What information does the next hop entry in a routing table identify?
The first router in the path to the destination network.
The next hop router is the first (or next) router in the path to
the destination network. Each router looks at the destination
network in the packet, then consults the routing table to identify
the next hop router to the destination network.
The hop count identifies the numbers of routers in the path to
the destination network. A default gateway router is a router that
is used for packets used to external networks. Most routers do not
have a default gateway setting, but instead use a default route
setting which identifies the next hop router for all unknown
networks.