cused on those features that I have found most useful in the field. I've purposely not included all the gory details of each feature discussed. Instead, I've covered what I believe you'll need to know to take advantage of these features. Not all of the features I'll discuss are specific to the 3750, though the commands are. (The commands may be identical on other models, but this chapter specifically includes examples taken from the 3750.) As always, Cisco's documentation covers all the features in detail. Stacking One of the major shortcomings of the 3550 and 3560 switches was the way they were stacked. Stacking refers to the ability to link together multiple switches, usually of the same type, to form a single logical switch with a single management IP address. Once you telnet or SSH to the IP address, you can control the stack as if it were a single device. The 3550 used a stacking design that required modules called stacking GBICs to be used in one of the gigabit GBIC slots. This not only limited the stacking backplane speed to 1 Gbps, but also tied up the only gigabit slots on the otherwise 100 Mbps switches for stacking. So, when you stacked your switches, you could no longer connect your uplinks at gigabit speeds. The 3560 uses a special SFP interconnect cable. It is available with 10/100/1000 RJ-45 ports, but using the stacking cables still occupies one of the fiber uplink ports. The 3750 uses a more traditional approach, incorporating special stacking cables that connect to the back of the switch chassis. This backplane connection is 32 Gbps, and does not tie up any of the ports on the front of the switch. I won't go into the physical connection of a switch stack, as the Cisco documentation is more than adequate. On a single 24-port 3750, the interfaces are numbered Gi1/0/1-Gi1/0/23. The interfaces are described as interface-type stack-member#/module#/port# The interface-type is usually Gigabit Ethernet on a 3750, though some models support 10 Gbps ports. The stack-member# is 1 for a standalone switch, a