home lab setup

mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
i've got the routers and the switches, and I made a bunch or cables, regular and crossover

i know how to configure the basics, and have them all set up with ip addresses, usernames and passwords etc

the hardest part for me, is trying to figure out how to set it up. by that i mean, i have no idea which switches should go to which routers. i did a few searches in the forums and on youtube, couldn't find what i am looking for
am i missing something that obvious?
any help with a link, or what search terms i should be trying, would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • jsb515jsb515 Member Posts: 253
    how many switches and routers you got and what models?
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    i have 5 2950C's and 4 1760 routers
    i have the wic 1dsu's on 2 routers, the other 2 have 4esw's so i think i can the whole thing with just straight through and crossover cat 5
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    do i need to connect to my isp?

    or can i start right from my computer ( i added a second ethernet port) to switch one and on from there?
  • danstardanstar Member Posts: 136
    This makes us even. LOL, these seniors on techexams are doing a great job.
    Preparing for CCNA Certification :study:
    Up Next: CCNP
    Onto the Next: CCNA Voice
    And Umm: CCNP Voice
  • oli356oli356 Member Posts: 364
    You don't NEED to connect to your ISP, some people do but I never did. You don't NEED to connect to your PC either, you could do for connectivity tests but again, its not needed. Of course you need the console cable :p

    So your basically struggling on what to actually do with the equipment, how to cable it etc? I normally keep my switches and routers separately, at least I did for ICND2. So for routing protocols I would simply connect my routers in a line R1--R2--R3--R4 .

    With the switches I would make a triangle loop out of them (using 3 switches). The other 2 I would personally connect to R1 or R4 or just use them to create more loops in the L2 network.

    So something like this, http://i.imgur.com/AyI8br9.png . Got to love the quick drawing

    There's no right or wrong way to do things, I just do things like this because of find it simple.
    I could have R1--S1--R2--R3--S3--R4 but that would just confuse me and I wouldn't see the point.
    Lab:
    Combination of GNS3 and Cisco equipment if required.
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    thanks - i think i was getting tripped up on connecting to the internet
    i did end up connecting to my computer
    it goes computer-switch, and all 5 switches are connected to each other, with 4 of the five switches connected to a router

    few more quick questions - does it matter if the computer is hooked directly to a switch or a router? advantages or disadvantages to either?

    also, with the routers - one of the books i read confused me about the WIC cards, saying they were for facing out to the internet, and only my ethernet port (1760 only has one) going back in to my network

    why would i need more than one port facing the internet? did i read it wrong?
  • oli356oli356 Member Posts: 364
    In a lab scenario, no it doesn't really matter if your PC is directly connected to the router. It really does depend on what you're doing though.
    Once you start learning about topics you should be able to think of topologies and what you want to test. The advantage of having a home lab is that you can easily change the topology, my equipment is in the office 8 miles away from my house. I can't exactly simply unplug a cable.

    Hmm, I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I used WIC-1Ts which use serial cable CSU/DSU. These connected router to router and then the RJ45 ethernet ports on the routers connected to switches (or routers acting as hosts).
    Lab:
    Combination of GNS3 and Cisco equipment if required.
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    i tried to loosely copy the config that they had set up in the INE videos and i've now wasted 5 hours.

    i re-did all the cables, i tried other ports, i messed it around 80 different ways

    i have since tried simplifying things, and just have the 5 switches hooked up to each other.
    BUT switch 1 can ping switches 2-5, and 2-5 can all ping each other, but none of them can ping switch 1

    i know i must be missing something easy, please someone end my misery
  • oli356oli356 Member Posts: 364
    Without seeing the configs and how the switches are connected I doubt anyone can help :p
    Lab:
    Combination of GNS3 and Cisco equipment if required.
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Sorry, thought that was insignificant.
    There's not much to it, switch one is 192.168.0.1, switch 2 is 192.168.0.2 and so on. I've got a basic crossover cable from the f0/1 of switch 1 to f0/2 of switch 2. Next crossover goes from f0/1 on switch 2 to f 0/2 on switch 3 and so on.
    I had switch 5 connected back to switch 1 but got an amber port so removed it
  • oli356oli356 Member Posts: 364
    If the configuration is as simple as 5 switches in a line with the address from 192.168.0.1 - 0.5 and there are problems - weird.
    Make sure all of the links are trunks.

