Setting up a home lab - One issue

RJR

When setting up my home lab, I have cox residential.

I set my outside interface ip address to dhcp via "ip dhcp setroute"

I setup pools in my local switches to point to the router, I can ping out. My old wifi router use to autogenerate DNS from my ISP.... I mean Im sure I could use the public Google DNS but how would I go about using my ISP's DNS servers?

Do I have to call them? Can my equipment learn this dynamically?

MTciscoguy

Why are you hooking it up to your live line? I would not hook my home lab up to my primary internet service line.

docrice

My home lab is my home network. I directly connect a Cisco router to my DSL line. If I screw something up, I'm forced to fix it.

It's a great way to learn the technology.

MTciscoguy

I agree it is a good way to learn new technology, but in my case, if I screw up, then I take my wife offline and she can't service her customers websites, which numbers over 400 that she maintains. I have a robust in house network with switches, routers, servers as well as 7 stations, so I learn all the technology I can with what I have. Lot of people have said they would not hook their lab up to their live net connections, many of them I have read right here on this website.

HAMP

I wouldn't use my Cisco lab as my home network setup. or are you using Cisco equipment as your home network. If it was both, wouldn't you have to take down your home network to setup one of the test labs to practice for whichever cert you are going for?

At some point it would disrupt the home setup and that can bother some people in the house.

Another reason is the amount of electricity these business class devices use compared to home devices. I know sometimes when I finish with my labbing, I think to myself of how much did I just burn up... lol

RJR

Fortunately I only hook up the lab equipment late at night and then hook up the single all in one wifi router when Im done most nights.


I want to change that, I was debating on calling my ISP and asking for their STATIC DNS servers. The only reason I held off was because when I do a "ipconfig /all" my DNS server is my default gateway. I don't understand how the all in one device is making the magic happen...

emaz

Touché, same here. As much as it would be a plus for experience to have it hooked up in that manner, I don't want to literally bring work home.

quickman007

I just checked what my WiFi router was using for DNS and used that address on my lab router. The all-in-one device is getting the DNS request and passing it off to your ISP, then they take care of it from there.

RJR

thanks for the response.. hmm I should probably study some more service provider basics since I'm really interested in that process hind the scenes. Appreciated