Gateway is a broad category of network component that allow communication between different networking architectures and different protocols. Gateways generally operate at the higher levels of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model for networking. They are commonly connectivity between two different protocol stacks that might different systems. Examples include the following:
- E-mail gateways for example, a gateway that receives Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail, translates it into a standard X.400 format, and forwards it to its destination.
- Gateway Service for NetWare acts as a gateway between the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol used on Windows networks and the NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) used on NetWare networks. CIFS, formerly known as SMB, is the native file-sharing protocol in Microsoft Windows 2000. When this gateway is enabled, Windows network clients can access NetWare services through the Gateway Service for NetWare gateway located on the Windows 2000 Server.
- Gateways between a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) host and computers on a TCP/IP network, such as the one provided by Microsoft SNA Server.
- A packet assembler/disassembler (PAD) that provides connectivity between a local area network (LAN) and an X.25 packet-switching network.
A gateway is usually a dedicated device or a set of services running on a dedicated computer. Gateways are essentially devices that direct network traffic in some fashion and translate that information.
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