Specifying 2 default gateways with the same metric

[Gary]

For my Win2k client running DHCP, if I use my advanced TCP/IP settings to
specify two default gateways, (one for home, one for the office) and give
them the same metric, I would expect that if Windows could not find one
gateway, it would use the other. Or it would use whatever gateway the DHCP
server gave it. It does not appear to work. It sits on the first gateway
that is listed and appears to never attempt a connection to the second one.
Even though the first one cannot be pinged.

The following is from the Microsoft Windows 2000 Administrator's Pocket
consultant page 348.

"If the computer can't communicate with the initial gateway, Windows 2000
tries to use the gateway with the next lowest metric."

The book shows an example with two gateways with metric equal to 1 and a
third with a metric of 2. It also shows static IP addresses, which is not
what I'm using, but I would think that if specifying multiple gateways while
using DHCP was not allowed, Windows would not allow me to specify multiple
gateways while DHCP is active.

Any ideas as to why this doesn't work? Or perhaps a good book or web site
that explains in greater detail how Windows TCP/IP networking works? Once
again, I am baffled by the unintuitive nature of Windows networking.

Gary

 

[Marc Reynolds [MSFT]]

Hi,

Here are a couple of good articles on the topic:

157025 Default Gateway Configuration for Multihomed Computers
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=157025

159168 Multiple Default Gateways Can Cause Connectivity Problems
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=159168

Thanks,
Marc Reynolds
Microsoft Technical Support

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