Can Reach First Hop But Nothing Beyond

Routers have a table of information on where to send network traffic. If an IP block is listed in the routing table, then the router knows where to send that traffic. However, if there is no listing for the destination IP address in the router's routing table, then it does not know where to send the traffic. The traffic is then dropped, and never reaches its destination.

Instead of having to have a huge table with every IP block possible in the table, a cleaver solution was found. It is called the default route. A default route tells a router that if the router cannot find information on how to reach a certain IP address, just send the traffic to the default location.

The default route will usually point out to the Internet. This will be the link to the ISP or upstream provider.

Sometimes when setting up a network, engineers will run into an issue where they can connect to the next hop, or the next router along the way to their destination, but nothing beyond that next hop. If you can ping the gateway IP but nothing after that, then the problem is usually that you do not have a default route set. Your router does not know where to reach the destination you are trying to reach, so it drops the traffic.

The solution is to add a default route to your router. Then any unknown destination will be sent along to the default port.

Forgetting to place a default route is a common mistake that even experienced engineers make from time to time. Knowing the symptom is key to realizing what the problem is.