A host can talk directly only to devices on its own subnet. For anything else, including every internet destination, it must send traffic to a router on its subnet that knows how to reach other networks. That router's address, configured on the host, is the default gateway. On a home network, the default gateway is the home router, often 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1; in an office, it is usually a router or Layer 3 switch interface for that VLAN.
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