What's the difference between a "normal" Router and a gateway?

[Reddington]

Hi guys I currently have a fiber contract with telkom and they issued me a hauwei router which was giving me a lot of hassle so they decided to swap it with a netgear gateway. I have no idea what a gateway is or if it's any different to any other router, if it is different can anyone help increase my knowledge on it?

Thank you

 

[Ry4n]

Hi guys I currently have a fiber contract with telkom and they issued me a hauwei router which was giving me a lot of hassle so they decided to swap it with a netgear gateway. I have no idea what a gateway is or if it's any different to any other router, if it is different can anyone help increase my knowledge on it?

Thank you

Client - router - gateway - web.

Most home routers have gateways/modems built in.

 

[ponder]

Same thing essentially different name.

 

[access]

gateway is a term used when a device is the main entry and exit point of your network, it is configured in-line, everything goes through it and it monitors and controls everything, typically it will NAT over to the internal network for security. QoS, User Authentication, Routes, Bandwidth Control, Firewall, DNS, http cache, etc

it can do the same as a router, but you could say it has more bells and whistles. typically a gateway refers to a server, but they have been adding extra features to routers making them 'gateways'.


full explanation: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1009

 

[Reddington]

Thanks guys, I now realise that I didn't pose a smart question, thank you for the inlightenment.

 

[stroebs]

In the context of fibre, the gateway is likely just the conversion device from the GPON fibre to cat6 which is compatible with normal network kit. With that said, the device Telkom uses can actually act as both.