CHAPTER
11-1
Catalyst2950 and Catalyst2955 Switch Software Configuration Guide
78-11380-10
11
Configuring Interface Characteristics
This chapter describes the types of interfaces on a Catalyst 2950 or Catalyst 2955 switch and how to
configure them. The chapter has these sections:
Understanding Interface Types, page 11-1
Using the Interface Command, page 11-4
Configuring Ethernet Interfaces, page 11-8
Monitoring and Maintaining the Interfaces, page 11-15
Note For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this chapter, refer to the switch
command reference for this release and the online Cisco IOS Interface Command Reference for Cisco
IOS Release12.1.

Understanding Interface Types

This section describes the different types of interfaces supported by the switch with references to
chapters that contain more detailed information about configuring these int erface ty pe s. Th e rest of the
chapter describes configuration procedures for switch ports.
Switch ports are Layer 2-only interfaces associated with a physical port. They are used for managing the
physical interface and associated Layer 2 protocols and do not handle routing or bri dging. A switch port
can be an access port or a trunk port.
You can configure a port as an access port or trunk port or let the Dynamic Trunking Pro toc ol ( DTP)
operate on a per-port basis to determine if a switch port should be an acc ess p ort or a trun k port by
negotiating with the port on the other end of the link.
Configure switch ports by using the switchport interface configuration commands. For detailed
information about configuring access port and trunk port characteristics, see Chapter 17, “Configuring
VLANs.”
Note The physical switch ports can be 10/100 Ethernet ports, 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 100BASE-FX por ts,
1000BASE-SX ports, Long-Reach Ethernet (LRE) ports, Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) mod ule
ports, or small form-factor pluggable (SFP)-module ports. For more information, refer to the switch
hardware installation guide.