On a Windows host, the route print or netstat -r command can be used to display the host routing table. Both commands generate the same output. The output may seem overwhelming at first, but is fairly simple to understand.
Entering the netstat -r command or the equivalent route print command, displays three sections related to the current TCP/IP network connections:
- Interface List - Lists the Media Access Control (MAC) address and assigned interface number of every network-capable interface on the host including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth adapters.
- IPv4 Route Table - Lists all known IPv4 routes, including direct connections, local network, and local default routes.
- IPv6 Route Table - Lists all known IPv6 routes, including direct connections, local network, and local default routes.
Note: Command output varies, depending on how the host is configured and the interface types it has.
The figure displays the IPv4 Route Table section of the output. Notice the output is divided into five columns which identify:
- Network Destination - Lists the reachable networks.
- Netmask - Lists a subnet mask that informs the host how to determine the network and the host portions of the IP address.
- Gateway - Lists the address used by the local computer to get to a remote network destination. If a destination is directly reachable, it will show as “on-link” in this column.
- Interface - Lists the address of the physical interface used to send the packet to the gateway that is used to reach the network destination.
- Metric - Lists the cost of each route and is used to determine the best route to a destination.