Microsoft DOS route command

Route

Command to manually configure the routes in the routing table.

Availability

The route.exe command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft operating systems.

Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Syntax

ROUTE [-f] [-p] [command [destination] [MASK netmask] [gateway] [METRIC metric] [IF interface]

-f	Clears the routing tables of all gateway entries. If this is used in conjunction with one of the commands, the tables are cleared prior to running the command.
-p	When used with the ADD command, makes a route persistent across boots of the system. By default, routes are not preserved when the system is restarted. When used with the PRINT command, displays the list of registered persistent routes. Ignored for all other commands, which always affect the appropriate persistent routes. This option is not supported Windows'95. command
command	One of these: PRINT Prints a route ADD Adds a route DELETE Deletes a route CHANGE Modifies an existing route destination
destination	Specifies the host.
MASK	Specifies that the next parameter is the 'netmask' value.
netmask	Specifies a subnet mask value for this route entry. If not specified, it defaults to 255.255.255.255.
gateway	Specifies gateway.
interface	the interface number for the specified route. ll symbolic names used for destination are looked up in the network database file NETWORKS. The symbolic names for gateway are looked up in the host name database file HOSTS. If the command is PRINT or DELETE. Destination or gateway can be a wildcard, (wildcard is specified as a star '*'), or the gateway argument may be omitted. If Dest contains a * or ?, it is treated as a shell pattern, and only matching destination routes are printed. The '*' matches any string, and '?' matches any one char. Examples: 157.*.1, 157.*, 127.*, *224*. Diagnostic Notes: Invalid MASK generates an error, that is when (DEST & MASK) != DEST. Example> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 155.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 IF 1 The route addition failed: The specified mask parameter is invalid. (Destination & Mask) != Destination. Examples Examples: > route PRINT >route ADD 157.0.0.0 ^destination MASK 255.0.0.0 ^mask 157.55.80.1 ^gateway METRIC 3 ^metric IF 2 ^Interface If IF is not given, it tries to find the best interface for a given gateway. > route PRINT > route PRINT 157* .... Only prints those matching 157* > route DELETE 157.0.0.0 > route PRINT One way to use this would be as follows: You can't ping the server that you are connecting to, but you know the ip address to be 127.16.16.10 >route PRINT Interface List 0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface 0x2 ...00 14 a4 c3 44 20 ...... Xircom CardBus Ethernet 10/100 Adapter 0x3 ...00 b0 d0 43 55 a5 ...... 3Com EtherLink PCI 0x4 ...00 01 b0 8f 8f 80 ...... NdisWan Adapter Active Routes: Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 127.16.0.0 255.255.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 127.16.8.14 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.50.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 2 192.168.50.65 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.50.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 ** notice that no gateway for the current ip goes to 255.255.255.0, so it must be added. Now do the below command. >route ADD 127.16.0.0 MASK 255.255.255.0 METRIC 1 **Then do the below command: >route print Active Routes: Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 127.16.0.0 255.255.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 ** 127.16.0.0 255.255.255.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 127.16.8.14 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.50.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 2 192.168.50.65 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1 192.168.50.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 127.16.8.14 127.16.8.14 1 224.0.0.0 224.0.0.0 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.50.65 192.168.50.65 1 **Notice the ** ip address gives me the default gateway.