Explanation After two OSPF neighboring routers establish bi-directional communication and complete DR/BDR election (on multi-access networks), the routers transition to the exstart state. In this state, the neighboring routers establish a master/slave relationship and determine the initial database descriptor (DBD) sequence number to use while exchanging DBD packets. Neighbors Stuck in Exstart/Exchange State The problem occurs most frequently when attempting to run OSPF between a Cisco router and another vendor's router. The problem occurs when the maximum transmission unit (MTU) settings for neighboring router interfaces don't match. If the router with the higher MTU sends a packet larger that the MTU set on the neighboring router, the neighboring router ignores the packet.