gateway

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gateway

1. A deprecated term for a device that enables data to flow between different networks (forming an internet).

Preferred terms are "protocol converter" (connects networks that use different protocols), "router" (connects two broadcast networks at layer 3 (network layer). Another example is a mail gateway, which is a layer 7 (application layer) gateway.

2. An interface between an information source and a World-Wide Web server. Common Gateway Interface is a standard for such interfaces. The information source can be any system that can be accessed by a program running on the web server. A typical example is a relational database.

(2000-05-24)