What Is A Default Gateway And How To Find It?

Before getting information about default gateway in detail, first you need to understand the internet protocol address. For example, here is a small description about the 192.168.0.1 IP address. This particular internet protocol address is found in France. It is actually allocated to the Orange ISP of the France telecom services offers. This specific ip address is given by this internet service provider to the computers who are connected to their network. With the help of this 192.168.0.1 ip address, the network users can able to get information about your domain and also network tools. Only one computer in a network can use this ip address to get the best access without ip address conflicts.

When the network users would like to find the default gateway of your router connected in the network, first of all you need to understand what is a default gateway of the router. A default gateway usually serves as the internet protocol router or an access point which a networked computer is using to send the particular information to another computer connected in the some other network or the internet. The term default simply means that this gateway is actually used as the default value unless a network application specifies another gateway.

image:en.wikipedia.org

Understanding default gateway:

The default gateway allows all computers connected on the network in order to communicate with the computers connected on some other networks. Without this default gateway, it is not possible to make communication between the computers on another network because it is isolated from the outside access. Actually, the systems are sending data which is bound for another network only through this default gateway.

The network administrators are configuring the routing capability of your computer with the starting address of the IP range as a default gateway. After that, they point all clients to that particular internet protocol address.

A gateway with the default value is actually a routing device which passes network traffic between the networks and also subnets. The computers connected in the network will know some of the routes but not all routes to every address on the internet. A default gateway will not know this information but know at least the addresses of other gateways to which it will handle the network traffic.

The default gateway of your network router is on the same subnet as your computer. Similarly, it is a gateway to your computer relies on when it is not familiar with how to route the traffic. Through your IP address and default gateway, you can able to share many same numbers.

How default gateway works on the network?

It allows users to hook up different devices to the network. Usually, the gateway has two different IP addresses. One ip address is an external address which is assigned by your internet service provider (ISP) and anther one is internal ip address which can be only accessible within your home network.

Although your ISP assigns only one IP address to your network, the default gateway allows network users to have many internet protocol addresses through a particular technique called NAT (Network Address Translation).

Another main function of the default gateway of your network is to automatically assign and also manage IP addresses in your local network. You should remember that every device connected on your network should have a unique internet protocol address. This feature is basically called DHCP dynamic host configuration protocol. Each and every network user has to keep this in your mind while accessing the network.

Finding a default gateway address:

    When your PC is connected to the specific network, a default gateway is usually a router, server, or the switch which a computer is directly connected to. If the network users are troubleshooting a network connectivity problem, getting a default gateway is very essential for this troubleshooting process. The connectivity lagging to the default gateway will also lead to the lagging in the internet connectivity. So, you should find your default gateway using the following steps. 

     

     Default gateway on Windows: 

          You have to click the windows button and R key simultaneously on your system keyboard. The Run window will be opened on the screen. 

     Then, you need to type cmd in the given text box and hit Enter. It will open a Windows command prompt window.

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·          In the command prompt, you have to type ipconfig and click Enter.

·     You will get the set of numbers next to the default gateway. This set of number like 192.168.0.1 is an ip address of a device that your computer is connected to.

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Default gateway on the MAC:

If you have Mac operating system and want to know your network’s default gateway address, you can use these steps.

·         First, the network users have to click on the Apple logo at the top of your screen. Then, you can click system preferences option. Otherwise, you can also click on the system preferences icon existing in the dock.

·         After that, you have to click on the network icon.

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·       In this step, you should click drop down menu next to the show option and select a  particular network connection which you would want to display the information for, like built-in Ethernet.

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·         You have to click on the advanced option in the TCP/IP tab.

The network users should need to examine a set of numbers next to the router. This set of number which is also called ip address is the address of the router or device which your computer is connected to in the network.