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What's the difference between Default route and static route?

fanli800510
Level 1
Level 1

Hi

I wondered I read the the concept a lot of times, but I don't get it. Does someone could explain me detailed. Thanks a lot.

Mike

4 Replies 4

paul.matthews
Level 5
Level 5

There is not a lot of detail to be honest. the two are quite different.

A default route is a route that will match ANYTHING - typically 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0, That can be manually configured or generated by a routing protocol. An OSPF Totally Stubby Area will have an automatically generated default route.

A static route is one that has been manually configured. in a Cisco router that would be by emtering the command

ip route

In a routing table, the letter at the left identifies the source of the route. A static route will be identified by the letter S.

Most default routes will also be static, but that is not true the other way round.

Paul.

I like the way that Paul explained default route in identifying 2 important characteristics of default route:

- a default route is a route that matches anything.

- a default route may be statically configured or may be advertised by a dynamic routing protocol.

I would add that the routing logic of IOS is to search the routing table for the most specific match. If there is no specific match and if there is a default route in the routing table then IOS will use the default route to make the forwarding decision.

I would suggest that there are equivalent characteristics of static routes:

- a static route is manually configured not dynamically learned.

- a static route may be a default route, or it may be a route to a supernet, to a specific network, to a specific subnet, or to a specific host.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

Hi Rick,

That was great explanation.

Thanks,

Vijaybabu

Vijaybabu

Thank you for the compliment (and thank you for the rating). These are two important concepts and it is important to have a good understanding of each one.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick
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