Cisco Show IP Route Command (Routing Table) - Example and Explanation

7/9/2021 Cisco Show IP Route Command (Routing Table)-Example and Explanation
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Cisco Show IP Route Command (Routing Table)-

Example and Explanation
Routing and Switching form the foundation of computer networks and the Internet in general. A
network engineer must know routing principles like the back of his/her hand!!
In this practical tutorial we will discuss the Cisco “show ip route” command which allows a
network engineer to examine the routing table of a router device in a network.

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The core functionality of Layer 3 in the OSI model (Network Layer) is to forward (route) packets
received on an interface of a routing device to the best destination.
It is the router’s job to select the best path that will deliver a packet to its destination as quickly
and efficiently as possible.
This path selection process depends on the destination IP address of the packet received and
the knowledge that the Router has about reaching that destination.
Table of Contents [hide]

https://www.networkstraining.com/cisco-show-ip-route-command/ 1/13
Routing and Routing Tables

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Dynamic Routing
Static Routing
The “show ip route” command explained ABOUT
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Routing Table with RIP
Routing Table with EIGRP
Other “Show IP Route” command options
Routing and Routing Tables

The “knowledge” that a Router has about the way to reach destination networks is stored in the
“Routing Table” of the device.
This Routing Table contains all known destination networks, how they were learned and how to
reach them (outgoing Interface).
The entire process of building this Routing Table relies on the information from neighboring
routers (dynamic routes) or from statically configured entries by the network administrator
(static routes).
This means when a network topology is created, there has to be some kind of configuration for
the devices on that network to communicate with each other.

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The two major options are dynamic routing and static routing – these are basically how routers
learn about routes to destination networks.
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Dynamic Routing
When dynamic routing is used, a routing protocol has to be configured on the Layer3 devices
on the network, in order for them to share routing information.
Some popular routing protocols supported by Cisco routers include Routing Information
Protocol (RIP), Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF), Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
(IGRP) and Extended Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), among others.
When you opt for the implementation of dynamic routing, note that all routers on the network
must be configured with one or more dynamic routing protocols.
If multiple routing protocols are used, then you have to implement what is known as “route
redistribution”, which allows multiple routing protocols to work together and share routing
information.
Although dynamic routing has the advantage of automatically updating the routing table, it has
a disadvantage of overusing router resources due to its nature of sending periodic updates.
When dynamic routing is used, routing information is automatically learned and added to the
routing table.
Static Routing
Static routing deals with the manual configuration of routes by the administrator. This means
routing information is manually inserted into the routing table.

This information includes things such as destination IP addresses, administrative distance or

cost of getting to the destination network, and gateway IP to reach the destination network.
The “show ip route” command explained

Once a routing table is created i.e. there is convergence in the network, a logical topology is
created from the physical network topology.
At this stage, routers on the network will have all the necessary information to forward packets
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they receive to the right destination.
As a network administrator, it is important that you know how to verify

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crucial that you know how to check the routing table to see if you have all the routes needed for
complete network communication to take place.
The “show ip route” command is one of the most important commands related to routing on
Cisco IOS devices in order to show the routing table of the router.
It gives you detailed information about the networks that are known to the router, either directly
connected to the router, statically configured using static routing or automatically added to the
routing table using dynamic routing protocols.
MORE READING: Blocking peer-to-peer using Cisco IOS NBAR - Configuration

Example
Let us take a look at the output from a show ip route command to understand how it works
using the example networks depicted below.
We have two example topologies below, one using RIP and another one using EIGRP so that
to see how the routing table looks in both cases:
Routing Table with RIP

The command was executed on router R2 shown in the figure below.

R2#show ip route
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Codes:
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C – connected, S – static, I – IGRP, R – RIP, M – mobile, B – BGP
D – EIGRP, EX – EIGRP external, O – OSPF, IA – OSPF inter area
N1 – OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 – OSPF NSSA external type 2
E1 – OSPF external type 1, E2 – OSPF external type 2, E – EGP
i – IS-IS, L1 – IS-IS level-1, L2 – IS-IS level-2, ia – IS-IS inter area
* – candidate default, U – per-user static route, o – ODR P – periodic downloaded static route
Gateway of last resort is not set.
C 192.168.1.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0
R 192.168.3.0/24 [120/1] via 192.168.1.1, 00:00:18, Serial0/0/0
R 192.168.4.0/24 [120/2] via 192.168.1.1, 00:00:18, Serial0/0/0
The C in the routing table output means that the networks listed are “directly connected”.
These represent the networks of the IP addresses configured on the physical (or virtual)
interfaces of the device.
The R in the routing table shows destination networks learned via RIP dynamic routing
protocol. If we were running OSPF, the entry would show O instead of R.
So, Router R2 is learning about the other networks via RIP routing protocol, which is depicted
as R in the codes as we’ve said above.
For example, network 192.168.3.0/24 has been learned via 192.168.1.1 and can be reached
via Serial0/0/0. This route has been added to the routing table by RIP.Favorite Posts - Click Here to Che…

