There can only be ONE (1) DEFAULT GATEWAY in Windows, but there can be MULTIPLE network gateways via the Windows ROUTE command.
If you need to have access to two separate networks via two different network adapters the Windows OS network adapter settings GUI will give an ERROR message if you attempt to set a default gateway on the second adapter. Why? Well, there can only be one "default" gateway. However, you CAN have multiple networks each with their own individual gateway setting. The "default" gateway is the one used LAST by Windows, i.e. if all other gateways fail, use this "default gateway". The trick to setting this up properly is the use of the Windows ROUTE command. You must open an elevated command prompt to run this command via Run As Administrator.
*note: I've used , in stead of . in the IP addresses so that browsers won't create hyperlinks. Substitute . for , in replicating the commands.
Example:
ROUTE PRINT
this gives you the current status of all routes on your system
ROUTE ADD 192,168,1,0 MASK 255,255,255,0 192,168,1,99
this command will add 192,168,1,99 as the gateway for the 192,168,1,0/24 network
ROUTE -p ADD 192,168,1,0 MASK 255,255,255,0 192,168,1,99
by adding the -p this makes the added route PERSISTENT, meaning it will survive a system reboot
ROUTE DELETE 192,168,1,0
this will delete the added route for the 192,168,1,0 network along with its associated gateway
The order of route processing is determined by the METRIC value assigned to the route, with lower value numbers being processed before higher value numbers. If you want your newly added route to be processed before other routes, change the route metrics to manually determine route order processing.
If you need to have access to two separate networks via two different network adapters the Windows OS network adapter settings GUI will give an ERROR message if you attempt to set a default gateway on the second adapter. Why? Well, there can only be one "default" gateway. However, you CAN have multiple networks each with their own individual gateway setting. The "default" gateway is the one used LAST by Windows, i.e. if all other gateways fail, use this "default gateway". The trick to setting this up properly is the use of the Windows ROUTE command. You must open an elevated command prompt to run this command via Run As Administrator.
*note: I've used , in stead of . in the IP addresses so that browsers won't create hyperlinks. Substitute . for , in replicating the commands.
Example:
ROUTE PRINT
this gives you the current status of all routes on your system
ROUTE ADD 192,168,1,0 MASK 255,255,255,0 192,168,1,99
this command will add 192,168,1,99 as the gateway for the 192,168,1,0/24 network
ROUTE -p ADD 192,168,1,0 MASK 255,255,255,0 192,168,1,99
by adding the -p this makes the added route PERSISTENT, meaning it will survive a system reboot
ROUTE DELETE 192,168,1,0
this will delete the added route for the 192,168,1,0 network along with its associated gateway
The order of route processing is determined by the METRIC value assigned to the route, with lower value numbers being processed before higher value numbers. If you want your newly added route to be processed before other routes, change the route metrics to manually determine route order processing.
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