How can I simulate a host on a router?

I have only one PC and I'm trying to find out if there's a way to simulate a host attached to a router. I'm doing NAT labs and I want to be able to ping to and from this virtual host.. Is this possible?

Will loopbacks or reverse telnet play a role here?

bZ

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Comments

bighornsheep

reverse telnet is unrelated. You can use loopbacks to achieve what you want.

beezee

so just assign Host A EO 10.1.1.2 as Loopback 0 ip add 10.1.1.2, right?

cisco_trooper

Don't forget to have routes to that loopback address if your network is more than 1 hop in diameter....

There are also some extended ping options that allow you to specify both source and destination ip addresses, so you can simulate the ping coming from that loopback address, as if you were a host attached to the far side of the router.

cisco_trooper

172.16.0.1/32

(LO0 RTR_A FA1/0)

192.168.10.0/24

(FA1/0 RTR_B LO0)

172.16.1.1/32

Just type ping at the prompt of either RTR_A or RTR_B. It will then ask you a list of questions.
For the source put 172.16.0.1 and for the destination put 172.16.1.1. This effectively simulates reachability of hosts on the outside edges of this network. Like I said, make sure you have routes defined. This is easiest with a routing protocol of your choice.

I use loopbacks to simulate hosts in almost every lab I create.

Hope that helps you.

beezee

Yes it does! Thank you very much.