hgclowns

You could look at a hub like your teacher in class giving a lecture. When he talks he talks ( sends his packets ) to the whole class everyone that wants to listen can, and obviously if multiple people try talking at the same time it can become a mess. A switch on the other hand would be like the teacher handing each kids homework back to them ( sends the packets only to the person who should get them ) and speaking with them individually. A router is like the post office. They receive the post ( or packet ) and look up the next place it should go, if it is in your local post office and the destination is in your local town they will deliver it, if not they send it on to the next sorting facility.