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As mentioned earlier, the routing table contains ALL the information about routes that are
known to the router.
Administrative Distance
From the routing table above, notice the number [120/1] shown in the RIP route. This is the
default Administrative Distance of RIP which is 120.
Routing Table with EIGRP

In the following network topology the three routers implement EIGRP to dynamically distribute
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routing information between each other.
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We will not examine how EIGRP is configured but let’s discuss and explain the “show ip route”
output from each router:
R1#show ip route
Codes: C – connected, S – static, I – IGRP, R – RIP, M – mobile, B – BGP

* – candidate default, U – per-user static route, o – ODR
P – periodic downloaded static route
Gateway of last resort is not set
10.0.0.0/30 is subnetted, 2 subnets
C 10.10.10.0 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0
D 10.10.10.4 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:00:09, Serial0/0/0
C 192.168.10.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0
D 192.168.20.0/24 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:00:09, Serial0/0/0
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D 192.168.30.0/24 [90/2174976] via 10.10.10.2, 01:00:09, Serial0/0/0
The routing table of Router R1 shows three networks learnt via EIGRP
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two directly connected routes denoted as C.
For example, destination network 192.168.30.0 is learnt via EIGRP and can be reached via
10.10.10.2 from the Serial0/0/0 interface.
R2#show ip route
C 10.10.10.0 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0
C 10.10.10.4 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/1
D 192.168.10.0/24 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.1, 01:05:11, Serial0/0/0
D 192.168.30.0/24 [90/30720] via 10.10.10.6, 01:12:53, FastEthernet0/1
The second router in the topology shows three directly connected routes and two dynamic
routes from EIGRP.

MORE READING: Configuring NAT on Cisco Routers Step-by-Step (PAT, Static

NAT, Port Redirection)
R3#show ip route
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D 10.10.10.0 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.5, 01:16:22, FastEthernet0/1
C 10.10.10.4 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/1
Administrative Distance
The number [90/2172416] in the EIGRP routes above shows the default administrative
distance of EIGRP which is 90 and the metric value.
Other “Show IP Route” command options

show ip route [ip address] : shows only information about the specified IP address.
show ip route [ospf, rip, eigrp, etc] : shows only routing information learned from the
specified routing protocol (e.g show ip route ospf).
show ip route static : displays information about statically configured routes.
show ip route connected : displays information about directly connected networks.

show ip route summary : shows summary information about ALL IP routes in the routing
table.
Let’s see the above commands on the EIGRP network scenario shown above:
R1#show ip route eigrp
D 10.10.10.4 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:19:53, Serial0/0/0
D 192.168.20.0/24 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:19:53, Serial0/0/0
D 192.168.30.0/24 [90/2174976] via 10.10.10.2, 01:19:53, Serial0/0/0
The above shows only routes learned by EIGRP.

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R1#show ip route connected

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The above displays only directly connected routes.
R1#show ip route summary
IP routing table name is Default-IP-Routing-Table(0)
IP routing table maximum-paths is 16
Route Source Networks Subnets Overhead Memory (bytes)
connected 1 1 144 256
static 0 0 0 0
eigrp 10 2 1 216 384
internal 1 1148
Total 4 2 360 1788
The above displays a summary of all the routes and their source in the routing table.
R1#show ip route 192.168.30.0
Routing entry for 192.168.30.0/24
Known via “eigrp 10“, distance 90, metric 2174976, type internal
Redistributing via eigrp 10
Last update from 10.10.10.2 on Serial0/0/0, 01:30:17 ago
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* 10.10.10.2, from 10.10.10.2, 01:30:17 ago, via Serial0/0/0
Route metric is 2174976, traffic share count is 1
Total delay is 20200 microseconds, minimum bandwidth is 1544

