If you have an Internet connection, you probably have a router somewhere that your computer sends data to. This is the first router your computer will connect to in order to get to the internet. It is also known as a default gateway (because it is your gateway to the internet). By convention the gateway has the lowest IP address (like a phone number for a computer) in the subnet (a group of addresses). Anytime you make a connection (such as a connection to www.wikipedia.org) your computer looks up the IP address using the look-up service called DNS (Domain Name Service). Once the destination address has been found your computer connects to your gateway router. The gateway then sends data to a router at your ISP (Internet Service Provider), that router can be said to be part of the internet and connects to other routers until the data reaches the destination.