Newb 2821 wiring questions

kalari

I've been "given" 4 Cisco 2821 routers to play with and right now they are up and talking to each other through a switch.

I'm wondering how to setup serial connections on them to try PPP / Frame Relay exercises.

1) Is it possible to setup a mock Frame Relay with said equipment?

2) The routers have the standard Con and Aux ports on the front and on the back they have 2 standard ethernets (Gig 0/0 and Gig 0/1) and what looks like an ethernet port, but is labeled T1 CSU/DSU. Can I just run a crossover cable from one T1 CSU/DSU port to another and set one to provide the clockrate? I tried with a straight through cable but the interfaces wouldn't come up and had to leave before I could move on.

3) Or can I just make a PPP connection over the standard Ethernet ports?

I'm stumped because the book has gone on and on about serial connections and the glories of PPP but I see no standard serial ports. Are the wide serial connections they show in the books something of the past?

Thanks much!

georgemc

kalari wrote:

I've been "given" 4 Cisco 2821 routers to play with and right now they are up and talking to each other through a switch.

I'm wondering how to setup serial connections on them to try PPP / Frame Relay exercises.

1) Is it possible to setup a mock Frame Relay with said equipment?

Without serial interfaces, I don't believe it's possible to setup frame-relay switching.

kalari wrote:

2) The routers have the standard Con and Aux ports on the front and on the back they have 2 standard ethernets (Gig 0/0 and Gig 0/1) and what looks like an ethernet port, but is labeled T1 CSU/DSU. Can I just run a crossover cable from one T1 CSU/DSU port to another and set one to provide the clockrate? I tried with a straight through cable but the interfaces wouldn't come up and had to leave before I could move on.

You cannot use a standard ethernet crossover that crosses pins 1, 2, 3 and 6. You can use a T1 crossover cable that croses 1, 2, 4 and 5. When making said cable pin 1 goes to pin 4, and pin 2 goes to pin 5. The others can be straight through or not connected.

kalari wrote:

3) Or can I just make a PPP connection over the standard Ethernet ports?

I've never setup or worked with PPPoE so I can't help you there, except to say that it is possible.

kalari wrote:

I'm stumped because the book has gone on and on about serial connections and the glories of PPP but I see no standard serial ports. Are the wide serial connections they show in the books something of the past?

I'm not sure what connectors you're talking about exactly, but the 60 pin serial connections are still common, the Smart-Serial (looks kinda like a USB connector) connections are the newest, and the older 50-pin serials like found on the older Cisco 3000/4000 and AGS/IGS routers are seldom seen anymore.

George