routes are killing me - how to?

[Stefan Jeglinski]

>well, so long as that machine can ping the outside world, your relationship
>with that machine is done.

The Linux box can ping the outside world and other hosts on the 63 network:


                +-----------------------+
                |                       |
              --+ eth0 (192.168.0.1)    |
                |                       |   hub--dslmodem (63.220.231.129)
                |                       |   | |
                | (63.220.231.132) eth1 +---+ +
                |                       |     |
                +-----------------------+     |
                                              |
              other 63.220.231.128/26 IPs ----+



>now set all the machines on the 192.168.0.0 subnet to use it's IP as their
>default gateway.

All the machines on the 192.168.0.0 subnet have their router/gateway 
address set to 192.168.0.1.


>check that you can ping 192.168.0.1.

Bzzzt, I cannot ping .1 with the one box now on the 192.168.0.0 
subnet, or vice versa:

              hub  +-----------------------+
              | |  |                       |
192.168.0.0 -+ +--+ eth0 (192.168.0.1)    |
                   |                       |
                   |                       |
                   | (63.220.231.132) eth1 +---
                   |                       |
                   +-----------------------+

See my other post from 20 min ago, I have checked that all cables, 
hubs, and NICs are working.

My Big Question for a *nix guru: does the construction of the routing 
table (/sbin/route -n on the Linux box) determine whether a) eth0 can 
send out a ping, and/or b) whether eth0 will respond to a ping from 
the 192.168.0.0 subnet, *given the presence of eth1*?

Put another way, if I use the ping command, how *else* does the Linux 
box know whether to send it out eth0 or eth1 except for the presence 
of the routing table??? This kinda gets to the crux of my inability 
to let go of this routing table question that some think is 
irrelevant.

I'm moving on the Iain's post now regarding routing tables.


Stefan Jeglinski