Ipconfig and Winipcfg Display Only One Default Gateway Address

ID: Q162055

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0
Microsoft TCP/IP-32 for Windows for Workgroups, versions 3.11, 3.11a, and 3.11b
Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

The Ipconfig and Winipcfg tools display only one default gateway address when you have configured the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to use more than one default gateway.

CAUSE

The Ipconfig and Winipcfg tools can display only the address of the first configured default gateway.

MORE INFORMATION

The following information is a sample of the output from the Ipconfig tool:


   Windows NT IP Configuration

      Host Name . . . . . . . . . : MYPC
      DNS Servers . . . . . . . . :
      Node Type . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
      NetBIOS Scope ID. . . . . . :
      IP Routing Enabled. . . . . : No
      WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . : No
      NetBIOS Resolution Uses DNS : No

   Ethernet adapter Elnk31:

      Description . . . . . . . . : ELNK3 Ethernet Adapter.
      Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-C0-4F-D7-DB-91
      DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
      IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 100.50.84.54
      Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0
      Default Gateway . . . . . . : 100.50.80.1
      DHCP Server . . . . . . . . : 100.50.40.9
      Primary WINS Server . . . . : 100.50.16.153
      Secondary WINS Server . . . : 100.50.16.155
      Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : Friday, January 10, 1997 7:29:32 AM
      Lease Expires . . . . . . . : Wednesday, January 29, 1997 7:29:32 AM

To determine which default gateways have been assigned, you can use the ROUTE command by typing the following line at a command prompt:

route print

The following table is a sample of the output from the ROUTE PRINT command:


   Active Routes:

   Network Address          Netmask  Gateway Address     Interface  Metric
           0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      100.50.80.2     100.50.84.54    1
           0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      100.50.80.1     100.50.84.54    1
         127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1        127.0.0.1    1
      100.50.41.50  255.255.255.255      100.50.80.2     100.50.84.54    1
       100.50.80.0    255.255.248.0     100.50.84.54     100.50.84.54    1
      100.50.84.54  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1        127.0.0.1    1
    100.50.255.255  255.255.255.255     100.50.84.54     100.50.84.54    1
         224.0.0.0        224.0.0.0     100.50.84.54     100.50.84.54    1
   255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255     100.50.84.54     100.50.84.54    1

The lines that have a 0.0.0.0 network address indicate that there are two assigned default gateways. The Tracert utility can be used to find out which default gateway is active.

NOTE: Only one of the default gateways is used for each network adapter. If you assign more than one default gateway address, the second address is used only if the Dead Gateway Detection feature determines that the first gateway is not operational.

For more information about dead gateway detection, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q159168 Multiple Default Gateways Can Cause Connectivity Problems

Q128978 Dead Gateway Detection in TCP/IP for Windows NT

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: tcpip

Keywords : kbnetwork kbtool win95 wfwg nttcp
Version : WINDOWS:3.11,95; WINNT:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbprb