Network literacy post: Fix the missing gateway address in 10 seconds

A few days ago, I received a request for help from a netizen, saying that he could not access the Internet normally, and when he was looking for the reason for the disconnection, he found that the default gateway address had also disappeared. Faced with this situation, he said he didn't know how to deal with it.

In fact, there are several reasons why the default gateway is blank.

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First, it could be that his laptop or PC was set up to use a static IP address. Second, it could be that there is something wrong with his wireless router or other network hardware. Let's go through each of these possibilities.

1. For using static IP address:

If a static IP address is used, the IP address can be set in the Windows system.

Open the Control Panel and find Network and Internet Settings, or search for Network and Sharing Center. Regardless of which version of Windows you are using, you will need to find an option to "Change adapter settings."

In Windows 10, the path is Control Panel -> "Network and Internet" Settings -> Network Connections.

You will then see a list of network adapters, identify the device used to connect your machine to the network, right-click it and select Properties.

In the list, find "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" and right-click the "Properties" button.

In the pop-up window, check "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server address automatically".

Click OK, close the window, and then you may need to restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

In this way, the computer can be automatically assigned an IP address, and the default gateway address can also be viewed by entering the command line ipconfig /all.

The default gateway address is actually the IP address of the router. The router itself should be set as a DHCP server. Once "obtain an IP address automatically" is used, it means that the router will automatically distribute IP addresses to terminal devices connected to it.

2. What if it is a router problem?

If the previous method does not work, when you run the command line ipconfig /all and find that the default gateway address is still missing, and the computer's IP address is displayed as 169.254.xx (as shown below), it means that your router may not be working properly, or it may be caused by problems with other devices on the network.

Generally speaking, if the computer's IP address appears as 169.254.xx, it means that it cannot obtain a normal IP address from the router and is not connected to the Internet.

In this case, it is recommended to try restarting the computer and resetting the wireless router.

Of course, if you don’t want to reset the wireless router, manually configure it one by one, and re-enter the Internet username and password provided by the operator, you can save the current router configuration in advance.

Specifically, before resetting, you can select "Export Settings" in the system settings of the router to save the current router configuration as a file, which can be reloaded when you want to restore it.

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In addition, check whether there are other network devices connected between your laptop or PC host and the router, such as a wireless bridge or powerline adapter (powerline cat) that may be used.

If so, reboot it or remove it from the overall network to prevent it from interfering with the problem.

3. Appendix: How to find the IP address on the terminal

For Windows users, if you want to find the IP address of your computer and router, you can use the above method. So how can you quickly find it on other terminals?

For Mac users, start from the "Menu", select "Network", open "System Preferences", and then select the active network connection, which is usually green.

For a wired (Ethernet) network connection, the word after "IPv4 Address" is the computer's IP address, and the word after "Router" is the address of the router.

Check the IP address of wireless connection device in Mac system

For wireless network connection, you need to click the "Advanced" option, then click "TCP/IP", then you will see the IP address of your computer, which is "192.168.5.34" here; and the IP address of the broadband router, which is "192.168.5.1" here.

4. How to find it on mobile terminal?

iPhone or iPad

For users who use an iPhone or iPad, it is relatively simple to find the IP address from the device itself. First go to "Settings", click "Wi-Fi", and then find the small icon to the right of the wireless network you are connected to. After that, you can clearly see the IP address of your iPhone or iPad, as well as the IP address of your router.

Android

Users of the Android system can generally only find the current IP address of the terminal from the device. If they want to find the address of the connected wireless router, it is relatively cumbersome and requires the installation of a third-party APP for assistance.

Taking the app "Network Info II" as an example, after installing this APP, connect to the Wi-Fi network, run the software, and then tap the Wireless Network tab.

Only then will you see the IP address of your device on the interface, and the gateway will display the address of the router.

Summarize:

The gateway is a key device that carries the interconnection between the intranet and the extranet. It can be used for both wide area network interconnection and local area network interconnection.

The problem of the disappearance of the gateway address is often accompanied by a series of problems such as the terminal device being unable to access the Internet. At this time, I hope that the troubleshooting methods mentioned above can help you deal with some minor problems that occur in daily network applications.