Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam

What are two advantages of using default routes?

1. Keep routing tables small and direct traffic from the Internet.

2. Allow connectivity to remote networks and require less configuration.

3. Establish routes that can never go down and maintain a stable network.

4. Keep routing tables small and allow connectivity to remote networks.

The correct answer is: Keep routing tables small and allow connectivity to remote networks.

Using default routes offers several significant advantages. One primary benefit is the ability to keep routing tables small. In networking, excessive entries in a routing table can lead to complexity and increased processing time for route lookups. By utilizing default routes, a router can manage to direct traffic to routes that are not explicitly listed, allowing it to forward packets to a specified next hop for all unspecified destinations. This helps in maintaining more manageable routing tables. Another key advantage is that default routes facilitate connectivity to remote networks. By configuring a default route, a router can effectively manage connections for any destinations not known at the moment of routing. This is particularly useful in scenarios where numerous remote networks need to be accessed without the necessity of specifying every individual route. Thus, routers can have a pathway to reach distant networks even if those specific routes are not defined in the routing table. Together, these aspects highlight why using default routes is beneficial for effective and efficient network management, especially when dealing with large or unpredictable networks.