Relay (computers)

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Revision as of 12:29, 30 March 2024 by John Leach (talk | contribs) (Undo imported revision 690370 by user imported>Howard C. Berkowitz — No, absolutely not. A router is a network communication device; a relay is little more than a forwarding mechanism, as the original article explains. Yet another example of how little the "expert" actually knows.)
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A computer relay is a machine or process that receives data and forwards it to another machine or process. Typically, this is a "store and forward" operation, rather than a continuous flow. Data is handled in packets or larger chunks. Also, there is some purpose to having the relay, routing the data from one place to another, performing some operation on the data, etc.

A good example of a relay is found in every Email system. Here each relay will store and forward a complete message, after performing some operation needed at that point in the system.