In computer networking, a gateway is a node (a router) on a TCP/IP network that serves as an access point to another network. A default gateway is the node on the computer network that the network software uses when an IP address does not match any other routes in the routing table.
In home computing configurations, an ISP often provides a physical device which both connects local hardware to the Internet and serves as a gateway. Such devices include DSL modems and cable modems.
In organizational systems a gateway is a node that routes the traffic from a workstation to another network segment. The default gateway commonly connects the internal networks and the outside network (Internet). In such a situation, the gateway node could also act as a proxy server and a firewall. The gateway is also associated with both a router, which uses headers and forwarding tables to determine where packets are sent, and a switch, which provides the actual path for the packet in and out of the gateway.
In other words, a default gateway provides an entry point and an exit point in a network.
Famous quotes containing the words default and/or gateway:
“In default of inexhaustible happiness, eternal suffering would at least give us a destiny. But we do not even have that consolation, and our worst agonies come to an end one day.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)