How to change your default gateway on Linux - and get back online fast

Jack Wallen/ZDNET The gateway address (also known as the "default gateway") is a crucial address configured on your computer, without which you wouldn't be able to get much done. This address acts as a sort of bridge between your local network and the internet. Although the gateway address is capable of much more than bridging the internal with the external, we'll stick with that definition, as it's how the majority of people need it to function. Also: The first 5 Linux commands every new user should learn Let's imagine your local area network (LAN -- the network within your home or business) is a castle, and around that castle is a moat filled with acid. If you dive into that moat... you're dead. Since Amazon doesn't deliver to your castle (thanks to that flesh-melting moat), you need a way to get to the outside world, where things happen. To solve the problem, you build a bridge that gives your castle access to the world beyond your moat. That bridge is the default gateway. How ... Read full article.