How Do I Find Out My Linux Gateway / Router IP Address?

Posted on in Categories , , last updated July 30, 2013

How do I find out my gateway IP for a computer or a network device that allows or controls access to another computer or network under Linux / UNIX operating systems?

A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, a node or stopping point can be either a gateway node or a host (end-point) node. Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve pages to users are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company’s network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway nodes. In the network for an enterprise, a computer server acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server and a firewall server. A gateway is often associated with both a router, which knows where to direct a given packet of data that arrives at the gateway, and a switch, which furnishes the actual path in and out of the gateway for a given packet.

Find out Gateway / router IP address under Linux / UNIX using route command

You need to use route command. This command can manipulates the kernel’s IP routing tables. It can be also use to print gateway / router IP address. Type the following command to see default gateway:
$ route -n
Output:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 ra0
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 ra0

192.168.1.1 is gateway IP address for our computer. The flag U indicates that route is up and G indicates that it is gateway. You can print gateway name, enter:
$ route
Output:

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 ra0
default         wrt             0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 ra0

Second column prints Gateway hostname / IP address. In our example wrt is gateway.

netstat command example to find out gateway/router IP

Open a terminal and type the following command:
# netstat -r -n
Sample outputs:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags   MSS Window  irtt Iface
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.254   0.0.0.0         UG        0 0          0 eth1
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U         0 0          0 eth1

route and netstat command demo

Animated gif 01: Use route and netstat command to find out default gateway/router IP address on Linux
Animated gif 01: Use route and netstat command to find out default gateway/router IP address on Linux

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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36 comment

  5. in our college we have linux proxy server for internet, troughe is a bsnl DSL router. router ip is chenged by our administrator so, i just want to know router ip from my pc which have windows xp for direct internet acsses, can u tell me what i have to do for this? plzzzzzzzzzzz help me.

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    1. there is a way, use a software called colasoft capsa on your computer. It will give all the IP address in use, now try each IP address you think may be a gateway and you will get to the internet. But I just want to know which BSNL router you are using?

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    2. There is one more issue that if you are going through linux proxy server, it is difficult to go through it, remember it is difficult not impossible. Just you have to go 1 step ahead your administrator

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  6. i’m working in corporate office … i want to know ip address of router even some of them told that default gateway is the ip address i telnet it but not connecting … how i have to found the ip address . send to my mail if u have the idea {snip_email_id_removed}

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  24. Hi. I ve seen a couple of very helpful replies here so I was hoping to get an answer to my problem here.

    I am located in Japan and got my self an internet contract. It looks like a DSL router. Though I am not sure what I actually ordered. The usual way to establish connection is only by a CD on Windows. I am pretty sure I can somehow make that darn thing work with Ubuntu as well, I just dont know how.

    If editing a DSL connection to the Network Manager it still doesnt work. But I am not very skilled with that. There I tiped in my User data and thats it. I dont know wether of how to fill out the PPPoE or do it automatically. I also wouldnt know the addresse to fill in here.

    Then I also tried some sudo pppoe config command but that wouldnt help me either. Afterwards I would always have to get to the etc/network/interfaces file to set everything back so that it wouldnt take 10 times longer to start the laptop cause of the wrong network configurations.

    I thought to myself it could be done by accessing the router with an Windows Laptop, but I dont know my neighbours too well to borrow one. However do you think that might be a solution as well ?

    Thanks for your comments in advance

    Walle

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    1. if you plug the router in and turn it on, plug a network cable between your linux computer, it should connect just by using DHCP… The CDs ISPs give out have bloatware like anti-virus, online backup storage (never enough!), dumb wireless managers etc. A network is a netowrk, and there is no need for all the software on the CD…

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