Hello - Having a strange issue: Scenario: Existing LAN subnet has two routers - .1 is the default gateway (cisco router) connecting to a MetroE network , and .2 is a router (nortel router) connecting to a private municipal network. All operating systems before Windows 7 work just fine, but the first machine we deployed with Windows 7 running is having issues connecting to resources on other subnets. While troubleshooting, I noticed that a traceroute shows traffic being sent through .2 to other subnets even though .2 isnt the gateway, and there are NO static route entries in the routing table other than the default gateway entry. The output of the 'route print' command shows that the default gateway is .1 -- and all other routes are listed as pointing to "On-link" - which is something new with the Windows 7 OS. I thought it may be related to the new 'Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper' service which is enabled by default in Windows 7, so I disabled it, flushed the routing table <route -f>, and then ensured that .1 was the only entry in the routing table. Still, the issues persist. I need to understand how/why Windows 7 is behaving differently than previous Win OS - and causing issues. Somehow it is learning that .2 is a router and thinks it should send traffic to that path instead of the hard-coded default gateway. This is undesirable in our situation and is causing applications to stop functioning and intranet services to become unavailable to the Windows 7 machine. Any assistance/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks! Jonathan

As a rough and untested guess, this command might fix the issue: route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 metric 1 -p where 192.168.0.1 would be your preferred gateway. _________________________ If this response resolves your problem, please click "Propose as answer" so that the thread can be closed. Thanks.

Nope... didnt resolve the issue. I added this route with the low metric and Windows 7 still sent traffic through the incorrect path at .2 - As a test we disconnected the router with the .2 interface and as soon as that device was off the network - Windows 7 changed its routing decision to send through .1 (the correct path as defined by the NIC's default gateway) - and all applications started working again... this is not a solution though because we need that device to remain on the network for other reasons. So basically, the questions are now: 1) Why is windows 7 making a routing decision to send through an alternative gateway even when a static route with a metric 1 is defined and pointed to the default gateway? 2) How can an administrator get past the OS overiding his configuration and making routing decisions that are undesirable in his topology with this new 'link-layer discovery' design ? (assuming that the link layer discovery mapper is the culprit) I understand the purpose of the link-layer discovery mapper, however it seems to make the admin's job more difficult instead of easier. Input / reponse is appreciated ! Thanks Again -Jonathan

Is there a solution to this problem?? Thanks!