Do you need to configure dynamic routing protocol for you network? EIGRP may be an excellent choice. It is a full-featured routing protocol that can grow as your network grows. Let’s learn how to configure EIGRP in the Cisco IOS.
Before you configure EIGRP, there are some things you should know about it first. Here they are:
To configure EIGRP in the Cisco IOS, just follow these steps:
Router (config-if)# bandwidth XX
(where XX signify the bandwidth of the WAN connection)
Router (config)# router eigrp AS
Where the "AS" in the above-mentioned command stands for Autonomous System number. This number should be the same on all routers.
Router (config-router)# network X.X.X.X
Where X.X.X.X is the network id of a network that is linked directly to the router. You should enter this command for each network directly attached to the router. However, you can, in a single statement, enter the supernet of a group of subnets. When you do that, the router will automatically identify the subnets.
Optionally, you can configure the amount of WAN link bandwidth that an EIGRP router will use with this command:
Router(config-if)# ip bandwidth-percent eigrp XX
Once EIGRP is configured, you can check the status using the show ip route and show ip eigrp commands. Here are some examples:
Router# show ip route
207.71.26.0/28 is subnetted, 1 subnets D 207.71.26.128 [90/8199936] via 10.6.199.1, 1w1d, Serial0/0 10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 217 subnets, 4 masks D 10.110.100.0/30 [90/6535936] via 10.6.199.1, 5w1d, Serial0/0
Notice the "D" on the left side of the output. All "D" routes are EIGRP routes.
There are a number of show ip eigrp xxxx commands. Here is an example of the "neighbors" version:
Router# show ip eigrp neighbors IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 100 H Address Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq Type (sec) (ms) Cnt Num 0 10.6.199.1 Se0/0 11 5w1d 20 282 0 887645 Router#
While some of you might say that EIGRP is past its prime or has been replaced by OSPF, I ask that you take a second look at EIGRP. It is an excellent routing protocol and is used in so many large networks today. EIGRP is not too difficult to configure and it can handle even the largest networks. If you have questions about configuring EIGRP, please post your question or comment in our Cisco Router discussion forums.
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