Default Gateway Question?
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pctechmike1
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The purpose of the gateway is for both of your PCs to connect to the Internet. Your default gateway is unseen by the rest of the world. Routers will have two IPs, one as the default gateway (which should be a 192.xx number) and another IP address on the other side (the part that connects to the Internet- provided by your ISP) Without a default gateway, your computers will not know where to go to get on the Internet- that's it's purpose.
pctechmike said:
That is not entirely correct. Most network books refer to it as a "interpreter" more then how you get to the internet. For most people, yes it just routes you to the internet, but if you run multiple protocols then it servers more then just that 1 function.
pctechmike1
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I was generalizing.....
The purpose of a gateway address is just that, it serves as a gateway for your computers to connect to the Internet, or other computers on your network. Routers on the market are capable of much more than just serving as a gateway to the Internet, I'm intimately familure with this. In your initial post, you said:
This is also the same address that you will use to connect to the internet (or to other networks).
I have to somewhat disagree, unless I'm not getting what you're trying to teach me
While the gateway address does allow you to get to the Internet, no one on the Internet is able to see this address, because of NAT. (for the original poster)In simplest terms, the router takes information from your PC(s), sends it through the gateway, and NAT (Network Address Translation) "hides" your internal IP address from the rest of the world. If you go to a Web site, on both computers, those servers are only going to see one IP address, the IP address that your ISP gives you (either from DHCP, or Static).
I'm not certified, and do not claim to be a Network guru, but I have been around enough to know how to setup routers, and what there functions are. For the purpose of the debate, and this has become off topic, we've given the original poster more than what he asked for, I explained what a gateway was in terms anyone can understand. I just didn't feel that the original poster would gain anything from reading the initial post you made, as it was pretty general also. I don't want a debate, but if you want to PM me, you can- we could learn something from each other
The purpose of a gateway address is just that, it serves as a gateway for your computers to connect to the Internet, or other computers on your network. Routers on the market are capable of much more than just serving as a gateway to the Internet, I'm intimately familure with this. In your initial post, you said:
This is also the same address that you will use to connect to the internet (or to other networks).
I have to somewhat disagree, unless I'm not getting what you're trying to teach me
While the gateway address does allow you to get to the Internet, no one on the Internet is able to see this address, because of NAT. (for the original poster)In simplest terms, the router takes information from your PC(s), sends it through the gateway, and NAT (Network Address Translation) "hides" your internal IP address from the rest of the world. If you go to a Web site, on both computers, those servers are only going to see one IP address, the IP address that your ISP gives you (either from DHCP, or Static).I'm not certified, and do not claim to be a Network guru, but I have been around enough to know how to setup routers, and what there functions are. For the purpose of the debate, and this has become off topic, we've given the original poster more than what he asked for, I explained what a gateway was in terms anyone can understand. I just didn't feel that the original poster would gain anything from reading the initial post you made, as it was pretty general also. I don't want a debate, but if you want to PM me, you can- we could learn something from each other
think of your default gateway somewhat like your front door... it's the place you have to go through to get to the outside world... and the place the outside world has to come into for your to see it...
yet you can have other gateways, somewhat like having a front door and a back door... both can work just as well...
(so established a gateway is a place for communications to come and go)
Some gateways literally act as a point of contact with the outside world, (that is to say that you can have multiple public addresses going onto the outside world. and those multiple public addresses can be responded to individually.
Other gateways (like you have at home where you only have one public address), act more like secerataries. this is called Network Address Translation (NAT), NAT has the job of sending out messages as IP packets with a single return address, and then sorting those packets and sending them back to the correct machines when they are responded to...
like a secratary will seal and send envelopes to different businesses, and then make sure the correct person get the correct response letter.
Gateways can translate between different protocols, for instance, a gateway can translate informaition on an TCP/IP network to information on a NetBUI based network, think of network protocols as different languages, some people can speak one languae only some can speak two... computer can speak as many as you like provided you have the right stuff installed.
Gateways can work to translate information to either different mediums, (eg copper - fibre).
Lastly some gateways will have a built in firewall. this will help keep nasty things out, and depending on how it set up, can also help nasty things that are inside getting to the outside.
not at all exhaustative... but I hope a nice simple explenation of what it is that a gateway does.
yet you can have other gateways, somewhat like having a front door and a back door... both can work just as well...
(so established a gateway is a place for communications to come and go)
Some gateways literally act as a point of contact with the outside world, (that is to say that you can have multiple public addresses going onto the outside world. and those multiple public addresses can be responded to individually.
Other gateways (like you have at home where you only have one public address), act more like secerataries. this is called Network Address Translation (NAT), NAT has the job of sending out messages as IP packets with a single return address, and then sorting those packets and sending them back to the correct machines when they are responded to...
like a secratary will seal and send envelopes to different businesses, and then make sure the correct person get the correct response letter.
Gateways can translate between different protocols, for instance, a gateway can translate informaition on an TCP/IP network to information on a NetBUI based network, think of network protocols as different languages, some people can speak one languae only some can speak two... computer can speak as many as you like provided you have the right stuff installed.
Gateways can work to translate information to either different mediums, (eg copper - fibre).
Lastly some gateways will have a built in firewall. this will help keep nasty things out, and depending on how it set up, can also help nasty things that are inside getting to the outside.
not at all exhaustative... but I hope a nice simple explenation of what it is that a gateway does.
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