route

Definition of route in The Network Encyclopedia.

What is Route (in computer networking)?

Generally, a specific path along which packets can be forwarded on an internetwork by a router. Specifically, a TCP/IP utility for viewing and modifying the internal routing table on a computer running Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98, or Windows 95. This internal routing table contains routing information that determines how the computer delivers packets to local and remote hosts on the network.

If a multihomed server running Windows 2000 or Windows NT is used, you can use the route command to configure the routing table for static routing. (In Windows 2000, you can also use Routing and Remote Access to configure static routing.)

Example

Typing route print at the command prompt displays the routing table of the local computer. Typing route add 172.16.25.0 mask 255.255.255.0 172.16.10.1 metric 2 adds a new route to the routing table, specifies that any packets destined for the network with network ID 172.16.25.0 should be forwarded to the router interface 172.16.10.1 in the local network, and specifies that packets sent along this route will traverse two hops on the network.