Skip to main content

Troubleshooting Layer 2 using show interfaces

Troubleshooting Layer 2 using show interfaces 
9.3.2 This page will further explain why the show interfaces command may be the most important tool to discover Layer 1 and Layer 2 problems with the router. The first parameter, which is line, refers to the physical layer. The second parameter, which is protocol, indicates if the IOS processes that control the line protocol consider the interface usable. This is determined by whether keepalives are successfully received. Keepalives are defined as messages sent by one network device to inform another network device that the virtual circuit between the two is still active. If the interface misses three consecutive keepalives, the line protocol is marked as down.
When the line is down, the protocol is always down, because there is no useable media for the Layer 2 protocol. This will be true when the interface is down due to a hardware problem and when it is administratively down.
If the interface is up and the line protocol is down, a Layer 2 problem exists. Possible causes are as follows:
  • No keepalives
  • No clock rate
  • Mismatch in encapsulation type
The show interfaces command should be used after configuring a serial interface to verify the changes and that the interface is operational.
The Interactive Media activity will help students understand the show interfaces command.
The next page will discuss the show cdp command

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

OSI layers / Peer-to-peer communications / TCP/IP model

OSI layers 2.3.4 This page discusses the seven layers of the OSI model. The OSI reference model is a framework that is used to understand how information travels throughout a network. The OSI reference model explains how packets travel through the various layers to another device on a network, even if the sender and destination have different types of network media. In the OSI reference model, there are seven numbered layers, each of which illustrates a particular network function. - Dividing the network into seven layers provides the following advantages: • It breaks network communication into smaller, more manageable parts. • It standardizes network components to allow multiple vendor development and support. • It allows different types of network hardware and software to communicate with each other. • It prevents changes in one layer from affecting other layers. • It divides network communication into smaller parts to make learning it easier to understand. In the foll...

Advantages and disadvantages of link-state routing

Advantages and disadvantages of link-state routing 2.1.5  This page lists the advantages and disadvantages of link-state routing protocols. The following are advantages of link-state routing protocols:  Link-state protocols use cost metrics to choose paths through the network. The cost metric reflects the capacity of the links on those paths. Link-state protocols use triggered updates and LSA floods to immediately report changes in the network topology to all routers in the network. This leads to fast convergence times. Each router has a complete and synchronized picture of the network. Therefore, it is very difficult for routing loops to occur. Routers use the latest information to make the best routing decisions. The link-state database sizes can be minimized with careful network design. This leads to smaller Dijkstra calculations and faster convergence. Every router, at the very least, maps the topology of it...

PC Basic...

• Backplane – A backplane is an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and sockets into which additional electronic devices on other circuit boards or cards can be plugged; in a computer, generally synonymous with or part of the motherboard. • Network interface card (NIC) – An expansion board inserted into a computer so that the computer can be connected to a network. • Video card – A board that plugs into a PC to give it display capabilities. • Audio card – An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds. • Parallel port – An interface capable of transferring more than one bit simultaneously that is used to connect external devices such as printers. • Serial port – An interface that can be used for serial communication in which only one bit is transmitted at a time. • Mouse port – A port used to connect a mouse to a PC. • USB port – A Universal Serial Bus connector. A USB port connects devices such as a mouse or printer to the computer ...