1

Output of route print on my Windows XP machine:

>route print
...
Network address       Network Mask          Gateway       Interface   Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0     37.44.40.247    37.44.40.247       1
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0   172.31.103.254   172.31.102.43       21
...

What is the logic of notation of interface as IP? What is the relation between them?

Nelson Tatius
  • 1,157
  • 5
  • 13
  • 30

1 Answers1

4

There are basically three ways to identify a network interface: Vendor ID, MAC address, and IP address. Only the IP address has any kind of semantic meaning in the context of a network route. "Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet" (Vendor ID) or 00-1C-C5-33-21-52 (MAC address) wouldn't be any more helpful, would they?

DevSolar
  • 4,440
  • 5
  • 29
  • 38
  • And of course you can normally find the corresponding `Description` and `Physical Address` (MAC address) in the list displayed by `ipconfig /all`. – Bob Jul 18 '12 at 11:00
  • So what is the relation? Why exactly `37.44.40.247` in my table? – Nelson Tatius Jul 18 '12 at 11:14
  • @Lescott: Uh, ok... so you don't know how IP addresses are formed *at all*? That's a quite different subject, and you should probably ask a new question for it. No, wait... first check out "DHCP", ok? In one line, there is no deterministic logic behind it, IP addresses are somewhat random (within a specific range). – DevSolar Jul 18 '12 at 11:24
  • @Lescott The IP address is the address assigned to the interface, whether manually or automatically (e.g. DHCP). The interface can be (for example) a virtual or physical network card. – Bob Jul 18 '12 at 11:29
  • Check out my answer to this question: http://superuser.com/questions/206431/ethernet-vs-tcp-vs-ip/449730#449730 – LawrenceC Jul 18 '12 at 11:31