How to check , add or delete routes in the Windows routing table using powershell

Table of contents

• Introduction
• How to check windows routing table from powershell
• How to add new routes in windows routing table from powershell
• How to modify added routes in windows routing table from powershell
• How to delete routes in windows routing table from powershell
• Conclusion

Introduction

Checking , adding or deleting the routes in the host windows machines routing table is a key skill for any system engineer or the network admin. In this article we will see how to do those with practical examples

How to check windows routing table from powershell 

There are two command we can use to check the windows routing table entries from the powershell

• route print 
• netstat -rn 

Here is an example of using route print to check the windows routing table from the powershell 

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
 27...00 50 56 c0 00 01 ......VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
  9...00 50 56 c0 00 08 ......VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0         10.0.0.1       10.0.0.166     40
         10.0.0.0    255.255.255.0         On-link        10.0.0.166    296
       10.0.0.166  255.255.255.255         On-link        10.0.0.166    296

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.
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Here is an example of using netstat -rn  to check the windows routing table from the powershell 

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> netstat -rn
===========================================================================
Interface List
 27...00 50 56 c0 00 01 ......VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
  9...00 50 56 c0 00 08 ......VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0         10.0.0.1       10.0.0.166     40
         10.0.0.0    255.255.255.0         On-link        10.0.0.166    296
       10.0.0.166  255.255.255.255         On-link        10.0.0.166    296

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.
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How to add new routes in windows routing table from powershell 

Here is a practical example on how to add a route 10.123.0.0/16 pointing to the nexthop 10.0.0.1 in windows routing table using the powershell

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route add 10.123.0.0 mask 255.255.0.0 10.0.0.1 metric 3
 
OK!

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route print 10.123.0.0
.
.
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
       10.123.0.0      255.255.0.0         10.0.0.1       10.0.0.166     43
===========================================================================
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How to modify added routes in windows routing table from powershell 

Here is a practical example on how to modify a route 10.123.0.0/16 to make it point to the new nexthop 10.0.0.2  in windows routing table using the powershell

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route change 10.123.0.0 mask 255.255.0.0 10.0.0.2 metric 3

 OK!

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route print 10.123.0.0
.
.
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
       10.123.0.0      255.255.0.0         10.0.0.2       10.0.0.166     48
===========================================================================
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How to delete routes in windows routing table from powershell 

Here is a practical example on how to delete a route 10.123.0.0/16 pointing to the nexthop 10.0.0.1 in windows routing table using the powershell

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route delete 10.123.0.0
 
OK!

PS C:\Users\Public\Discovering-systems> route print 10.123.0.0
.
.
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
  None
===========================================================================
.
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Conclusion

In this article we explored the steps to Check , add or delete routes in the windows routing table using the powershell. 

If you are interested in more cool things we can do from the Windows Powershell ,  please go through the following links 

How to use windows command prompt and powershell for SCP file transfer

How to create, delete or list the files from Windows Powershell

How to use netstat in powershell for checking listened port numbers and active connections 

How to check , add or delete arp entries in powershell