Cisco CCNA, CCENT, And CCNP Local Lab Study: The DTE DCE Cable

More Cisco CCNA, CCENT, and CCNP candidates than ever before are putting cool their own home labs for their certification exam study, and that's a beneficial trend - there's nothing like learning on the concrete thing!

Part of putting a home lab together is getting the due cables and understanding their usage. In this new Cisco home lab series, we'll take a glad eye at the different cable types and how each fits into your home lab. The first cable type we'll case at is the multi-purpose DTE/DCE cable.

When I communicate "multi-purpose", I mean that while the cable testament always perform the same task, it can be used in distinct discrepant points in your internal lab network. Whether you're going to get a frame relay switch - and you should move one if at all possible, since having your own frame relay cloud is a tremendous boost to your home lab studies and your exam score - you're going to occasion a DTE/DCE cable.

You can also use a DTE/DCE cable to directly connect two Cisco router serial interfaces and configure HDLC (the default) or PPP encapsulation over that point-to-point link.

Most of today's DTE/DCE cables annex "DTE" clearly stamped on one end of the cable - actually, "DTE" is probably embedded into the connector itself. Naturally, the other head will have "DCE" clearly indicated. It's the DCE end that will connect to your frame relay switch. If you're going to use a direct connexion to run PPP or HDLC, it almost doesn't incident which confine of the cable is connected to a disposed router.

Keyword: "almost". You must use the clockrate command on the DCE borderline of the connection in adjustment to bring the line protocol up.

Provided you're not sure which end of your DTE/DCE cable is connected to a apt serial interface, due use the show controller serial command to satisfy that information. Most of the output of that command isn't comprehensible, however what we need is conscientious on top:

R3#show controller serial 1
HD unit 1, idb = 0x11B4DC, driver structure at 0x121868
buffer extent 1524 HD unit 1, V.35 DCE cable

Naturally, if it's the DTE end, you'll see "DTE" there. And if you don't keep anything connected to that interface, you'll inspect "no cable".

If you corner your own frame relay switch or not, you'll hope for to pick up some DTE/DCE cables for direct connections between your Cisco home lab router's serial interfaces. Just don't forget to put the clockrate command on the DCE end of the cable! And if you're not familiar with a frame relay switch, check this same website soon for a tutorial that will present you how to set one up.

Just about any Cisco router can serve as a at ease lab frame relay switch, and once you've got it configured, you're in good shape - nevertheless it can be a little maddening to impress it up and running in the first place. I'll show you how to avoid that aggravation in the next instalment of this Cisco home lab tutorial series!

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