Most Cisco devices along with the router and switches use Command Line Interface (CLI) commands to configure a Cisco network device. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is also there for switches, routers, and firewalls but the biggest share of work is done on the CLI.

Here we discuss some of the most used Cisco CLI commands used.

Basic Configuration Commands:

1. enable – Logs you into the user executive mode or privilege mode from the user mode. In this mode, you can show anything but won’t be able to make any changes.
2. configure terminal – Logs you into the global configuration mode from the privileged mode where you can do configurational changes.
3. interface FastEthernet – To change a parameter on the interface, you need to go to the interface configuration mode for the specified fast Ethernet interface with the help of this command.
4. show ip interface – It provides information about configuration, the status of the IP protocol, and its services on all interfaces. The command show ip interface brief shows a quick status of the interfaces on the router including their IP address, layer 2, and layer 3 status.
5. copy running-config startup-config – It is an enable mode command that saves the running configuration replacing the startup configuration which the device was initialised with.
6. copy startup-config running-config – It is an enable mode command that saves the startup configuration with the current running configuration.
7. show running-config – It is an enable mode command that shows the router, switch, or a firewall’s current configuration which is the configuration in the device’s memory.
8. show running-config interface interface slot/number –
9. ip address ip-address mask – It is an interface configuration mode command used to initialise an ip address and subnet mask to the interface.
10. no shutdown/ shutdown – It is used in the interface configuration mode to bring up or shut down respectively the interface.

Basic Troubleshooting Commands:

1. ping – It is used to check the basic network connectivity.
2. traceroute– It traces the end-to-end path of a packet through an internetwork and identifies the problems if there throughout the transmission path.
3. show interface – It displays the status(up/down) of the router’s interface and also provides information about protocol status, utilization, errors, and mtu. This command is commonly used for troubleshooting a router or a switch.
4. show ip route– It provides detailed information about the routes configured on the router interface.
5. show cdp neighbors– It provides information about each neighbor connected to the device.

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