swamprattakate
asked on
Addition default Gateways... What's the point?
Like the tile says "What's the point?" In Windows XP you can configure a NIC to have multiple default gateways. And it so happens that my network has 2. But it doesn't seem to matter how many gateways you add, because it will always use the first one. Here is an example:
"Computer A" is using default gateway "192.168.123.1"
"Computer B" is using default gateway "192.168.123.2"
"Webserver" is using default gateway "192.168.123.1" and hosts www.fakewebsite.com (this is obviously fake)
"Ftpserver" is using default gateway "192.168.123.2" and hosts ftp.fakeftpsite.com
Computer B goes to http://www.fakewebsite.com it works fine.
Computer A goes to http://www.fakewebsite.com it doesnt't work (and I don't expect it to)
Computer A goes to ftp://ftp.fakeftpsite.com it works fine.
Computer B goes to ftp://ftp.fakeftpsite.com it doesnt't work (again, I don't expect it to)
I thought if I added the other gateways to each Computer's NIC it would work around this problem of client and server being on the same default gateway.
WRONG!!!!
So... what is it used for?
"Computer A" is using default gateway "192.168.123.1"
"Computer B" is using default gateway "192.168.123.2"
"Webserver" is using default gateway "192.168.123.1" and hosts www.fakewebsite.com (this is obviously fake)
"Ftpserver" is using default gateway "192.168.123.2" and hosts ftp.fakeftpsite.com
Computer B goes to http://www.fakewebsite.com it works fine.
Computer A goes to http://www.fakewebsite.com it doesnt't work (and I don't expect it to)
Computer A goes to ftp://ftp.fakeftpsite.com it works fine.
Computer B goes to ftp://ftp.fakeftpsite.com it doesnt't work (again, I don't expect it to)
I thought if I added the other gateways to each Computer's NIC it would work around this problem of client and server being on the same default gateway.
WRONG!!!!
So... what is it used for?
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SOLUTION
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ASKER
Since my question "What's the point of multiple gateways?" has morphed into a much larger problem involving DNS and Subnetting, I am going to split the points because technically "Dead Gateway Detection" was the answer to the original question. But, I got a lot more information about my real problem, and the solution came with changinge the settings on our DNS server. So thanks.
swamprattakate: Thanks for the "A". Glad I could help and that you got it sorted in the end :-)
ASKER
There are 2 DSL routers on the network, and they both are using NAT.
The LAN address of "Router 1" is 192.168.123.1 and the WAN address is 64.41.229.110
The LAN address of "Router 2" is 192.168.123.1 and the WAN address is 64.41.223.242
So when Computer B requests http://www.fakewebsite.com it works fine. Because it connects to the internet thru Router 2, the url resolves to 64.41.229.110, Router 1 using NAT routes the request to Webserver.
But when Computer A requests http://www.fakewebsite.com it works fine. Because it connects to the internet thru Router 1, "the page cannot be displayed"
So to solve my problem, maybe Multiple Gateways is not the solution, because, as you said, it is for when it cannot connect to the first Router. Is there a way to make the url resolve to the local IP address of the server without changing all of the HOST files on each computer?