Best way to give home lab internet access?

I have a fairly specific setup at home so it's not just as easy as plugging one of my switches into my home router, etc.

At home I have a Linksys WRT54GL router (with DD-WRT) where my FIOS internet comes in. I have another WRT54GL router (configured as a bridge with DD-WRT) in my room. Connected to that bridge is an 8 port Netgear Gigabit switch that all my computers are connected to.

Next to my desk is my home lab rack. That rack consists of:

2x2950 switches
1x3550 switch
1x2514 router
1x2610 router w/NM-8A/S (frame relay switch)
2x3640 routers w/NM-2E2W w/WIC-1T's each

What's the best way to get this lab setup on the internet so I can test out NAT and other things? Is it even possible given my setup?

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

Kaminsky

Where you would normally just plug your internet cable into your pc nic, connect it to a configured router. ( remember if your PC gets it's IP by ISP dhcp, your router will need to also) Connect another interface on this router to a configured switch and then connect your pc nic to the switch.

See how easy that was to say !

Pretty much by the time you have figured out how to do all that, you should be ready to sit your CCNA

Later on you can have the ISP go into a firewall and then link the firewall to the router.

yanks4everontop

Kaminsky wrote: »

Where you would normally just plug your internet cable into your pc nic, connect it to a configured router. ( remember if your PC gets it's IP by ISP dhcp, your router will need to also) Connect another interface on this router to a configured switch and then connect your pc nic to the switch.

See how easy that was to say !

Pretty much by the time you have figured out how to do all that, you should be ready to sit your CCNA

Later on you can have the ISP go into a firewall and then link the firewall to the router.

What about my home Linksys Router that is used for internal IP? Doesn't that mean the router I connect to will need to be on the same subnet? I'm a little confused as to how my lab router will get out to the internet when it's getting it's IP from my home router.

amp2030

yanks4everontop wrote: »

What about my home Linksys Router that is used for internal IP? Doesn't that mean the router I connect to will need to be on the same subnet? I'm a little confused as to how my lab router will get out to the internet when it's getting it's IP from my home router.

One interface on your Cisco router will be getting an IP from your Linksys (DHCP or otherwise). Over that interface your router will be able to access the internet like any pc would. Only that interface will have an ip in the subnet given by your home router.

Another interface on your Cisco router will be connected to a switch, and to that switch you can connect the rest of your lab and/or a PC. You will give that interface an IP in a different subnet. That PC won't be able to access the internet, though, until you properly set up the Cisco router.

yanks4everontop

amp2030 wrote: »

One interface on your Cisco router will be getting an IP from your Linksys (DHCP or otherwise). Over that interface your router will be able to access the internet like any pc would. Only that interface will have an ip in the subnet given by your home router.

Another interface on your Cisco router will be connected to a switch, and to that switch you can connect the rest of your lab and/or a PC. You will give that interface an IP in a different subnet. That PC won't be able to access the internet, though, until you properly set up the Cisco router.

Thanks that clears things up a lot. Now I have to decide if I want to deal with a 10Mb internet connection instead of 54Mb and a 100Mb LAN connection between my PC and Server over 1Gb.

mattrgee

And don't forget to give the lab router a default route...

Netwurk

yanks4everontop wrote: »

Thanks that clears things up a lot. Now I have to decide if I want to deal with a 10Mb internet connection instead of 54Mb and a 100Mb LAN connection between my PC and Server over 1Gb.

For a home network (unless you have a blazing fast FIOS connection), you won't notice the difference when you connect to your ISP.

Very few DSL or cable company connections go beyond 3Mbps in the US (assuming you are in the US if you like the yanks). Even the old 10Mbps throughput on a 2500/2600 series router is way faster than that.

You may need to manually set the speed and duplex on your interfaces in order to get the best throughput, but you need to learn that stuff anyway if you want your CCNA.

Good luck from a Phillies fan.

yanks4everontop

Netwurk wrote: »

For a home network (unless you have a blazing fast FIOS connection), you won't notice the difference when you connect to your ISP.

Very few DSL or cable company connections go beyond 3Mbps in the US (assuming you are in the US if you like the yanks). Even the old 10Mbps throughput on a 2500/2600 series router is way faster than that.

