Gateways vs. Routers
Routers
A device used to connect networks of different types, such as those using different topologies and protocols.
Gateways
A gateway is a device used to connect networks using different protocols.
In order to communicate with a host on another network, an IP host must be configured with a route to the destination network. If a configuration route is not found, the host uses the gateway (default IP router) to transmit the traffic to the destination host.
So whats the differnce?
Info taken from http://www.studynotes.net/indnet.htm
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Comments
It might be a bit confusing what I'm about to say, but please bare with me:
A router operates on layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI model. It routes layer 3 packets (IP, IPX). The 'different types of networks' refers to layer LAN and WAN 1 and 2 specifications (network topologies) of which are sometimes also referred to as protocols. Meaning you can have a router routing IP packets from a 10BaseT Ethernet network to a Token Ring network, or ISDN to Frame Relay for example. Hence routers come with different type of interfaces for these network types.
A gateway operates in the upper layer protocols (meaning it is implemented in software (or software running on hardware). A simple example would be a Microsoft Proxy server in a netware network (using IPX/SPX) connecting to the Internet (using TCP/IP). In this example the proxy server acts as a gateway (from IPX-> IP and back) for the IPX clients. Another common example is a gateway that allows clients in a TCP/IP network to connect to an IBM mainframe network/Decnet/VMS etc...
I hope this helps!