What is the role of a default gateway in routing packets to destinations outside the local subnet?

• A. It terminates the TCP connection.
• B. It assigns private IP addresses to hosts.
• C. It forwards packets to destinations outside the local subnet when no more specific route exists.
• D. It resolves domain names to IPs.

Answer: (C)

A default gateway is the next-hop router for traffic headed outside the local subnet. When a host sees a destination IP that isn’t in its own subnet, it sends the packet to the gateway’s IP on its local network. The gateway then consults its routing table and forwards the packet toward the destination. If there’s a specific route for that destination, it follows it; if not, it uses the default route to send the packet toward external networks. This is why every device in a local network typically has a default gateway address configured.

The other options don’t fit because:

• Terminating a TCP connection happens at the endpoints, not at the gateway.

• Assigning private IP addresses is handled by DHCP or manual configuration, not the gateway’s primary role.

• Resolving domain names to IPs is done by DNS servers, not the gateway.