Gateway, DNS, and the Default Route

Gateway, DNS, and the Default Route

When you configure a network, you’ll usually see these three settings:

Default Gateway

The gateway is the router IP that devices use to reach the internet.

Example:

• Device IP: 192.168.1.42
• Gateway: 192.168.1.1

If the gateway is wrong, the device can’t reach anything outside the local network.

DNS

DNS converts domain names (like google.com) into IP addresses.

Common DNS providers:

• 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare)
• 8.8.8.8 (Google)
• Your router’s IP (most common at home)

Default Route

This is just another name for “send all unknown traffic to the gateway.”

Netory tip

Store gateway and DNS values per network so your documentation stays complete and consistent.