About this interactive
The lesson's path:
- The laptop sends a packet for another network to its **default gateway**, its own router.
- That router reads the **destination IP address** and decides where to send it next: the **next hop**.
- Every router along the way does the same, and each one is a hop. No router plans the whole path.
- The router whose network holds the server hands the packet to the server.
The server's reply makes the same trip in reverse, starting at its own default gateway.
What you'll learn
- Predict where a packet goes first (the sender's default gateway) and what each router reads to choose the next hop (the destination IP address)
- Predict hop-by-hop forwarding: every router on the path decides only its own next hop, and the last router hands the packet to the destination on its own network
Aligned to
CompTIA Network+
2.1
Explain characteristics of routing technologies.
Cisco CCNA
3.2
Determine how a router makes a forwarding decision by default
Cisco CCST Networking
4.4
Explain basic routing concepts
Key terms
- Router
- A network device that forwards data packets between networks based on IP addresses.
- Default Gateway
- The router that a device uses to send traffic to destinations outside its local network.
- Hop
- A single step in the path a packet takes through the network, specifically the transit from one router to the next closest router toward the destination. The number of hops a packet must travel is used as a routing metric by distance-vector protocols like RIP.
- Next Hop
- The IP address of the immediately adjacent router that a packet is forwarded to on the way toward its final destination. A router's routing table entry for each network destination includes the next-hop address so the router knows where to send the packet.
Topics
Router
Routing
Default Gateway
Next Hop
Interactive
Predict
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