how can I find the default gateway of an ubuntu box

Solution 1:

Classic answer

route

Look for a line that says something like:

default         10.63.3.254     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0

The second column contains the default gateway, and the last column is the interface.

You can also use the ip command:

ip route

which will give you something like

default via 10.63.3.254 dev eth0

Solution 2:

You can also use "netstat -nr" (I usually leave the n in the flags, so as to not have to wait for host resolution if there's a DNS issue).