Linux › Section I · Your network and its configuration › Topic I.3
Routes, the routing table, and the default gateway
An address tells the world where a Linux machine is; the routing table tells the machine where to send everything else. Reading that table, and knowing how the kernel picks one route from several, is the key to solving most cannot-reach-the-network problems.
In this topic
- Two kinds of destination
- Reading ip route show
- Where routes come from
- The default route and gateway
- How the kernel chooses a route
- Worked example: picking routes
- Asking the kernel with ip route get
- Worked example: two default routes
- Legacy tools and other tables
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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