mac btw router and switch

Nov 10, 2005 1 Replies

hi i have a question about cisco router/switch when i have a switch connect to router connect to switch according the figure:



A ( switch) ----- B (router) --- C(switch)



the question is if in switch A i can see the mac address of switch C. the problems is that now i didn't see , the both switch are catalys



6500 why i didn't see?

In article , wrote: :hi i have a question about cisco router/switch :when i have a switch connect to router connect to switch according the :figure:

:A ( switch) ----- B (router) --- C(switch)

:the question is if in switch A i can see the mac address of switch C.

Not really, no.

:the problems is that now i didn't see , the both switch are catalys :6500 :why i didn't see?

Because that's how routing *works*. When a packet gets routed, the outgoing packet has the source MAC replaced with the MAC of the router.

If you look more closely at how networking really works, you will find that when two hosts in the same broadcast domain are talking to each other, that the IP address is used only at the beginning of the connection, to find out what the destination MAC is, and after that all the -real- transmission is MAC to MAC (layer 2), not IP to IP (layer 3).

If your router is a Cisco router, then if you enable the CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) then the router will broadcast information about what it is connected to. You could try "show cdp neighbour" on your switches, but do not be surprised if the switches do not have that command.

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