Monday 30 September 2013

more on gateways

A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, anode or stopping point can be either a gateway node or a host  (end-point) node. Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve pages to users are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company's network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP ) are gateway nodes.
In the network for an enterprise , a computer server  acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server  and a firewall  server. A gateway is often associated with both arouter, which knows where to direct a given packet of data that arrives at the gateway, and a switch , which furnishes the actual path in and out of the gateway for a given packet.

What is the difference between a router and a gateway?

The primary difference between gateways and routers is that a gateway is the single point of access to computers outside your network. Depending on the complexity of your network, gateways can only be one or a few since they provide the exit and entry points like doors of a house. Routers, on the other hand, determine the shortest possible path your data can travel from Computer A to Computer B, like hallways and staircases.

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