> On Fri, 2003-10-24 at 00:00, Nick Rout wrote: >> yes its been lingering in my mind as to why exactly there is a default >> route set before the gateway to the outside world goes up? > > With IP, you only *need* a loopback interface - all other interfaces can > be virtual, not physical. > > So the presence of IP implies loopback, which implies a default route to > loopback. The "inside world" is always present - the "outside world" is > not. > > When you install new interfaces, it's up to the installer to nominate > the new default route. > > (Yes, leaving a default route to loopback isn't necesarily that useful, > but it always works)
I'm not quite sure how this relates to default routes, but pointing your default route at your loopback device is almost definitely thing wrong thing to do. There is no need to have a default route at all, if you are on a small network with no external connectivity you may not have one. So if you've just got an ethernet card 90% of the time, which is attached to a single closed subnet, and occasionally dial up via a modem, then you really should not assign the default route to your ethernet card. Just don't have one, let pppd sort that out for you. Andre
