The route with a C next to it is a directly connected route and has an administrative distance of 0, which means it will be preferred over any routes with a larger value for administrative distance. Each routing protocol has a default administrative distance assigned. Administrative distance is used by the router to determine the preferred route when a route is learned from different routing protocols. This process can be manipulated by the administrator by using the distance command to alter the default assignments.

It is significant to note that routers with no static routes and no routing protocols enabled will populate all directly connected routes to the routing table with no action on the part of the administrator. Routes that are NOT directly connected will not be in the routing table unless one of two things occurs:
* A static route is created by the administrator
* A routing protocol is enabled that allows the router to learn about the network and its route from another router unning the same routing protocol

The route with an R next to it is a route learned from Routing Information Protocol (RIP). It has a default administrative distance of 120, so it will not prefer over a directly connected route.

The route with an S next to it is a static route or one configured manually. It has an administrative distance of 1, so it will not be preferred over a directly connected route.

The route with an I next to it is a route learned from Internal Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP). It has an administrative distance of 100, so it will not be preferred