[SOLVED] Linux route command takes a long time to complete

The -n switch tells the route command to show IP addresses without trying to resolve them.

I use the route command primarily at the IP level for structuring networks and didn't expect that it would try to resolve DNS addresses.

To resolve the DNS issue check your /etc/resolv.conf entries are correct. If one is pointing to a dead DNS server then this will slow down all of your network commands that perform DNS resolution.