You may need to manually set the speed and duplex on your interfaces in order to get the best throughput, but you need to learn that stuff anyway if you want your CCNA.

Good luck from a Phillies fan.

I'm not concerned about the speed of my internet connection, but I am concerned about the speed of my internal networking connections between my PC's and Server where all my data is stored. Right now they are all connected through a Gigabit switch and I can copy a 1GB file over the LAN in 15-20 seconds.

Netwurk

yanks4everontop wrote: »

I'm not concerned about the speed of my internet connection, but I am concerned about the speed of my internal networking connections between my PC's and Server where all my data is stored. Right now they are all connected through a Gigabit switch and I can copy a 1GB file over the LAN in 15-20 seconds.

If your internal LAN speed is more important than your Cisco lab, then just isolate it from the rest of your network

yanks4everontop

Netwurk wrote: »

If your internal LAN speed is more important than your Cisco lab, then just isolate it from the rest of your network

How much would it cost to buy gigabit ports to put in the 2 gigabit interfaces in my Catalyst 3550 switch?

Kaminsky

You can fit your 3550 with these types:

NEW CISCO Compatible G5484 GBIC One Year Warranty - eBay (item 310124567096 end time Mar-24-09 09:31:57 PDT)

or the older

Cisco WS-X3500-XL GigaStack GBIC for 3500 XL Series - eBay (item 260366996544 end time Mar-25-09 10:30:24 PDT)

Don't take any notice of the prices they are asking for these. You can get them much cheeper if you hunt around on ebay.

Brand new they will cost a fortune seeing you only need it to learn on.

It's important to get two the same types so look them up on cisco for compatibility with your switch and each other. Also make note of the presentations you will need for the cable. Typically SC or LC connectors but there are others so check. Usually best to buy new cables as they are pretty cheep for small length. Trouble with used is you may get a signal but you don't know if there are fractures by the way it has been treated which, although they may not stop the signal, will slow it down greatly.

yanks4everontop

Kaminsky wrote: »

You can fit your 3550 with these types:

NEW CISCO Compatible G5484 GBIC One Year Warranty - eBay (item 310124567096 end time Mar-24-09 09:31:57 PDT)

or the older

Cisco WS-X3500-XL GigaStack GBIC for 3500 XL Series - eBay (item 260366996544 end time Mar-25-09 10:30:24 PDT)

Don't take any notice of the prices they are asking for these. You can get them much cheeper if you hunt around on ebay.

Brand new they will cost a fortune seeing you only need it to learn on.

It's important to get two the same types so look them up on cisco for compatibility with your switch and each other. Also make note of the presentations you will need for the cable. Typically SC or LC connectors but there are others so check. Usually best to buy new cables as they are pretty cheep for small length. Trouble with used is you may get a signal but you don't know if there are fractures by the way it has been treated which, although they may not stop the signal, will slow it down greatly.

Thanks a lot. I'm a little confused by that last paragraph though. What are you referring to by presentations and SC/LC connectors? I need special cables to connect to these gigabit ports?

wbosher

I may be way off the mark here, but I'm just guessing. Won't your Linksys home router do the NAT function already? It already converts the private IP address on your PC to a public address to go to your ISP. Wouldn't that make setting up NAT on a Cisco router pretty pointless?

Like I said, I'm just guessing. I would be keen to get a response on this because I am thinking about doing the same thing.

??:

Netwurk

There are lots of ways to connect your Cisco router to your ISP, including having your router dial into the ISP. For me, I have a 2600 that uses PPPoE to talk to my ISP. In the old days, my maxed out 2500 running 12.3 did the same job.

But it's also valid to link your Cisco router or switch to the ISP provided router.

Assuming you don't have your own inventory of public IP addresses, you have to use NAT on the Cisco router if you connect directly. And NAT is good thing to know about for the CCNA.

But you can also use NAT in a lab that's not connected to the internet (or in a subnet of your lab that doesn't need internet connectivity).

Kaminsky

yanks4everontop wrote: »

Thanks a lot. I'm a little confused by that last paragraph though. What are you referring to by presentations and SC/LC connectors? I need special cables to connect to these gigabit ports?

I have some 3550's with the GBIC slots and a pair of old 1000Base-SX 850nm Laser class 1 GBICs (WS-G5484) to fit into them and run fibre between for learning purposes. This is for multimode fibre (not single mode) and you need either end of the fibre to have SC connections (the "presentation") to connect into each GBIC.

