hi. i have this setup on 2 machines
Machine A \ eth0 ---> Switch --> Router A(65.xxx.xx.x.x) --> Internet \ eth1 --> Switch --> Router B (63.xx.x.x.x.x) --> Internet Machine B \ eth0 --> Switch --> Router A (65.xx.x.x.x.x) --> internet \ eth1 --> Switch --> Router B (63.xx.x.x.x) --> internet what i can't figure out is how to get it so if one route fails it will take the other. i have routed installed but im not sure if it will do what i want. what i have: /sbin/route add -net 0.0.0.0 netmask 0.0.0.0 gw MY_GATEWAY metric 0 /sbin/route add -net 0.0.0.0 netmask 0.0.0.0 gw ALT_GATEWAY metric 1 so i ssh to a machien it shows me comming from MY_GATEWAY's ip network. so i unplug the router, and try to ssh. nothing. try to ping using -i, nothing. once i remove the route to MY_GATEWAY i can ping/ssh again. each interface has a different IP address. its not really multihomed in the sense that to the outside world i have 1 ip address and it can be reached through either provider (2 different T1 providers) i just want failover route setup. /etc/gateway's manpage: /etc/gateways is comprised of a series of lines, each in the following format: [ net | host ] name1 gateway name2 metric value [ passive | active | external ] The net or host keyword indicates if the route is to a network or specific host. Name1 is the name of the destination network or host. This may be a symbolic name located in /etc/networks or /etc/hosts that doesn't seem to do what i want as both networks will be '0.0.0.0'. from route's manpage: metric M set the metric field in the routing table (used by routing daemons) to M. from the looks of it routed just does RIP on linux which is not what i want. my routers are setup to use static routing, so there is no routing protocols in use. in simple: if route 1 fails i want to use route 2 instead. oh and im running debian 2.2r3/linux.2.2.19 on 1 machine and debian testing(a month or so old) with 2.2.19 on the other. maybe there is another 'routing daemon' that i could use? thanks! nate