The gateway in the default route is not necessarily the address of the Internet provider, although it could be in certain contexts, especially in home environments or small offices.

In general terms, the default route gateway is the IP address of the device that acts as a connection point between your local network and any other network, typically the Internet. This device is commonly a router.

Here are some considerations on how this works in different scenarios:

In home or small office environments:

The router provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) usually acts as the gateway. This router connects your local network to the ISP's network, and its internal IP address is the gateway used in your network configuration. From this point, the ISP's router handles traffic to and from the Internet, using its own gateway configuration to communicate with the ISP's broader servers or other systems on the web.

In enterprise environments or larger networks:

There can be multiple routers and network devices. The default gateway route on your machine would still be the IP address of a device that connects your local segment of the network to the rest of the company's network infrastructure, which eventually connects to the Internet. This device could be a border router or firewall managed by the organization, not directly by the ISP.

On mobile networks or cellular data connections:

The gateway would be configured by the mobile network operator and would be the entry and exit point for data traffic into the operator's data network, before exiting to the Internet.

In short, the default route gateway is the IP address of the device that facilitates communication between your network and other networks, including the Internet, but it does not necessarily have to be the address of the ISP, but rather of the device (such as a router ) that connects directly to your local network.