Default gateway blank or 0.0.0.0

Ever had your server's default gateway stuck showing either 0.0.0.0, or blank entirely?  Totally ignoring the value you're assigning?  Happened to me when I was bouncing between client Hyper-V on Windows 8.1 and VirtualBox.  The culprit?  All of those prior network connections.  Once you get rid of them, network properties works like a charm.

The catch?  The devices and old connections are hidden.  To show them, open up an administrator command prompt, and enter the command:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

then enter the command

start devmgmt.msc

to start up Device Manager (or launch it from Control Panel).  Then, in the View menu, choose Show Hidden Devices, expand out your Network Adapters and be amazed:

See all of those hidden devices?  The active one, Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter #19 is shown with the bold icon, but the others, including the Intel (R) PRO/1000 adapters are somewhat blurred - those are the ones to delete.

Do that, reboot for good measure, set that default gateway and be productive!

Update: I decided to poke around some of the other devices & there were more to remove, when making the VirtualBox to Hyper-V switch.  Expand out some of the other nodes to clear out the old VirtualBox devices.  Having these around wasn't causing problems, but the less clutter the better.

 



Also, be sure you remove either the Hyper-V Integration Services or the VirtualBox Additions from Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs, as appropriate.  And if you're switching back to VirtualBox, odds are the Additions are out of date, so go ahead & refresh.