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Reliability 255/255, minimum MTU 1500 bytes
Loading 1/255, Hops 2
If you insert a specific destination network in the command (for example 192.168.30.0 as
shown above) then you will get all details about how this destination network is learned by the
device. In our example above, network 192.168.30.0 is known via EIGRP process 10, from
interface Serial0/0/0.
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He is a self-published author of two books ("Cisco ASA Firewall Fundamentals" and "Cisco VPN
Configuration Guide") which are available on Amazon and on this website as well.
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7/9/2021 Cisco Show IP Route Command (Routing Table)-Example and Explanation

Cisco Show IP Route Command (Routing Table)-

Table of Contents [hide]

Routing and Routing Tables

Routing and Routing Tables

This information includes things such as destination IP addresses, administrative distance or

The “show ip route” command explained

As a network administrator, it is important that you know how to verify

MORE READING: Blocking peer-to-peer using Cisco IOS NBAR - Configuration

Routing Table with RIP

D – EIGRP, EX – EIGRP external, O – OSPF, IA – OSPF inter area

N1 – OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 – OSPF NSSA external type 2

E1 – OSPF external type 1, E2 – OSPF external type 2, E – EGP

i – IS-IS, L1 – IS-IS level-1, L2 – IS-IS level-2, ia – IS-IS inter area

C 192.168.1.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0

C 192.168.2.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/1/0

R 192.168.3.0/24 [120/1] via 192.168.1.1, 00:00:18, Serial0/0/0

R 192.168.4.0/24 [120/2] via 192.168.1.1, 00:00:18, Serial0/0/0

Routing Table with EIGRP

Codes: C – connected, S – static, I – IGRP, R – RIP, M – mobile, B – BGP

D – EIGRP, EX – EIGRP external, O – OSPF, IA – OSPF inter area

N1 – OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 – OSPF NSSA external type 2

E1 – OSPF external type 1, E2 – OSPF external type 2, E – EGP

i – IS-IS, L1 – IS-IS level-1, L2 – IS-IS level-2, ia – IS-IS inter area

* – candidate default, U – per-user static route, o – ODR

P – periodic downloaded static route

Gateway of last resort is not set

10.0.0.0/30 is subnetted, 2 subnets

C 10.10.10.0 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0

D 10.10.10.4 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:00:09, Serial0/0/0

C 192.168.10.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0

D 192.168.20.0/24 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.2, 01:00:09, Serial0/0/0

Codes: C – connected, S – static, I – IGRP, R – RIP, M – mobile, B – BGP

D – EIGRP, EX – EIGRP external, O – OSPF, IA – OSPF inter area

N1 – OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 – OSPF NSSA external type 2

E1 – OSPF external type 1, E2 – OSPF external type 2, E – EGP

i – IS-IS, L1 – IS-IS level-1, L2 – IS-IS level-2, ia – IS-IS inter area

* – candidate default, U – per-user static route, o – ODR

P – periodic downloaded static route

Gateway of last resort is not set

10.0.0.0/30 is subnetted, 2 subnets

C 10.10.10.0 is directly connected, Serial0/0/0

C 10.10.10.4 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/1

D 192.168.10.0/24 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.1, 01:05:11, Serial0/0/0

C 192.168.20.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0

D 192.168.30.0/24 [90/30720] via 10.10.10.6, 01:12:53, FastEthernet0/1

MORE READING: Configuring NAT on Cisco Routers Step-by-Step (PAT, Static

Codes: C – connected, S – static, I – IGRP, R – RIP, M – mobile, B – BGP

D – EIGRP, EX – EIGRP external, O – OSPF, IA – OSPF inter area

N1 – OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 – OSPF NSSA external type 2

E1 – OSPF external type 1, E2 – OSPF external type 2, E – EGP

i – IS-IS, L1 – IS-IS level-1, L2 – IS-IS level-2, ia – IS-IS inter area

P – periodic downloaded static route

10.0.0.0/30 is subnetted, 2 subnets

D 10.10.10.0 [90/2172416] via 10.10.10.5, 01:16:22, FastEthernet0/1

C 10.10.10.4 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/1

D 192.168.10.0/24 [90/2174976] via 10.10.10.5, 01:16:22, FastEthernet0/1

D 192.168.20.0/24 [90/30720] via 10.10.10.5, 01:15:40, FastEthernet0/1

C 192.168.30.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0

Other “Show IP Route” command options

show ip route static : displays information about statically configured routes.

show ip route connected : displays information about directly connected networks.

R1#show ip route eigrp