Adding network routes on Windows, OS X and GNU/Linux

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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 - Wikipedia.

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 - Wikipedia.

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.

Platforms

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 chosen 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.