Cisco 837 ADSL router interface Ethernet2 down and can’t bring it up.

[marianodaniel]

Hello! I am one of the poor sods stuck with this kind of complex & old router model.

I managed to assign an ip address to Ethernet2, however, I can´t seem to find a way to bring the interface up.

Anyone care to help?

I´ve been struggling with it for two days, and although fun and challenging! I need the router working.

My idea is to access the web gui, configure & secure it, and then keep exploring IOS.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

can you post the running configuration of the router ?

[marianodaniel]

Hello! Thanks for replying.

Yes of course:

cisco837#show conf
Using 1167 out of 131072 bytes
!
version 12.4
no service pad
service timestamps debug datetime msec
service timestamps log datetime msec
no service password-encryption
!
hostname cisco837
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
enable secret 5 ******
enable password ******
!
no aaa new-model
!
resource policy
!
no ip routing
!
!
!         
!
no ip cef
!
!
!
partition flash 2 11 1
!
!
! 
!
!
!
interface Ethernet0
 no ip address
 no ip route-cache
 shutdown
 no cdp enable
 hold-queue 100 out
!

interface Ethernet2
 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
 hold-queue 100 out

!
interface ATM0
 no ip address
 no ip route-cache
 shutdown
 no atm ilmi-keepalive
 dsl operating-mode auto
!
interface FastEthernet1
 speed auto
 full-duplex
!
interface FastEthernet2
 shutdown
 duplex auto
 speed auto
!
interface FastEthernet3
 shutdown
 duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface FastEthernet4
 shutdown
 duplex auto
 speed auto
!
!
no ip http server
no ip http secure-server
!
!
!
!
control-plane
!
!
line con 0
 no modem enable
line aux 0
line vty 0 4
 password ******
 login
cheduler max-task-time 5000
no process cpu extended
no process cpu autoprofile hog
end

Edit: hmm, now I see http server is disabled, could it be losing configuration? I enabled it. Maybe I lost track all the times I reset the router config.

Next day edit: I change  the hostname to "cisco837", write, and then I see the file "nvram:/startup-config" gets written with the following parameters:

cisco837#more startup-config
!
version 12.4
no service pad
service timestamps debug datetime msec
service timestamps log datetime msec
no service password-encryption
!
hostname cisco837
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker

So the hostname gets saved in the file. Why it doesn't load when I restart the router? Beats me.

[marianodaniel]

 ATM interface
128K bytes of NVRAM.
11264K bytes of processor board System flash partition 1 (Read/Write)
1024K bytes of processor board System flash partition 2 (Read/Write)
2048K bytes of processor board Web flash (Read/Write)


         --- System Configuration Dialog ---

Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? [yes/no]: n
% Crashinfo may not be recovered at flash:crashinfo
% This file system device reports an error


Press RETURN to get started!

I change hostname, but it doesn’t save the configuration when restarting. Did I mess up the configuration? How can I redo the file structure? Only file shows is:

Router#dir
Directory of flash:1:/

    1  -rw-     9812592                    <no date>  c837-k9o3sy6-mz.124-8

11534332 bytes total (1721676 bytes free)
Router#

[marianodaniel]

Darn, no factory reset seems to help. Ugh.

Router#pwd    
system:/
Router#verify nv
Router#verify nvram:
Router#verify nvram:?
nvram:ifIndex-table   nvram:persistent-data  nvram:private-config
nvram:startup-config  

Router#verify nvram:per
Router#verify nvram:persistent-data
%Filesystem does not support verify operations
NVRAM: block file read error
%ERROR: Not able to process Signature in nvram:persistent-data.
Router#
*Mar  2 02:47:05.103: %SIGNATURE-3-NOT_ABLE_TO_PROCESS: %ERROR: Not able to process Signature in nvram:persistent-data.
Router#

Router#verify running-config
%Filesystem does not support verify operations
Router#

[marianodaniel]

Hmm, the hostname is saved on nvram:startup-config, however the router boots up without the hostname nor the passwords.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

not sure where you are at this point, but check the configuration register (in the output of sh ver), it shpuld be 0x2102.

