Commands

show mac-address-table

Purpose: Displays MAC address table on a switch | Key info: Learned MAC addresses, associated switch ports | Use: Troubleshoot switching/forwarding issues

show route

Purpose: Displays routing table on a router | Key info: Network routes, next-hop IP, exit interface, route source (e.g., RIP, connected) | Use: Trace packet path and routing decisions

show interface

Purpose: Displays interface status and statistics | Key info: Up/down state, speed/duplex, MTU, CRC errors, input/output errors, traffic stats | Use: Troubleshoot link performance and physical/interface issues

show running-config (show config)

Purpose: Displays active device configuration | Key info: Current settings, IP addresses, interfaces, routing config | Use: Verify or troubleshoot configuration settings

show arp

Purpose: Displays ARP cache table | Key info: IP-to-MAC mappings, associated interface, protocol entries | Use: Verify Layer 2 to Layer 3 address resolution

show vlan

Purpose: Displays VLAN configuration on a switch | Key info: VLAN IDs, assigned ports, default VLAN membership | Use: Verify VLAN segmentation and port assignments

show power

Purpose: Displays Power over Ethernet (PoE) usage | Key info: Power per interface, total available power, used vs remaining wattage | Use: Determine PoE capacity and device power allocation