Physical Set-up

jrmcent

So I have been studying the Sybex book and looking through the notes and labs on this site. I have 2 2501's and a 1912 coming in on Wednesday. Now I have not really gone through any physical set-up of the routers and switches yet, but I want to be able to practice on the IOS because that is what the book is covering right now. I looked at the home lab set-up on this site but it doesn't really cover all the connections of the switches and the routers. I have done some searches but cant seem to find a diagram or outline that will tell me where to connect what. I have two comps, so im assuming im going to have one console cable go to my desktop. Then have the DTE and DCE cables connected to each other and then one into each router serial port. Then have the internet into the switch and then the two Ethernet cables from the transceivers on the routers into the switch. Can anyone confirm that this is a valid set-up? The part I am really unsure about is where to have the internet and ethernet cables from the routers go into. I am assuming they can both go into the switch. But say I didnt have a switch, where would the internet go then? Into on of the routers? If anyone can point me to a website maybe with an outline or diagram that covers all the connections that would be great. Of course if you have any suggestions that would be great as well. Thanks.

Darthn3ss

You got it right on how to connect the routers.. connect the DCE side of the cable to one of the routers, and DTE obvioulsy to the other side. Not sure about the internet part

But why do you want an internet connection on your lab?

jrmcent

lol well i guess that questions answers my question. I thought I needed one for some reason, but now that I think about it I guess I don't.

Darthn3ss

No, in my experience you do not need an internet connection to do practice labs and such. I wouldn't mind eventually letting my cicso equipment run my home network, but I would buy separate equipment since you're going to be changing configuration alot on your lab equipment.


I mean hell, who doesn't need enterprise routers & switches to run their network with less than 5 hosts...

jrmcent

haha, thanks for the info. One more question...where am I going to connect the second computer, should I just have an Ethernet cable from that comp into the switch?. Should I even bother connecting it to the network?

emsrescue

Your going to change the setup/connections of your lab on a regular basis. As long as you have anough cables to connect the routers to each other via the serial ports and all your PC's and routers to the switch you are on the right path.

Having 2 pc's to connect to your network is not a bad thing. It means you can test your setup by pinging each other etc.

Get hold of a lab manual or look at some of the techlabs on here. They will gove you a good idea of what you can setup with the kit you have.

Jon

redgoblin

With 2 lots of 2501's you could connect them back to back with a DCE/DTE serial cable. Make sure the DCE end is configured with the 'clock rate' command to simulate a Leased line connection. That leaves the Switch - I suppose the only real thing you could do is to have the Ethernet cables running from the 2501's (you'll need a Transceiver for this by the way) into the Switch and have the 2 computers plugged into that same switch. You'll find yourself a bit limited with that setup but if IOS commands is all you want to practise then it should be fine.

With regards to the internet connection, I have my lab setup so that I can access it from the outside. It depends on what you want to achieve with this, if you want to be able to setup the lab from scratch (via the internet) then you won't be able to Telnet in because to be able to Telnet you need valid IP addresses configured on the routers (the way to get around this is to have an Access Server with console cables going into each router). The easier solution is to have IP addresses pre-configured on the routers so that they accept Telnet connections. If you have a home ADSL/Cable router, you'll need to forward port 23 (telnet) to the Router that you want to Telnet to. Additionally, you'll need to make sure the router has VTY passwords configured as routers refuse Telnet connections without VTY passwords configured. Hope this helps

remyforbes777

If you can ditch the 1900 series and try and get a 2950 series. The CCNA no longer tests on the 1900 series commands.

jrmcent

ok thanks for all the replies they helped a lot. Yeah I am in the process of looking for a 2950, waiting to see if any really cheap ones pop up on ebay. Thanks again everyone.