checked....I have learned that WANS operate at the physical and data link layers. Ok, no prob. Now routers work at the network layer, because they make decisions based on IP addresses. Are routers considered a WAN device....or just a piece of network hardware that interfaces with WANS?? The student is hung up with saying that a router is a WAN device, but the text is wrong because routers work at layer 3, and WANs work at layer 1 & 2. So which is it?? Thanks for clarification.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Fierce:
<strong>Ok, as some of you may know I am currently taking a CISCO networking course, I am in my 2nd semister, configuring Routers and learning about WANS. So far everything is great, but a question was posed by one of the students, and the student was very one way about his interpretation of what he read. Here is my question I need double checked....I have learned that WANS operate at the physical and data link layers. Ok, no prob. Now routers work at the network layer, because they make decisions based on IP addresses. Are routers considered a WAN device....or just a piece of network hardware that interfaces with WANS?? The student is hung up with saying that a router is a WAN device, but the text is wrong because routers work at layer 3, and WANs work at layer 1 & 2. So which is it?? Thanks for clarification.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I guess it really depends on how the router is used.

While its true that the CSU/DSU does all of the layer 1 & 2 on the actual WAN link, a router is also an essential piece. The router is the link between your serial and ethernet interfaces, so I think it would classify as part of the WAN.

However if you are using a router within an organization to create separate subnets (sure you can just use VLANs but this is just an example), then it might not technically classify as a WAN tool.

Its all how you look at it...