Gateway

A Gateway is a specialized type of router that sits on the boundary between one type of network and another. Gateway Routers commonly sit between an internal LAN or Wireless Network and the Internet providing all privately addressed, internal computers access to the Internet by translating their internal addresses to the public, routable IP Address on the Gateway's WAN port. Not all routers are Gateways. Routers are used to allow any two or more dissimilar networks to communicate with each other. You can have several different LANs using different subnets in your company. Routers are required to let these different networks communicate with each other, however, they are not necessarily considered Gateways. The IT-100 is designed to be a Gateway Router, allowing your private network behind the device access to the Internet. See the terms IP Address, NAT, Private IP Address Space, Router, and Subnet Mask in this Glossary for more information.