Your computer grabs an IP address from a router; this router is also referred to as the default gateway as it connects you to the outside world (internet). Those routers are everywhere; they are at your house, coffee shops, schools, hospitals, and so on.
You can check the IP address of your default gateway by running any of the following commands:
- route -n
- netstat -rn
- ip route
Let's start with the first command, route -n:
root@ubuntu-linux:~# route -n Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
0.0.0.0 172.16.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 600 0 0 wlan0
172.16.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 600 0 0 wlan0
You can see from the output that my default gateway IP address is 172.16.1.254. Now let's try the second command, netstat -rn:
root@ubuntu-linux:~# netstat -rn
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
0.0.0.0 172.16.1.254...