|  | 11.8 | Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) and Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)
| 11.8.7 | Examples of static routing

If routers can learn routing information automatically, it might seem pointless to manually enter information into a router's routing table. However, such manual entries can be useful whenever a network administrator wants to control which path a router will select. For example, routing tables that are based on static information could be used to test a particular link in the network, or to conserve wide area bandwidth. Static routing is also the preferred method for maintaining routing tables when there is only one path to a destination network. This type of network is referred to as a stub network. There is only one way to get to this network, so it is important to indicate this situation to prevent routers from trying to find another way to this stub network if its connection fails.