Err Msg: The Route Addition Failed: 87

ID: Q151795

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

After you run a ROUTE ADD command, the following error message may appear:

The route addition failed: 87

This message alerts you that you have an addressing problem.


MORE INFORMATION

You will get the route addition error in at least these two situations:

  1. If the gateway address you specify is not on the same logical subnet as any of the network adapters in your system. For instance, if your system had this configuration:
    
      ip address  204.118.75.20
      subnet mask 255.255.0.0

   and you tried this command:

      route add 204.110.0.0 204.110.76.23

    where 204.110.0.0 is the remote subnet you want to reach and 204.110.76.23 is the gateway address you want to use, you will get the error message because the gateway is not on the same logical subnet as your system.


  2. If the destination address you enter is a specific host address rather than a subnet address and you specify a netmask, you will get this error.

    For instance, using the same configuration as above, if you wanted to reach this specific system:
    
      ip address           204.110.15.3
      subnet mask          255.255.0.0
      valid local gateway  204.118.75.1

   you might use this command:

      route add 204.110.15.3 mask 255.255.0.0 204.118.75.1

    and this command would give you the error 87 message. The ROUTE command expects the subnet address 204.110.0.0 rather than the specific destination address.

    To correctly add a host route do not specify a netmask and by default NT will use a netmask of 255.255.255.255, for example:
    
      route add 204.110.15.3 204.118.75.1

   Or use a subnet mask of all ones, 255.255.255.255, for example:

      route add 204.110.15.3 MASK 255.255.255.255 204.118.75.1

    The mask of all 255s (all 1s) means that the destination address of the packet to be routed must exactly match the Network Address for this route to be used.



Keywords          : nttcp 
Version           : 3.5 3.51
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: February 19, 1999