Hi All

I do a little trade in used Cisco routers and switches.
I am currently using "show version " and "Show diag" as my means of testing. Please can you suggest a more sofisticated testing method
that would make me more confident in the quality of the products I am selling. I would really appreciate any suggestions or tips and tricks

Thanks in advance

You can test whether or not each interface passes traffic.

Sorry , I should have mentioned that I am very cisco/network illiterate !!

Your comment re passing traffic is exactly what I was hoping for. But how do I do that ? Id really appreciate the help thx.

connect your laptop to each port?

What are your customer requirements?

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There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

You could connect two PCs using UTP cables to two ports and test connectivity between them. But you need two IPs configured on each of the computers. Search Youtube for some thing like "set static IP addresses"

Set the first PC to IP: 192.168.1.1
Subnetmask 255.255.255.0

Set the second PC to IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnetmask 255.255.255.0


Got to the first PC, [Start] - [Run]. Type cmd. A black screen will come up, type: ping 192.168.1.2. The output should be some thing like this:

Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=205
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=155
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=201
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=201

This means the two PCs can communicate. If the output shows:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

This means there is a problem. (assuming you have done it right).

Connect your console cable, power on the device and log the POST. This will give you a good indication of any major issues. As for ports working you will need to test them individually as mentioned above.

A simple continuous ping between two devices and then moving one cable from port to port should do the trick if the configuration on the switch is set to default.

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http://blog.movingonesandzeros.net/

Thanks for the replies so far, They are helpful