Troubleshooting TCP/IP LAN and RAS Routing Issues

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You can observe the change to the default route in the route tables by using the Route Print command at the Windows NT Command Prompt. For example, if you make a connection with RAS and issue the Route Print command, the first line of the IP routing table will look like the following (actual Gateway and Interface values will vary):

   Network Address   Netmask   Gateway Address  Interface         Metric
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.41.1     199.199.41.254      1
				

This first line is the natural default path to the local LAN gateway. If you connect with RAS to the remote Windows NT 3.5 RAS server, the first two lines of the Route Print command will appear as follows:

   Network Address   Netmask   Gateway Address  Interface         Metric
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.41.1     199.199.41.254      2
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.32.15    199.199.32.15       1
				

The metric value represents the number of hops a packet must take to its destination. Because the new route to the default Gateway is shorter (metric value 1), it becomes the preferred path. If you try to use the Route Delete command to erase the RAS default gateway, the second line is removed. RAS replaces the first line with the RAS default gateway path. As a result, it looks like the first line of the table is deleted instead of the second line. For example, when you try to delete the second line of the above table, the result is:

   Network Address   Netmask   Gateway Address  Interface         Metric
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.32.15    199.199.32.15       1
				

   Route Add 11.0.0.0 Mask 255.0.0.0 199.199.41.1
				

   Network Address   Netmask   Gateway Address  Interface         Metric
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.41.1     199.199.41.254      2
   0.0.0.0           0.0.0.0   199.199.32.15    199.199.32.15       1
   11.0.0.0          255.0.0.0 199.199.41.1     199.199.41.254      1