Re: Terminology: Router, gateway?

"Jay R. Ashworth" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.network.wireless.bay-area
Organization Ashworth & Associates, St Pete FL USA
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 11:24:32AM -0700, John D. Blair wrote:
> A router is a machine that "routes" packets from one interface to one 
> or more other interfaces.
> 
> A gateway is a router that connects a subnet (like your home LAN) to an 
> external network (like the Internet).

Traditionally, router and gateway were exactly synonymous; anyone
ascribing more precise semantics to either is asking for trouble.

That said, gateway often refers to a box which connects two networks
but does *not* route packets; AT&T's famous 'application layer gatwaye'
from the Bellovin book is the canonical example.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                [email protected]
Member of the Technical Staff     Baylink                             RFC 2100
The Suncoast Freenet         The Things I Think
Tampa Bay, Florida        http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

        "They had engineers in my day, too."  -- Perry Vance Nelson
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