Routing file

Hi all, I new to linux. I just installed linux 7.3 and had to do some changes in getting the nic to work. I am now facing routing problem. I thought the file /etc/route.conf does the job, but such file does not exit on my system. So I created one through vi with the necessary routing configuration, but I observed that my configuration are not effected after running /sbin/route. I still get the same routing table as before, which means that must be another routing file somewhere. Where should I look? My other question is, which command can I used to search for a file within linux partitions. Thanks, ao