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Date:      Tue, 04 Mar 2003 13:49:47 -0500
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>
To:        "Chan, Herman (MTO)" <Herman.Chan@mto.gov.on.ca>
Cc:        "'freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG'" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: gateway and other freebsd network function
Message-ID:  <3E64F54B.5000304@potentialtech.com>
In-Reply-To: <F89333F99E63A24095E38D2C65AF8AB806013C0D@MTODSAMS03>
References:  <F89333F99E63A24095E38D2C65AF8AB806013C0D@MTODSAMS03>

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Chan, Herman (MTO) wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> This might be a stupid question, but what is a gateway, I've heard many
> great things about freebsd acting as a gateway to interent, but 
> what is it really?

A gateway, also called a "default router" is a machine that knows how
to get network traffic "anywhere" (theoretically).
Thus, if you have a small (or large for that matter) network, each
computer will have a gateway configured so that if it doesn't know
how to reach a particular computer, it can send the data to the
gateway, and the gateway will figure out how to deliver it.

This is somewhat oversimplified, but should give you the idea.

> And what are other good things about freebsd in terms of networking?

That's a pretty broad question.
In my opinion, the best thing about FreeBSD's networking is that it
just works.  No playing around, no silly browse masters to worry about.
Usually, you turn on the machine and it just works.
The next best thing is the abundance of network tools for performance
testing, problem diagnosis and just about anything else you could need.

But if you ask 5 other people, you'll probably get 5 other answers.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com


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