A method is provided for switching data between appliances in a packet-oriented local area network and an external appliance connected to the local area network via a router. The appliances in the local area network, including the router, respectively have a network address and an appliance address. The external appliance has an associated network address. An appliance address request relating to the assigned network address is responded to with the appliance address of the router. The router forwards packets containing the assigned network address and the appliance address of the router as destination addresses from the local area network to the external appliance.