Megacable: a bit of a warning (somewhat technical)

[grumbalina]

No, the default gateway that you can find by typing ipconfig into a command prompt is the address that you plug into a web browser to access your router's online configuration. I don't think what you're talking about is necessarily a security glitch because the IP addresses to access most routers are well known, and most of their default admin usernames and passwords are listed online. I know that my last router in the US, which I got through Time Warner, had the same sort of generic username and password and an easily searchable IP address. Honestly, I think the biggest danger with such a router is someone stealing your internet.

I don't think that someone monitoring your traffic would be able to actually do much with the information. I mean, they would have to have a keystroke logger or RAT installed on your machine to know what you were typing or have another device actually plugged into the router and your computer, so it's not like they could get any real information remotely besides the websites you visit, if even that. You can check out this article for more information on the type of data that can be obtained from routers and this article for great information on how to determine what's happening on your network.

Also, sometimes devices connected to your computer, like a printer, can have a static IP address that shows up on your router configuration. However, I just saw this article about hackers from the Ukraine running a program to hit every IP address with an exhaustive list of username/password combinations. I wouldn't worry too much because the hackers were accessing a server, which requires remote access, and not an individual computer.