Lab - View the Switch MAC Address Table

Topology

Addressing Table
Device Interface IP Address Subnet Mask

S1 VLAN 1 192.168.2.(X+10) 255.255.255.0

S2 VLAN 1 192.168.2.(X+11) 255.255.255.0
PC-A NIC 192.168.2.X 255.255.255.0
PC-B NIC 192.168.2.(X+1) 255.255.255.0
PC-C NIC 192.168.2.(X+2) 255.255.255.0

 2013 - 2025 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page 1 of 5 www.netacad.com
Lab - View the Switch MAC Address Table

Instructions

Part 1: Build and Configure the Network

Step 1: Cable the network according to the topology.

Step 2: Configure PC hosts.

Step 3: Initialize and reload switches as necessary.

Step 4: Configure basic settings for each switch.

Open configuration window

a. Configure device name as shown in the topology.

b. Configure IP address as listed in Addressing Table.
c. Assign tên(không dấu, viết thường) as the console and vty passwords.
d. Assign classA1 as the privileged EXEC password.
Close configuration window

Part 2: Examine the Switch MAC Address Table

A switch learns MAC addresses and builds the MAC address table, as network devices initiate
communication on the network.

Step 1: Record network device MAC addresses.

Open Windows command prompt
Question:

What are the Ethernet adapter physical addresses?

PC-A MAC Address:
Type your answers here.
PC-B MAC Address:

PC-C MAC Address:

Type your answers here.
Close Windows command prompt
Open a configuration window
Questions:

On the second line of command output, what is the hardware addresses (or burned-in address [bia])?
S1 Fast Ethernet 0/1 MAC Address:
Type your answers here.
S2 Fast Ethernet 0/1 MAC Address:
Type your answers here.
Close a configuration window

Step 2: Display the switch MAC address table.

Console into switch S2 and view the MAC address table, both before and after running network
communication tests with ping.
a. Establish a console connection to S2 and enter privileged EXEC mode.
Open a configuration window

b. In privileged EXEC mode, type the show mac address-table command and press Enter.
S2# show mac address-table

 2013 - 2025 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page 2 of 5 www.netacad.com
Lab - View the Switch MAC Address Table

Even though there has been no network communication initiated across the network (i.e., no use of ping),
it is possible that the switch has learned MAC addresses from its connection to the PC and the other
switch.
Questions:

Are there any MAC addresses recorded in the MAC address table?

Type your answers here.

What MAC addresses are recorded in the table? To which switch ports are they mapped and to which
devices do they belong? Ignore MAC addresses that are mapped to the CPU.

Type your answers here.

If you had not previously recorded MAC addresses of network devices in Step 1, how could you tell which
devices the MAC addresses belong to, using only the output from the show mac address-table
command? Does it work in all scenarios?

Type your answers here.

Step 3: Clear the S2 MAC address table and display the MAC address table again.
a. In privileged EXEC mode, type the clear mac address-table dynamic command and press Enter.
S2# clear mac address-table dynamic
b. Quickly type the show mac address-table command again.
Questions:

Does the MAC address table have any addresses in it for VLAN 1? Are there other MAC addresses
listed?

Type your answers here.

Wait 10 seconds, type the show mac address-table command, and press Enter. Are there new
addresses in the MAC address table?
Type your answers here.
Close a configuration window

Step 4: From PC-B, ping the devices on the network and observe the switch MAC address table.
a. From PC-B, open a command prompt and type arp -a.
Open a command prompt
Question:

Not including multicast or broadcast addresses, how many device IP-to-MAC address pairs have been
learned by ARP?

 2013 - 2025 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page 3 of 5 www.netacad.com
Lab - View the Switch MAC Address Table

Type your answers here.

b. From the PC-B command prompt, ping PC-A.
Question:

ype your answers here.

Close a command prompt

From a console connection to S2, enter the show mac address-table command. (chụp hình)
Open a configuration window
Question:

Has the switch added additional MAC addresses to the MAC address table? If so, which addresses and
devices?
Type your answers here.
Close a configuration window
Open a command prompt

From PC-B, open a command prompt and retype arp -a. (chụp hình)
Question:

Does the PC-B ARP cache have additional entries for all network devices that were sent pings?
(giải thích)
c. From the PC-B command prompt, ping S1.

From a console connection to S2, enter the show mac address-table command. (chụp hình)
Open a configuration window
Question:

Has the switch added additional MAC addresses to the MAC address table? If so, which addresses and
devices?
Type your answers here.
Close a configuration window
Open a command prompt

From PC-B, open a command prompt and retype arp -a. (chụp hình)
Question:

Does the PC-B ARP cache have additional entries for all network devices that were sent pings?
(giải thích)

d. From the PC-B command prompt, ping S2.

From a console connection to S2, enter the show mac address-table command. (chụp hình)
Open a configuration window
Question:

Has the switch added additional MAC addresses to the MAC address table? If so, which addresses and
devices?
Type your answers here.
Close a configuration window
Open a command prompt

From PC-B, open a command prompt and retype arp -a. (chụp hình)
Question:

Does the PC-B ARP cache have additional entries for all network devices that were sent pings?
(giải thích)
Type your answers here.
Close a command prompt

 2013 - 2025 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page 4 of 5 www.netacad.com
Lab - View the Switch MAC Address Table

Reflection Question
On Ethernet networks, data is delivered to devices by their MAC addresses. For this to happen, switches and
PCs dynamically build ARP caches and MAC address tables. With only a few computers on the network this
process seems fairly easy. What might be some of the challenges on larger networks?

Type your answers here.

End of Document

 2013 - 2025 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page 5 of 5 www.netacad.com