WHAT IS A DEFAULT GATEWAY:

In computer technology, there is a huge requirement of exchanging data between two computers. It is a computer network which helps computers to transfer data. The data is exchanges with each other on network links. It is not always necessary that the two computers should be directly linked to each other. There are different ways of establishing a network link between nodes. It can be either cable media or a wireless media. The best computer network is Internet.

Network nodes help in originating, routing and terminating the data. Nodes can be computers, telephones, servers or any networking hardware. Any two devices can be considered as networked when they can exchange information with each other. The network does not need to be a direct one.

A Default Gateway is a device which is used in computer networking which helps in routing the traffic from nodes on local subnet to nodes on other subnets. The default gateway connects a computer or local network to the internet. Also it connects the local network to the internal gateways. In other words it can be said that a Default gateway is a node which knows how to forward the data packets to other networks. Nodes can be servers, workstations or any other networking device. They all have a default route setting which is already defined. This means that they know the IP address on which they need to send the data packets. The gateway is also called as a router.

There are two types of default gateways in internet. They are:

1. A default gateway which is used in homes and small businesses is a DSL router or a cable router. This device connects the local network to the internet and. This DSL router will behave as a default gateway for all the networking devices.

2. In medium or large business there is a need of multiple internal networking segments. For example: If a computer in an enterprise system needs to communicate with internet, then the data packet from this computer will be forwarded to the default gateway of their segment. The packet may then pass through multiple gateways before it leaves the enterprise. After passing all the required gateways, it may reach the internet address. All these gateway nodes are called as proxy servers and they create a firewall for the data.