What is My Default Gateway? Finding Your Default Gateway on Any Device

Knowing the answer to the question “what is my default gateway” on a home or business network is the key to a successful access to the router’s web-based management or troubleshooting a network problem.

And in this brief yet sufficient guide, we are going to let you in on every interesting thing about your default gateway as well as how to spot it on your device no matter what it is. Come, check it out right away!

What is the Default Gateway?

For simple understanding, you just think of it as an agent between the World Wide Web and your home network. This “agent” is the important factor for transferring information between subnets.

A single router, along with multiple connected computers and mobile devices, usually makes most home and business networks. The IP address of the default gateway is the private IP address given to your router.

On Windows devices, “Default gateway” is the name of this numerical address. At the same time, it is normally known as a “router” on iOS and Mac devices. However, it might be named something likes “gateway” or “gateway route” when it comes to other platforms.

What is My Default Gateway – When is Default Gateway needed?

The TCP / IP protocol also stipulates that two IP addresses with the same NetID can send information directly to each other. For example, 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 with the same NetID of 192.168.1.0 should simply send information to each other, because they are in the same network.

When two IP addresses have different NetIDs, for example, 192.168.1.2 has a NetID of 192.168.1.0, and 172.16.4.2 has a NetID of 172.16.0.0, if you want to send information to each other, you must go through a default gateway.

Default Gateway is the IP address of the router which you are using. This IP address 192.168.1.1 must be pre-installed on the home ADSL Router. This also means that a computer in the home wants to connect to the Internet, it must send information to the ADSL Router, and the device will redirect the packet to where it needs to go.

Default gateways are routed systems whose task is to ensure that the correct destination of the request is sent, even with the differences of the sender and receiver’s network protocols.

In the case of an in-house network, which is usually quite small, the main router is usually also the default gateway. However, whether the growth in the size of networks or, in cases, the situation where multiple networks can work at the same time, along with a specific default gateway, a subnet will be used.

What are the Ways to Know My Default Gateway IP Address?

Follow these steps to locate your default gateway IP address on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iPhone/iPad.

On Windows

The Windows network settings store the IP address of the Default Gateway, so it only takes less than 5 minutes to find the answer to what is my default gateway IP address in Windows.

Note: The guideline in this article can be used for all versions of Windows. These instructions will apply on both wired and wireless home and small business networks. Just keep in mind that for bigger networks having more than a single router and simple network hubs, there may be more than one gateway and routing is more complicated.

Step 1: Open Control Panel

Note: To shorten this process on Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, open the Power User menu by pressing WIN+X and select Network Connections. After that, proceed to Step 4 for Windows 10 or Step 5 for Windows

Step 2: Choose Network and Internet

Note: The Control Panel view is usually set to Large icons, Small icons, or Classic View.

Step 3: Choose Network and Sharing Center in the Network and Internet window

Step 4: When the Network and Sharing Center window opens, please select Change adapter options. Click Change adapter settings if you are using Windows 8 and 7

Change adapter settings link in Network and Sharing Center

Step 5: Locate your network connection to find the default gateway IP address. For every Windows computer, Local Area Connection or Ethernet is a term for a wired network connection. On the other hand, a wireless network connection is labeled as Wireless Network Connection or Wi-Fi.

Note: There may be several connections since windows can connect to multiple networks simultaneously.

If you are using a running network connection, make sure to remove all disconnected or disabled connections. For the best connection choice, note the information in the Connectivity column in the Details view.

Step 6: Double click on the network connection and one of the following status will appear: Wi-Fi Status, Local Area Connection Status, Ethernet Status, or another status dialog box. The status depends on the network connection’s name.

Note: If Properties, Devices and Printers, another window, or a notification appears, it is a notification that the network connection does not have a status. Your connection is disconnected from any network or the internet. To find another connection, go back to step 5.

Step 7: Select Details.

Step 8: In the Property column, depending on your network type, locate one of the following: IPv4 Default Gateway, IPv6 Default Gateway, or Default Gateway.

Step 9: In the Value column, the default gateway IP address being used by Windows will appear.

Note: If there isn’t any IP address listed, the network Windows is using to connect to the Internet may not be the network you chose in Step 5. To choose another connection, please go back to Step 5.

