interfaces file failes to set gateway

[David Liontooth <lionteeth@cogweb.net>]

I've run into an odd problem: on two of my squeeze servers, the 
/etc/network/interfaces file fails to set the default gateway on boot.

I can add the gateway manually by issuing "route add default gw 
192.168.0.178 eth0" -- it works fine.

This is my /etc/network/interfaces:

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.0.26
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.0.0
        broadcast 192.168.0.255
        gateway 192.168.0.178

I cloned this entire operating system, which as you see is on a private 
subnet, to another box that is on a public network, and got exactly the 
same problem (with a different gateway). I have other machines on the 
same networks with the same configuration that don't have this problem. 
What could be preventing the default gateway from being set on boot?

Cheers,
David