default route without a gateway

scylla · 10-18-2004, 12:18 PM

Hi,

I have a question about adding a default route without a gateway. What is the difference between:

route add default gw 192.168.0.1 eth0

and

route add default eth0

Both work for me, so I don't understand why specifying the gateway is neccesary. Either way eth0 dumps the packet out on the network and either way 192.168.0.1 seems to route it.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion

BillJennings · 10-21-2004, 01:40 AM

If you default route has no gateway, then you will not be able to connect to any computers beyond your local subnet. Also, adding a default route to an interface without a gateway will cause any attempts to connect to computers beyond you local subnet to generate ARP requests on the local subnet (which, presumably will never be answered).

Does it also work with NO default route?

Sincerely
Bill Jennings