L

Lab - Vie
ewing Host
H
Rou
uting Tables
T
Topology

O
Objectives
Part 1: Ac
ccess the Ho
ost Routing Table
T
Part 2: Ex
xamine IPv4 Host Routin
ng Table Entrries
Part 3: Ex
xamine IPv6 Host Routin
ng Table Entrries

B
Backgroun
nd / Scenarrio
To access
s a resource on
o a network,, your host will determine tthe route to th
he destination
n host using itts routing
table. The
e host routing table is similar to that of a router, but iss specific to th
he local host and much lesss
complex. For a packet to reach a loc
cal destinatio
on, the local h ost routing ta
able is require
ed. To reach a remote
destinatio
on, both the lo
ocal host routing table and the router rou
uting table are
e required. Th
he netstat rr and
route prin
nt commands
s provide insig
ght into how your
y
local hosst routes packkets to the de
estination.
In this lab
b, you will disp
play and exam
mine the inforrmation in the host routing table of your PC using the
e netstat
r and route print com
mmands. You will determin
ne how packe ts will be routted by your P
PC depending on the
destinatio
on address.
Note: This
s lab cannot be
b completed
d using Netlab
b. This lab asssumes that yo
ou have Interrnet access.

R
Required Resources
R

1 PC (Windows 7, Vista, or XP with

w Internet and
a comman d prompt acccess)

P
Part 1: Access
A
th
he Host Routing
R
Table
S
Step 1: Re
ecord your PC
P informattion.
On your PC,
P open a co
ommand prom
mpt window and type the ip
pconfig /all ccommand to d
display the folllowing
informatio
on and record it:
IPv4 Add
dress
MAC Add
dress
Default Gateway
G

S
Step 2: Dis
splay the ro
outing tables.
In a comm
mand prompt window type the netstat r
(or route p rint) comman
nd to display the host routiing table.

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L
Lab - Viewing
g Host Routing Tables

What are the three sec

ctions displaye
ed in the outp
put?

S
Step 3: Examine the Interface Lis
st.
The first section,
s
Interfa
ace List, disp
plays the Media Access Co
ontrol (MAC) addresses an
nd assigned in
nterface
number of every netwo
ork-capable in
nterface on the host.

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Page 2 of 6

L
Lab - Viewing
g Host Routing Tables
The first column
c
is the interface num
mber. The sec
cond column is the list of M
MAC addresse
es associated
d with the
network-c
capable interfa
aces on the hosts.
h
These interfaces
i
can
n include Ethe
ernet, Wi-Fi a
and Bluetooth
h
adapters. The third column shows th
he manufactu
urer and a desscription of th
he interface.
In this exa
ample, the firs
st line display
ys the wireless
s interface tha
at is connecte
ed to the loca
al network.
Note: If yo
ou have a PC
C with an Ethe
ernet interface
e and a Wirel ess adapter e
enabled, both
h interfaces w
would be
listed in th
he Interface List.
L
What is th
he MAC addre
ess of the inte
erface connec
cted to your lo
ocal network?
? How does th
he MAC addrress
compare to
t the recorde
ed MAC address in Step 1?

nd line is loop
pback interfac
ce. The loopback interface is automatica
ally assigned an IP addresss of
The secon
127.0.0.1 when the Tra
ansmission Control
C
Protocol/Internet Prrotocol (TCP/IIP) is running
g on a host.
The last fo
our lines represent transitio
on technology
y that allows communicatio
on in a mixed
d environmentt and
includes IPv4 and IPv6
6.

P
Part 2: Examine
E
IPv4
I
Host Routing
g Table E
Entries
In Part 2, you will exam
mine the IPv4 host routing table. This ta ble is in the ssecond sectio
on as a result of the
netstat rr output. It listts all the know
wn IPv4 route
es, including d
direct connecctions, local ne
etwork, and lo
ocal
default routes.

ut is divided in
n five columns
s: Network De
estination, Ne
etmask, Gate
eway, Interfacce, and Metricc.
The outpu

The Network
N
Destination column lists the rea
achable netwo
ork. The Netw
work Destinattion is used w
with
Netmask to match the destinatio
on IP address
s.

The Netmask
N
lists the subnet mask
m
that the host
h
uses to d
determine the
e network and
d host portions of the
IP add
dress.

The Gateway
G
colum
mn lists the address
a
that th
he host uses to send the p
packets to a re
emote network
destin
nation. If a destination is directly connec
cted, the gate
eway is listed as On-link in the output.

