Revision Material
IP, Gateway, DNS Definitions and use
Revising on what IP, Gateways, DNS are and their use case.
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IP address — your device’s unique address on the local network (e.g. 192.168.1.42). It’s how other devices and the router know where to send data to and from you. Comes with a subnet mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0) that defines which addresses count as “local.”
Default gateway — the address of your router (e.g. 192.168.1.1). Anything not on your local network (i.e. the whole internet) gets handed off to the gateway to forward onward. It’s the door out of your local network.
DNS server — translates names into IP addresses (e.g. google.com → 142.250.…). When you type a website, your device asks the DNS server for the matching IP before it can connect. Often set to your router or a public resolver like 8.8.8.8.