Static routes

greencreeper · 20-05-2005, 00:37

What is the destination? Is it, say, the first IP in the range? I would have thought it would be .0 or perhaps the router IP for that network, but then the destination and gateway would be the same

route add <destination> <mask> <gateway>

20-05-2005, 07:43

Destination is the sunet defined by mask, i.e. if the 'destination' is 142.222.345.0 and the mask is 255.255.255.0, the destination is any IP in the range 142.222.345.x. If the mask is 255.0.0.0, the destination is any IP in the range 142.x.x.x. The gateway is the actual IP of the gateway device.

HTH

**Paul** · 20-05-2005, 07:48

Destination and Mask define the ip's covered by the route you are adding - gateway is where the device is to send any packets in this range.

greencreeper · 20-05-2005, 20:30

Thanks for the replies - but how do you choose the number for destination? Can you pick any number within the range you want?

At work, a customer wanted a route adding and gave a destination ending in .128 - I just wondered, "Why .128?"

20-05-2005, 20:35

Basically, yes. For example, if the destination is 142.222.345.x, mask 255.255.255.0, it dosn't matter what you specify for 'x'. Don't know why your customer would specify .128 unless the mask was 255.255.255.255, i.e. he/she wants to route an individual ip.

**Paul** · 20-05-2005, 20:39

Like I said - the destination and mask are combined to define the ip range you want to route - the general convention is to make the actual destination ip the lowest ip in the range.

greencreeper · 20-05-2005, 20:40

Ah right. It's a strange world really. The customer wanted a range adding. Without the route, traffic was going via London to get to an address down the road. Big trip times.

I was wondering it the gateway at the other end was .128 - the gateway in the "route add" is the gateway on the way out, so to speak.

Ta Paul

I'm just a humble desktop guy - all this networking stuff I leave to those with beards