The In
nterface colum
mn lists the IP
P address tha
at is configure
ed on the loca
al network ada
aptor. This is used to
forward a packet on
o the network
k.

The Metric
M
column lists the costt of using a ro
oute. It is used
d to calculate
e the best routte to a destina
ation. A
preferrred route has
s a lower mettric number th
han other routtes listed.

The outpu
ut displays five different typ
pes of active routes:
r

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Lab - Viewing Host Routing Tables

The local default route 0.0.0.0 is used when the packet does not match other specified addresses in the
routing table. The packet will be sent to the gateway from the PC for further processing. In this example,
the packet will be sent to 192.168.1.1 from 192.168.1.11.

The loopback addresses, 127.0.0.0 127.255.255.255, are related to direct connection and provide
services to the local host.

The addresses for the subnet, 192.168.1.0 192.168.1.255, are all related to the host and the local
network. If the final destination of the packet is in the local network, the packet will exit 192.168.1.11
interface.
-

The local route address 192.168.1.0 represents all devices on the 192.168.1.0/24 network.

The address of the local host is 192.168.1.11.

The network broadcast address 192.168.1.255 is used to send messages to all the hosts on the local
network.

The special multicast class D addresses 224.0.0.0 are reserved for use through either the loopback
interface (127.0.0.1) or the host (192.168.1.11).

The local broadcast address 255.255.255.255 can be used through either the loopback interface
(127.0.0.1) or host (192.168.1.11).

Based on the contents of the IPv4 routing table, if the PC wanted to send a packet to 192.168.1.15, what
would it do and where would it send the packet?

If the PC wanted to send a packet to a remote host located at 172.16.20.23, what would it do and where
would it send the packet?

Part 3: Examine IPv6 Host Routing Table Entries

In Part 3, you will examine the IPv6 routing table. This table is in the third section displayed in the netstat r
output. It lists all the known IPv6 routes including direct connections, local network and local default routes.

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L
Lab - Viewing
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The outpu
ut of the IPv6 Route Table differs in colu
umn headingss and format because the IPv6 addressses are
128 bits versus
v
only 32
2 bits for IPv4
4 addresses. The
T IPv6 Rou
ute Table secction displays four columnss:

The Iff column lists the interface numbers of the

t IPv6-enab
bled network interfaces fro
om the Interface List
sectio
on of the nets
stat r comma
and.

The Metric
M
column lists the costt of each route
e to a destina
ation. The low
wer cost is the
e preferred route, and
the metric
m
is used to
t select betw
ween multiple routes with t he same preffix.

The Network
N
Destination column lists the add
dress prefix fo
or the route.

The Gateway
G
lists the next-hop IPv6 address
s to reach the
e destination. On-link is listted as the nexxt-hop
addre
ess if it is direc
ctly connected to the host.

In this exa
ample, the figure displays the
t IPv6 Route Table secttion generated
d by the nets
stat r comm
mand to
reveal the
e following network destina
ations:

::/0: This
T
is the IPv
v6 equivalent of the local de
efault route. T
The Gatewayy column provvides the link-local
addre
ess of the defa
ault router.

::1/12
28: This is equ
uivalent to the
e IPv4 loopba
ack address a
and provides sservices to the local host.

2001::/32: This is the

t global unic
cast network prefix.

2001:0:9d38:6ab8:1863:3bca:3ff57:fef4/128: This is the glo

obal unicast IIPv6 addresss of the local ccomputer.

fe80::/64: This is th
he local link network route address and represents a
all computers on the local-link IPv6
netwo
ork.

fe80::1863:3bca:3ff57:fef4/128: This
T
is the link-local IPv6 a
address of the
e local compu
uter.

ff00:://8: These are special reserrved multicast class D add

dresses equivvalent to the IP
Pv4 224.x.x.xx
addre
esses.

The host routing table for IPv6 has similar

s
inform
mation as the IIPv4 routing ttable. What iss the local deffault route
for IPv4 and what is it for
f IPv6?

What is th
he loopback address
a
and subnet
s
mask for
f IPv4? Wha
at is the loopb
back IP addre
ess for IPv6?

How many IPv6 addres

sses have been assigned to this PC?

How many broadcast addresses

a
does the IPv6 ro
outing table ccontain?

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Page 5 of 6

Lab - Viewing Host Routing Tables

Reflection
1. How is the number of bits for the network indicated for IPv4. How is it done for IPv6?

2. Why is there both IPv4 and IPv6 information in the host routing tables?

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Page 6 of 6