Creating AWS Internet Gateway

In order to add an internet gateway to VPC, follow the below steps:
 

Step 1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console: Go to the AWS homepage (https://aws.amazon.com/) and sign in with your AWS account credentials.
 

Step 2. From the left panel, go under the Virtual Private Cloud tab option, and open the Internet Gateways option. 

Step 3. Click on Create internet gateway

Step 4. Fill in the internet gateway settings with a name, and the internet gateway is created. 

Note: We know that an internet gateway is used to allow internet traffic to VPC, so it needs to be associated with a VPC.
 

Step 5. Select the internet gateway that is just created. Go to the Actions tab, choose Attach to VPC

Step 6. Select any VPCs created earlier from the options

Step 7. Success! Internet Gateway is created and attached

Now, by default, the subnet we created gets associated with the main route table for the VPC, and the main route table does not contain any route to an internet gateway.

So, let's create a custom route table with a route that forwards the traffic destined outside the VPC to the internet gateway.

Step 8: Back to the navigation tab, click on Route Tables and then click on create route table 

Step 9:  Fill in the settings with a name, and then select create route table 

Step 10: On Route Table, click on edit option and then add the following route:

• For IPv4 traffic, enter 0.0.0.0/0 in the Destination box and in the Target list select the internet gateway ID.
   
• For IPv6 traffic, enter ::/0 in the Destination box, and in the Target list, select the internet gateway ID.

Afterwards, hit the save button present below on the right side

Step 11: Success! Custom Route Table established

Benefits of AWS Internet Gateway

Let's see the key benefits of using AWS internet gateway:

• Scalability: Internet Gateways are horizontally scaled due to which they can handle increased traffic demands 
   
• Availability: Internet Gateways has its multiple copies deployed across multiple Availability Zones, due to which they are highly available
   
• Cost-effectiveness: There is no additional charge for creating an Internet Gateway
   
• Ease of use: Internet Gateways are very easy to create and manage using the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS SDKs

Limitations of AWS Internet Gateway

Some of the few limitations of using an AWS Internet Gateway are:

• Security: An Internet Gateway can expose all instances in VPC to the Internet. So, configuring the security groups and network ACLs becomes very important
   
• Performance: An Internet Gateway can introduce some latency. In order to get low-latency connections to the Internet, we need to use a NAT Gateway 
   
• Cost: There is no additional charge for creating an IGW, but there is a charge for each gigabyte of data that flows through the Internet gateway
   
• Complexity: Internet Gateways can be complex to configure to someone not good with networking concepts 

AWS Internet Gateway vs NAT Gateway

Let's see a table comparing AWS Internet Gateway vs NAT Gateway below:

Note: "Outbound" refers to traffic going from the VPC to the internet, while "Inbound" refers to traffic coming from the internet to the VPC.

Frequently Asked Questions

When an AWS Internet Gateway be used?

AWS Internet Gateway should be used to allow instances in VPC to connect to the internet and to connect VPC to a third-party network such as a cloud provider’s network.

When to avoid using an AWS Internet Gateway?

AWS Internet Gateway should avoid using it when there is a need for low latency connections to the internet and if there is a need to restrict access to the internet from VPC.

Can AWS Internet Gateway be used with multiple VPCs?

No, AWS Internet Gateway can only be used with a single VPC. In order to connect multiple VPCs to the internet, we need to take the help of Transit Gateway.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you did a fantastic job!!. This article covered about the AWS internet gateway, how to create it, and its benefits and limitations. At last, the internet gateway vs NAT gateway was discussed, and some frequently asked questions were discussed.
 

Here are some more related articles:
 

• Intro to AWS
• Global Infra AWS
• AWS Features

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