[marianodaniel]

You sir, are a genius. That was the issue. Which also lead me to take a while and will print this page for further reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/routers/10000-series-routers/50421-config-register-use.html

I guess that this works as a sort of "jumper" for the router.

Now comes the part of trying to get the F4 port to work. I have a constant ping running on a WinPC wired to F4, and playing around with E2, hopefully I will get it to work.

The moment I get a reply from that ping, I will surely celebrate in your name(s). Thanks!

[marianodaniel]

I´m reading different manuals on how to enable DHCP on an interface. Sadly, all manuals speak of VLANs, and this router does not accept VLANs. I also cannot setup a pool, only have these options:

cisco837(config-if)#ip dhcp client ?
  class-id   Specify Class-ID to use
  client-id  Specify Client-ID to use
  hostname   Specify hostname to use
  lease      Requested address lease time
  request    Specify options (not) to request
  route      Options for routes installed by dhcp
  update     Dynamically update information

 I tried playing around with the settings, client-id, etc, but nothing.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

what are you trying to do, set up a DHCP pool for your clients, or get the interface to acquire an IP address ?

'ip address dhcp'

is usually the interface command, do you have that available ?

[marianodaniel]

Thank you so much @Georg Pauwen for the guidance at the moment! You are being a teacher for me right now. Yes, I want to configure DHCP for my clients behind the router. I wasn’t seeing the <cr> option on ip address dhcp ? so I thought something else was missing.

My final idea being having the possibility to enable the GUI (still need to find out if that will work – any help would be super appreciated) so I can  setup the ADSL line and secure it, and after than continue exploring IOS.

Thanks in advance!

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

looks like you are in interface configuration mode, you need to be in global configuration mode in order to configure the DHCP pool:

cisco837#conf t

cisco837(config)#ip dhcp pool LAN

cisco837(dhcp-config)#network 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0

cisco837(dhcp-config)#default-gateway 192.168.1.1

cisco837(dhcp-config)#dns-server 8.8.8.8

[marianodaniel]

Thanks for the guidance @Georg Pauwen ! I managed to setup the DHCP pool, however this triggered a strange behaviour on my other PC (which is connected to Fe4 and constantly pinging 192.168.1.1), ping now responds with "Reply from 10.0.0.4: Destination host unreachable". Strange!

I don’t recall setting up this ip at all, and I’ve reset the router to defaults quite a bit!

My interface brief is:

cisco837#sh ip int br
Interface                  IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol
FastEthernet1              unassigned      YES unset  down                  down    
FastEthernet2              unassigned      YES unset  down                  down    
FastEthernet3              unassigned      YES unset  down                  down    
FastEthernet4              unassigned      YES unset  up                    up      
Ethernet0                  unassigned      YES NVRAM  administratively down down    
ATM0                       unassigned      YES NVRAM  administratively down down    
Ethernet2                  192.168.1.1     YES NVRAM  up                    up      

Is it because the interface says "ICMP redirects are always sent"?

cisco837#show ip int e2
Ethernet2 is up, line protocol is up
  Internet address is 192.168.1.1/24
  Broadcast address is 255.255.255.255
  Address determined by non-volatile memory
  MTU is 1500 bytes
  Helper address is not set
  Directed broadcast forwarding is disabled
  Outgoing access list is not set
  Inbound  access list is not set
  Proxy ARP is enabled
  Local Proxy ARP is disabled
  Security level is default
  Split horizon is enabled
  ICMP redirects are always sent
  ICMP unreachables are always sent
  ICMP mask replies are never sent
  IP fast switching is enabled
  IP fast switching on the same interface is disabled
  IP Flow switching is disabled
  IP CEF switching is enabled
  IP CEF Fast switching turbo vector
  IP multicast fast switching is enabled
  IP multicast distributed fast switching is disabled

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

odd. That 10.0.0.0 address, could that be in the routing table of your client somehow ?

What does 'route print' show on the client (assuming it is a Windows client) ?

[marianodaniel]

Hello @Georg Pauwen ! Now the ping response changed to another address:192.168.8.12 (this is only from being on the wired  network, RJ45 directly into Fe4 of the Cisco837)

I have reset the Cisco837 several times, could it still be taking some address from somewhere?

Attached you will see network stats (and  route print) from Windows Client: