what's the purpose of an IP Gateway?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What's the difference between “default gateway” and “preferred DNS server”?

My hosting provider gives me an IP and an IP gateway address. I configured my domain to use the IP. I don't understand what is the use case for the gateway.

How do you plan to reach machines with IP addresses not inside your segment? — David Schwartz, Dec 22 '11 at 00:43
I don't think all hosting providers are explicit about it. I'm wondering when would I actually need this to mess around with it. — m33lky, Dec 22 '11 at 04:00

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 21 '11 at 23:10

5

The gateway is the "next hop" - basically, your PC connects to the gateway IP to get out onto the rest of the internet.

answered Dec 21 '11 at 23:10

Jim G.

3,250
15
19

5

As a note, it does not actually have to connect to the internet, it could be any network (even one that is totally internal). – soandos Dec 21 '11 at 23:14

what's the purpose of an IP Gateway?

1 Answers1