What is a gateway?
In one sentence: The door out of your home network, usually your router; anything not meant for a device at home is sent to it.
A little more
A gateway is the way out of one network into another. At home it is your router: your phone, laptop and games console all know its address, and whenever they want to reach something that isn't in the house, such as a website or a game server, they hand the message to the gateway and let it pass the message on.
Devices find the gateway's address automatically when they join the Wi-Fi, along with their own address. If a device has no gateway it can still talk to the printer in the next room, but nothing on the internet will load, which is a handy clue when something is broken.
See it in action
- 1What happens when you open a web page?Follow one click from your keyboard to a server and back: DNS, the padlock handshake, HTTP, tunnels and painting the page.6 min · interactive
- 7Why does Wi-Fi get weaker through walls?Build a little house, drag the router around and watch the Wi-Fi signal spread room by room.7 min · interactive
- BonusHow does the router know which device asked?Your home has one internet address but lots of screens.7 min · interactive
Do it for real
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