How do I read/interpret a (netstat) routing table ?

[Guest Thommy Kanther]

After entering a command

 

netstat -rn

 

on my computer I am getting the following information (see bottom).

 

Ok, I know this routing table is used to direct TCP/IP packets to their destination.

 

But how do I interpret this table ?

 

For example has a routing command line higher priority the lower it is listed in

the table ?

 

Assume on local computer 192.168.0.14 a TCP-IP packet is arriving with the destination

192.168.0.32

 

Starting with the last entry line and going higher step by step the first line which

matches

the destination mask of the two first columns is

 

192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.14 192.168.0.14 30

 

Hmm, from my point of view the routing table says the following: Forward the

packet to computer 192.168.0.14 over interface 192.168.0.14. But what makes this for

a sense? This is the local computer. Why should the packet be forward to itself ?

 

Shouldn't be a the entry line as follows:

 

192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.31 192.168.0.1 30

 

I am a bit confused.

 

Could someone give me a good explanation or direct my to a web pages with

good sample evaluations ?

 

Thank ypu

Thomas

 

 

Active Routes:

Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.14 30

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1

192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.14 192.168.0.14 30

192.168.0.14 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 30

192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.14 30

224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.14 30

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.14 1

Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

===========================================================================

Persistent Routes:

None