How to find gateway address in linux,mac and windows

A gateway is a node that allows you to gain entrance into a network and vice versa. On the Internet the node which is the stopping point can be a gateway or a host node. A computer that controls the traffic your network or your ISP (Internet Service Provider) receives is a node. In most homes a gateway is the device provided by the Internet Service Provider that connects users to the internet. We can find the gateway IP address on Windows, Linux and Mac as below.

On Windows :

1. Click  Start -> Run -> Type cmd to launch command prompt.
2. In command prompt type : 

    route PRINT

The output will have a list of gateway addresses for the particular system.

On Lunux :

1. Start Terminal and Run ,  

    $ route -n

This will display the routing table as below

Kernel IP routing table
Destination      Gateway         Genmask         Flags  Metric Ref      Use   Iface
192.168.31.0     192.168.1.1     255.255.255.0   UG     0      0        0     eth0 

127.0.0.0        0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U      0      0        0     lo

In the above output the default gateway for the system is 192.168.1.1 as the flag is set as G (refers to gateway) for this ip adress.

On Mac :

1. Open Terminal and Type : 

   $ netstat -rn

 The output will look like as below.

Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            192.168.1.1        UGSc            7        0     en0
127                localhost          UCS             0        0     lo0
localhost          localhost          UH              1     7373     lo0
 

The output shows the default gateway for the mac as 192.168.1.1 a the flag for default network connection is set as "G".