Gateways vs. Routers

jeff CQ

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

Lochen

Well A router is limited to the funcionlaity of just routeing Data. However i do belive the router definton is a bit flawed. You see most routers only accept a certain protocal on a LAN. Though now adays there are bulit in features and my Router i have at home can work at Gateway mode. However The classfication is that Routers are just there to route data to another router to the target computer, and Gateways are a translator which also can route data. Basicly a Gateway has more funcional option to translate other protocals, like A TCP/IP to IPX/SPX To a network. You 2 diffent networks connected via internet. Gateways are also the intended target if u you wish to send data outside of the network. Because study notes arnt always as correct as u want them to be i checked my course book on this to confrim this and thats what it says. Routers orginally didnt have the feature of translation between diffent protocals. By the way its also higher on the OSI Chart where most routers work on the Network level and brouters are on data link layer and the network layer. Gateway does them all.

Webmaster

I'm working on the Basic Networking part for A+ Core, which contains a definition of a router and a gateway as well, and while I wrote it down, I noticed the same thing (hey, my readers will probably ask..)

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!

Webmaster

Wow... did it take me that long to write a reply...

Lochen

lol yea hehehehe hey thanks for the great site man I always need more quiz and clear infomation when it comes to some things