I need a dummies answer to the difference between a Router and a Gateway Router (as it applies to products in retail stores, not theoretical). The salesman in the PC store said that when you plug your modem into it, a Gateway Router can share your Internet connection to both Macs & PC's, whereas a router could share to only Macs OR PC's, but not both. Is this correct? My Google Search doesn't turn up that answer even once.

To my knowledge there is no difference between a soho "gateway" router and a regular soho router. when connected to the internet their lan ip is the gateway address to the internet. In this regard they are both the same. If mac or pc is talking tcp/ip they can both get on the internet using the same router. Soho routers only care about tcp/ip not what OS is running on the machine. With this information you can decide the validity of the salespersons statements. Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

Darn terms are vague to begin with and worse you get some salesperson trying to show you how much they don't know. What you may want is a soho (small office/home) product. That product would have some or all of these features. Firewall, web based setup, ability to connect to your isp (ppoe normally), pre-set port features such as the ability to open port or ranges of ports for common games and applications. You would want to understand how to use all the tools to protect your lan and provide connection too. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

If you want to look at this at a higher level, or lower level depending on how you think of it, the difference would be in how they're used. A gateway router (also known as a border router) is used in larger networks where you have 1 or more routers that provide access to/from the corporate network. Within the corporate network you would have multiple routers segmenting the network. In our company we have 3 T3 lines connecting to 3 border routers. Our internal network is split up with 100 more routers for point-to-point connections to our stores plus a few other locations. I'm sure all of that was beyond the scope of your question, but if you want more detailed info on how and why border routers are setup, you could read up on BGP (Border Gateway Protocol). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border...

So you're saying the only difference is marketing? Some call them "routers", and others call them "gateway routers"? Like how some PC's are marketed as including "Windows Vista", while others are marketed as "Microsoft Windows Vista"?

There is a difference between SOHO routers and the type described by FishMonger. But what all routers have in common is that they care little about the OS of the machine that is connected to them which is what the salesman was trying to sell you. Providing they understand Ethernet and TCP/IP, niether of which are OS specific, you can connect any computer to a router. If that were the case how would you be able to connect a Windows machine to an Linux server as it all goes through routers of one kind or another. What they salesman was probably refering to is that if you network a Windows machine and a MAC machine together you might have dificulty gettting them read each others files. But thats a different matter altogether and nothing to do with routers. Stuart

Again vague terms. A gateway is a known term to most people. A router is a known term to most also. What I suspect he/she is trying to suggest is that one product may have the ability to connect (make the connection to your isp though use of password and authentication protocol) while the other doesn't have that feature. Most modern mid priced soho router are good choices for most people. They normally care little about the OS used. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.