Why do the route tables behave differently in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7?

Question

I have the following network layout:
192.168.3.0/24 - WiFi, Internet;
192.168.46.0/24 - LAN, used for local homegroup, Synergy kbd/mouse sharing only. No Internet.

Windows 8.1, 192.168.3.126, 192.168.46.130
Windows 7, 192.168.3.125, 192.168.46.137

route print at Windows 8.1: (irrelevant records skipped)

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.3.1    192.168.3.126     25
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0     192.168.46.1   192.168.46.130     20
      192.168.3.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.3.126    281
    192.168.3.126  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.3.126    281
    192.168.3.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.3.126    281
     192.168.46.0    255.255.255.0         On-link    192.168.46.130    276
   192.168.46.130  255.255.255.255         On-link    192.168.46.130    276
   192.168.46.255  255.255.255.255         On-link    192.168.46.130    276

route print at Windows 7: (irrelevant records skipped)

IPv4 Route Table                                                            
=========================================================================== 
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric 
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0     192.168.46.1   192.168.46.137     30 
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.3.1    192.168.3.125     25 
      192.168.3.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.3.125    281 
    192.168.3.125  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.3.125    281 
    192.168.3.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.3.125    281 
     192.168.46.0    255.255.255.0         On-link    192.168.46.137    286 
   192.168.46.137  255.255.255.255         On-link    192.168.46.137    286 
   192.168.46.255  255.255.255.255         On-link    192.168.46.137    286

Initially I had a problem when Windows 7 default routing was directed towards 192.168.46.1, hence it did not see the Internet once the LAN is connected.

This happened because the interfaces had wrong metrics (20 and 25, correspondingly).
I changed the interface metric as shown above (30 for LAN) as suggested in this answer, so it started working fine.

My question is:

Why Windows 8.1 needs no setting of metrics?
Can it be because of different order of default route records in route table? (see first two records)
If so, how can I re-order the default gateway records in the route table?

Why do the route tables behave differently in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7?

0 Answers0