What information is stored on a router?

Yes, your router does store information about your computer when you connect to it. Typically, it will save a routing table that consists of your computer's MAC address, the IP address that was assigned to your computer, and the lease time of your computer's IP address.A router is a hand tool or power tool that a worker uses to rout (hollow out) an area in relatively hard material like wood or plastic. Routers are mainly used in woodworking, especially cabinetry. Routers are typically handheld or fastened cutting end-up in a router table.

The hand tool type of router is the original form. It is a specialized type of hand plane with a broad base and a narrow blade that projects well beyond its base plate (giving it the nickname old woman's tooth). The power tool form of router with an electric-motor-driven spindle is now the more common form. The hand tool version is now often called a router plane, and for some tasks, still provides a few advantages over the power tool. Some workers consider the electric router one of the most versatile woodworking power tools. CNC wood routers implement the advantages of CNC (Computer Numerical Control).

Related to the router is a smaller, lighter version designed specifically for trimming laminates. It can be used for smaller general routing work. For example, with an appropriate jig it can be used for recessing door hinges and recessing lock faceplates. Even rotary tools can be used as routers when the right bits and accessories (such as a plastic router base) are attached.Before power routers existed, the hand tool form was frequently used, especially by patternmakers and staircase makers.

The first handheld power routers were invented in 1915 and were Jet Motor Hand Routers, called Onsruters. The name derives from a combination of the inventor's last name "Onsrud" and the term "router". The Onsruter combined a router plane with an endmill to create the first handheld power router. The idea for the Onsruter started when a rail road company decided they wanted to power the front light on a steam locomotive using steam from the engine. Oscar Onsrud and his son Rudy submitted a design for an air turbine to generate the power for the light, however they didn't win the contract. A few months later Rudy Onsrud told a friend about his frustrations making the groove in the bottom of a cane bottom chair using a router plane. He suddenly realized that he could re-purpose the air turbine to run on compressed air and spin a modified endmill to rout the groove. Modified endmills would have to spin at 30,000 RPM, instead of the 3,000 RPM of a milling machine to cut wood without burning it. The bits also needed a steeper rake and clearance angle than a traditional endmill so they could evacuate the chips. These new bits became known as router bits or router cutters (UK).

Further refinement produced the plunge router, invented by ELU (now part of DeWalt) in Germany around 1949. This is even better adapted for many types of work.

Starting in the 1960s, the power tool form of router became the more common form.

Modern routers are often used in place of traditional moulding planes or spindle moulder machines for edge decoration (moulding) of timber.