Using IPCONFIG

To find your default gateway, using the ipconfig command is one of the options that take the least amount of time.

Open Command Prompt.
Enter ipconfig then press Enter.
Scroll to the Default Gateway entry, the IP address will be here.

Still, only use this method when you’re familiar with using commands in Windows.

Here’s an example result of the ipconfig command. The default gateway for the Ethernet connection is listed as 192.168.202.2.

…

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::29a0:8d37:e56d:40a7%3

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.202.146

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.202.2

…

Enter ipconfig | findstr “Default Gateway” and continue by pressing Enter if you find this is too much information to handle. The Command Prompt window now will return data which is much shorter.

However, it is best to bear in mind that this approach is only helpful if you have one active connection. If you have multiple connections, it will not show the default gateways context on what connection they apply to.

On Mac

Two ways to find the default gateway on a macOS computer are using the command line and through a graphical program.

In Mac, using System Preferences is the most straightforward way to determine the default gateway.

Click Network, choose your currently using network connection, then click Advanced. Click the TCP/IP tab, the IP address will be next to the Router.

For finding your Mac’s default gateway, using the netstat command is an alternative. First, opening a terminal. The next step is to enter netstat -nr | grep default. After you finish all the above steps and everything is already in place, press Enter.

On most Linux computers, for displaying the default gateway IP, you need to open a terminal, enter ip route | grep default, then press Enter.

On Chrome OS

Step 1: At the bottom right of the screen, choose the status area, and then select Settings.
Step 2: Under Internet connection, there is a drop-down box. Select a Wi-Fi network or Ethernet and then choose your network connection.
Step 3: Go to the Network tab.
Step 4: Next to Gateway, you will find your Default gateway IP address.

On Linux

Step 1: On the left sidebar, choose the Settings icon.
Step 2: On the settings sidebar, first scroll down and then choose Network. Next step, find the connection settings icon and click.
Step 3: Next to Default Route, you will find Default gateway IP address.

How to Locate the Default Gateway on my phone

Wi-Fi, Info, and Router information screens in iOS Settings

The most effortless approach to find the default gateway on an iOS or Android phone or tablet is to use the “What’s My Router IP?” website. This website scans the network from a web browser to locate the default gateway, so it works on phone, tablet and desktop computers, as well.

On the website, you need to look for the “router local (private) IP”. Your Default Gateway IP Address should be next to it.

This isn’t the best option for finding the default gateway, but it works very fast and usually gives back the right IP address. However, in case it shows the wrong IP address, please go to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android phone or tablet networking settings to check the router’s IP address.

On iPhone/iPad To find the default gateway IP address on an iOS device, first you go to Settings > Wi-Fi. Next, select the (i) icon next to the name of the network to which you’re connected. Your default gateway IP address is next to the Router section.

On Android

It depends on the version of the Android phone you are using to find out your default gateway. You can visit TuneComp for more specific information, or you can try some of these simple steps:

Swipe down from the top of the screen
Press and hold the Wi-Fi icon
Next to the network, find the settings icon to tap
Go to Advanced, the IP address is next to Gateway

FAQ

What is the importance of default gateway?

Using different IPs, two or more hosts can still correspond with each other if they use the same router. This happens thanks to the help of default gateway. Without the default gateway, devices hooked to the same router cannot interact.

What does a subnet mask differ from an IP address?

An individual set of numbers distributed to each device is an IP address. On the other hand, a subnet mask separates an IP address into two parts.

The first part is used for identifying your device.
The second part is for determining the network to which your device belongs.

Is Default Gateway identical to a broadcast address?

You use a broadcast address to let all nearby devices see your request. In contrast, you use a default gateway when you want your request to be understood by a remote device.

Can the default gateway and an IP address be identical?

The default gateway and an IP address cannot be the same. Each computer has a different IP address, and that’s what differentiates it from all of the other devices.

Conclusion

Unless your computer connects directly to a modem to access the internet or you change the router’s IP address, the default gateway IP address used by your computer and other devices will remain the same. Just take a few minutes to follow our guide on “what is my default gateway”, and you will never have to go through any difficulty of finding it ever again.