Add network routes
Sometimes a route needs to be manually configured in order to reach network nodes behind gateways/firewalls.
To do this you specify that to reach a certain subnet you need to go through a certain gateway.
In the following sections $SUBNET
should be replaced with subnet (ip range) using either CIDR notation or subnet mask.
$GATEWAY
should be replaced with gateway's IP address.
These instructions assume that you are using IPv4 addresses.
Subnet syntax
CIDR notation
From: Subnetwork.
The routing prefix may be expressed in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation written as the first address of a network, followed by a slash character (/), and ending with the bit-length of the prefix. For example, 198.51.100.0/24 is the prefix of the Internet Protocol version 4 network starting at the given address, having 24 bits allocated for the network prefix, and the remaining 8 bits reserved for host addressing. Addresses in the range 198.51.100.0 to 198.51.100.255 belong to this network, with 198.51.100.255 as the subnet broadcast address. The IPv6 address specification 2001:db8::/32 is a large address block with 296 addresses, having a 32-bit routing prefix.
Subnet mask
From: Subnetwork.
For IPv4, a network may also be characterized by its subnet mask or netmask, which is the bitmask that, when applied by a bitwise AND operation to any IP address in the network, yields the routing prefix. Subnet masks are also expressed in dot-decimal notation like an IP address. For example, the prefix 198.51.100.0/24 would have the subnet mask 255.255.255.0.
Windows
Use subnet mask, $SUBNET should be the route with 0 replacing variable parts of the IP. E.g. 192.168.X.0.
- Open administrative shell: Press Alt+X and select “Command Prompt (Admin)”/“Windows Powershell (Admin)”.
- Run
route -p ADD $SUBNET MASK $SUBNET_MASK $GATEWAY
(the switch-p
makes the route persistent)
Mac
Use CIDR notation.
- Open a terminal
- Run
sudo route -n add -net $SUBNET $GATEWAY
Linux
Use CIDR notation.
Temporarily via ip route (Most distros)
- Open a terminal.
- Find your preferred device using
ip link
(enp* or eth* for ethernet and wlp* or wifi* for wireless) - Store choosen interface by running
DEVICE=enpXsY
sudo ip route add $SUBNET via $GATEWAY dev “$DEVICE”
NetworkManager persistent (Most distros)
- Open a terminal.
- Find your preferred connection using
nmcli connection show
(e.g.Wired Connection 1
- Store choosen interface by running
CONNECTION=“Wired Connection 1”
sudo nmcli connection modify “$CONNECTION” +ipv4.routes “$SUBNET $GATEWAY”
Netplan persistent route (Ubuntu/cloud init)
- Open a terminal.
- Find your preferred device using
ip link
(enp* or eth* for ethernet and wlp* or wifi* for wireless). - Replace enpXsY in YAML snippet below with chosen device.
Add the following to /etc/netplan/new_route.yaml
(needs to be edited with sudo, any file name is fine with extension yaml/yml)
network: version: 2 ethernets: enpXsY: routes: - to: $SUBNET via: $GATEWAY
Then run sudo netplan apply
.