Compatible Systems 5.4 - Manual (Page 52)

46 Chapter 2 - IP Routing & Bridging
When you are finished adding entries, making changes, and marking dele-
tions, click OK to store them in CompatiView’s edit area for the device, for
later downloading. If you click Cancel, CompatiView will discard any
changes and additions you made in this dialog box.
v Note: The “default router” is used as a “route of last resort” when your
device cannot determine where an IP packet should be sent. In very simple
routing setups, including connecting small networks to the Internet through
an Internet Service Provider, a default router entry may be the only routing
information required.
Static routes are used to provide information to the device about where IP
packets should be sent when the device itself has not been able to determine
a correct route for them using dynamic routing information acquired through
an IP routing protocol such as RIP.
In cases where the routing metrics (i.e. the number of routing hops to a desti-
nation) are equal between a static route and a dynamic route, Compatible
Systems devices will use the dynamic route.
v Note: Static routes are more difficult to maintain and are generally not as
reliable as dynamically determined routes. We recommend that you use static
routing only when the network does not provide adequate routing information
through RIP.
> Destination
Enter an IP address here in decimal notation for which you wish to provide
static routing information. This can be a network address or an entire host
address (e.g. 198.238.9).
By convention, 0.0.0.0 is used here for a default router entry.
> Mask
Enter a mask value here to tell the device how much of the Destination
Address entry should be considered when determining the route for a packet.
If you simply tab into this field, CompatiView will calculate a standard mask
depending on the class of the Destination Address network. For instance,
255.255.255.0 tells the device to consider only the first three octets of a
packet’s address in determining whether it should be routed to the Gateway.
By convention, 0.0.0.0 is used here for a default router entry.
> Gateway
This section allows you to specify a gateway machine which is responsible
for packets being sent to the Destination Address.
• If IP Address is selected, enter the IP address of the gateway.