In FortiGate, which statement about routing distance is true?

In the context of FortiGate routing, the statement that indicates a lower routing distance corresponds to a higher priority for the route is fundamental to understanding routing behavior. Routing distance, often referred to as administrative distance, is used by FortiGate and other networking devices to determine which routing protocol should be preferred when there are multiple paths to the same destination.

When multiple routes exist toward a destination, the router selects the route with the lowest administrative distance, indicating that this route is more trustworthy or preferable compared to others. For instance, routes learned via static configurations generally have a lower administrative distance than those learned via dynamic routing protocols. Thus, a lower distance indeed indicates higher priority, which directly influences routing decisions made by the FortiGate device.

In contrast, the other statements do not accurately represent how routing distances function. The claim that all routes have the same distance by default oversimplifies the complexity and variability in routing protocols. Furthermore, suggesting that a higher distance indicates a more reliable route contradicts the very principle of distance-based routing, where reliability is inversely related to distance. The assertion regarding routes with equal distance being automatically combined does not apply in all scenarios; routes with equal administrative distances do not always get combined without specific configurations that would lead to such