Which command combination would help check NIC errors and detailed statistics including FEC/CRC?

• A. ip -s link for RX/TX errors/drops; ethtool -S <iface> for FEC/CRC details
• B. ip -s link
• C. ethtool -S <iface>
• D. ifconfig <iface> | grep -i error

Answer: (A)

To diagnose NIC health, you want both broad link statistics and hardware-level counters. The general command ip -s link shows RX and TX statistics, including errors and dropped packets, giving a quick read on whether data is being lost or corrupted at the link layer. For deeper insight into the hardware and encoding issues, ethtool -S exposes extended NIC statistics, including FEC and CRC counters reported by the driver/hardware. Using both together gives a complete view: the first flags that there are problems, and the second reveals the specific kinds of errors happening at the NIC level.

Relying on only one of these tools misses important information: ip -s link alone won’t show FEC/CRC details, ethtool -S alone may not surface the general RX/TX error and drop counts, and using an outdated tool like ifconfig won’t provide the modern, detailed NIC statistics.