Pinging self ip?

Farhan Jaffer · ‎04-11-2008

When we ping to the self ip on Router's serial interface, why it traverses from the whole path? Why not ping interface directly?

Please clarify this.

Thanks

Richard Burts · ‎04-11-2008

Farhan

You ask a question about why something is the way that it is. And fundamentally the answer to why is that it is the way that Cisco designed it to function.

We could talk about the merits of actually putting the ping on the wire versus just responding directly without ever putting the request on the wire. I happen to believe that it was a good design decision and that it demonstrates that the link is really working. Usually we ping something because we want to know if it is working. If IOS just directly generated a response without checking the circuit we could have a situation where ping succeeds but the link can not transmit data. I like the idea that if I ping the serial interface and get responses then I know for sure that the circuit is working.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

illusion_rox · ‎04-11-2008

Hi Rick, just to add, pinging on a serial interface does also points out any subnetting issue if there is any on the link, i ran through such a problem in a lab when there was a slight subnet difference between two interfaces, link was up but pinging to self ip wasnt successful so i think i also helps to narrow the problems regarding any subnet issue as well.

Farhan Jaffer · ‎04-13-2008

Thanks Rick for reply.

The idea behind Why is the mechanism used to do this. I need to know that how this is happening?

Please inform.