Cisco Gigabit Interface Converter [Cisco GBICs] - Cisco Systems

These are really cheap on EBay right now Cisco WS-G5484 GBIC 1000BASE-SX on eBay, also, Switches, Networking, Computing (end time 28-Feb-09 17:51:32 GMT)
[Edit: These eventually went for £4.99 + £4.00 P&P each.]

There is more info on the actual presentation of the fibre here. For this particular GBIC, you need SC connectors which are shown on this page as seperate but can come in a plastic housing that keeps them the correct distance apart and isn't so messy.

Cables To Go - Fiber Connector Guide

These are pretty cheap also: 3M SC to SC FIBRE OPTIC PATCH CABLE 62.5/125 BRAND NEW on eBay, also Fibre Optic Cables, Network Cables Connectors, Networking, Computing (end time 27-Feb-09 14:15:00 GMT)

However, these SC connectors are old now along with MT-RJ and have been pretty much supersceded these days by the LC connector.

Your 3550 slots can also take the RJ-45 1000Base-T Gbics (ws-g5483) and are also dirt cheep and you can just use a normal cat 5e. NEW GBIC Transceiver CISCO G5483 1000Base-T Compatible on eBay, also Other Cables Connectors, Network Cables Connectors, Networking, Computing (end time 18-Mar-09 18:58:08 GMT)

Hope that helped.

NOTE: When working with fibre, Single Mode are typically driven by real lasers but most Multi Mode are driven by high powered LEDs. One fibre will be lit (red coloured light) whilst the other is not. (IE lit from the other end). DO NOT LOOK INTO THESE - They will fry your retinas. Take precautions when trying to find the transmit to match up to a recieve socket and try to bounce the light off a piece of paper or something. If you hear the term "Dark Fibre", that is fibre which has been put in place but has not yet been put into service.. ie no light.

They say you can only look directly into a laser twice.... One in the right eye.. Once in the left... After that, you ain't looking no more ! Be carefull.

Kaminsky

wbosher wrote: »

I may be way off the mark here, but I'm just guessing. Won't your Linksys home router do the NAT function already? It already converts the private IP address on your PC to a public address to go to your ISP. Wouldn't that make setting up NAT on a Cisco router pretty pointless?

Like I said, I'm just guessing. I would be keen to get a response on this because I am thinking about doing the same thing. ??:

Am I right in thinking that Lynksys arn't as configurable as the cisco arm of the company. If your in networking for the long haul and want to do NAT properly why not get a cheap PIX ? 501s are old but great for studying purposes. Even if you arn't interested in security, configuring your ISP to run through an old PIX would be good enough for a home network and bolster up your security knowledge quite a bit whilst learning to configure it.

Again, I just found a really cheap one on EBay. Cisco Pix 501 firewall on eBay, also, Firewall Security, Networking, Computing (end time 28-Feb-09 16:16:04 GMT)

These were very popular in the industry not that many years ago.

You can see why my mrs is wanting to ban me from EBay...

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote: »

501s are old but great for studying purposes.

PIX 501s are ancient though. You're stuck with v6 of PIX OS as well. v7 and above won't fit on the flash. They're also pretty slow. AES and DES throughput is in the low single digits.

Kaminsky

tiersten wrote: »

PIX 501s are ancient though. You're stuck with v6 of PIX OS as well. v7 and above won't fit on the flash. They're also pretty slow. AES and DES throughput is in the low single digits.

But for a home lab with home bandwidth ?

Would a nokia IP350 be better or just as old ?

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote: »

But for a home lab with home bandwidth ?

Would a nokia IP350 be better or just as old ?

A 501 can do about 3Mbps with 3DES and about 4Mbps with AES. That isn't particularly fast compared to what you can get on a home connection these days.

You can pick up the base model ASA5505 for not too much and that can do 100Mbps for 3DES/AES. It will also run the latest OS. If you want experience of the old v6 PIX OS then you'd have to pick up an old PIX though. The ASAs don't work with anything older than v7.

No idea about the Nokia units.

tiersten

The main issue is that you're stuck with 6.3 on the 501. It is pretty old and quite a few things have changed since then.