gateway of last resort

[9826024006]

Can any one tell me what is the difference between Gateway of last resort & default gateway with respect to routers & can we set both on a router ??

can we define default gateway on layer 2 switch ?and if we define default gateway on layer 2 what is the use of that?

one more query does layer 2 switch contain arp table?? if yes y it is used?

please help me out to get answers of all these.

Thanks
Ninja

 

[chieftan999]

I am not 100% sure about this but I believe the gateway of last resort is set so that if the router cannot find a route to a network it goes to the gateway of last resort address.

the default gateway is where you want the packets to go to first.

Reamin positive. The affect on those around you will amaze.

 

[reliancetech]

Yes you can define default gateway on layer 2 switch. (which switch you are using IOS should support). Cisco 2950 and + switches do support this. Seting default gateway in large networks are more easy to manage the switch than specifing routes.

Layer 2 switch always contains a ARP table and why??? well you need IP to convert to MAC as layer 2 function. ARP table will contain the last data of what is a IP address of perticular MAC address.

But your first question is realy intresting ... I understand as gateway to last resort is as default route of 0.0.0.0, It is same.

 

[schofs]

Default Gateway (ip default-gateway x.x.x.x)
In order for this command to function ip routing must be disabled. basically when you router is being a host on the network. think of it acting like a PC. It needs to have a default-gateway in order to get out of its local network.

Gateway of Last Resort (ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 next-hop-ip/exit-interface)
This command requires ip routing to be enabled. This command sets a default route for anything not in your routing table. After this command is entered it will show a "gateway of last resort" configured in your ip route table.

The other two questins I concur to reliancetech....