CLock Rate

Clock rate is all to do with Timing. A serial interface will send data along the line in the form of ones & zeroes 00110001111000010.
There are start bits and stop bits along with parity which all get put together to form a frame of information when that data gets sent across the connection, it has to get reassembled and look like the original data that was sent. If one device is sending a simple code of 8 bits ( we won't go into start, stop & parity) in this format 00110011 and it sends them 1 second at a time per digit ie 8 seconds to transmit the 8 binaries but the opposite end is actually receiving the data at 0.5seconds per binary then the receiving device will look at the same bit twice and place it in memory twice for every bit that is sent. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that, should we send the word cat across the network we will end up with ccaatt. In the example above 00110011 means that we get 0000111100001111. If you have ever seen what happens when a serial communications device is set at differing speeds at both ends you will have seen what happens .. gibberssh! Until the send / receive speeds match and synchronize

So what is clock rate .. it's the speed that we set the transfer rate across a communications medium. It allows the data to be clocked through the interface and put into memory at the same speed that it was sent.

In any transmission medium there are two types of devices .. DTE and DCE. Most routers are considered to be DTE. When two routers are place at opposite ends of a serial line one has to be DTE and the other DCE. DTE is Data Terminal Equipment. A device that is placed at the end of the line. It Terminates the line. DCE is Data Communications Equipment. It Controls the transfer. It has the pleasure of giving the Clock signal. DCE - Controls & Clocks .. that's how I remember where to place the Clock Rate command.

Extracted from the forum: Andy_Capp