    If that doesn't work.. wr er, reload and try again or something :p
    Lab:
    Combination of GNS3 and Cisco equipment if required.
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Thanks- ill try that. I thought trunking only mattered if I was running multiple vlans- mine are all vlan 1
  • oli356oli356 Member Posts: 364
    Generally yes but get into habit of setting them as trunk links anyway, or you spend an hour troubleshooting to find out it was that :p

    I assume a show ip int b shows everything as up | up as well?
    Lab:
    Combination of GNS3 and Cisco equipment if required.
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Yes, everything is up.
    I was running switchport mode access.
  • instant000instant000 Member Posts: 1,745
    You said that you went from 1, to 2, to 3, to 4, to 5, then tried to link from 5 to 1

    the reason the one from 5 to 1 went amber was more than likely 'cause of spanning tree :D .... Have you looked at spanning tree yet?

    Hope this helps.
    Currently Working: CCIE R&S
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!)
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    went back through and did the "switchport mode d d" command on all interfaces
    still showing a few as static access for operational mode, even though for administrative mode they say dynamic desirable
    i am getting that on sw2 f0/1-sw3 f0/2
    also had it on the connection back from switch 5 to switch 1, but i disconnected that b/c i didn't know if that cable should even be there
    still cant ping switch 1 - seems weird since it has one port connected, and it shows trunking. i can ping FROM switch 1 to all other switches no problem
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    just saw the info about spanning tree- was sorta wondering about that. figured it was easier to unplug that cable than learn spanning tree and trunking all at once

    also to update the last post. i went back in and did a "switchport mode trunk" command to get the other two interfaces into trunk mode, then ran the "switchport mode d d" command so they'd all be the same.

    now all 8 of my ports show trunking and i can't ping 192.168.0.1 from switches 2-5 still
  • instant000instant000 Member Posts: 1,745
    1. Are all those ip's in the same VLAN, or not?
    2. If they're not in the same VLAN, you'll need some type of routing to get between them.


    EDIT: I ask 'cause I'm somehow thinking that the IP that switch1 is pinging from isn't necessarily the same one you're trying to ping to when you try to reach it, for whatever reason.

    Also, if you could paste the configs of the SWITCHES between "code" tags, that'd be awesome.
    Currently Working: CCIE R&S
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!)
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    they go
    192.168.0.1 255.255.255.0
    192.168.0.2 255.255.255.0
    192.168.0.3 255.255.255.0
    192.168.0.4 255.255.255.0
    192.168.0.5 255.255.255.0

    if it helps, I earlier had the 4 routers hooked up to port 18 in switch #'s 1,2,4+5, as well as a pc - they went 192.168.0.6-10 and everything could ping each other except 1 could ping 2-5 and no one could ping 1
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    ding ding ding!!!
    when i set up switch 1 a week ago - i used 192.168.1.5!
    could have sworn i went back in and re-numbered them all

    now its on to the chapter on spanning tree so i can get 5 connected back to 1, then i'll add the routers
    thanks everyone
  • instant000instant000 Member Posts: 1,745
    It has to be something non-obvious. I believe that we have an idea of how they're connected.
    port 1 of switch 1 connects to port 2 of switch 2
    port 1 of switch 2 connect to port 2 of switch 3
    port 1 of switch 3 connects to port 2 of switch 4
    port 1 of switch 4 connects to port 2 of switch 5

    However, full configurations of the switches would provide a better idea of how they're configured. (which VLANs these things are in, etc.) Feel free to edit out any passwords.

    Thanks.
    Currently Working: CCIE R&S
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!)
  • instant000instant000 Member Posts: 1,745
    Hah.

    You caught the mistake, it was an ip address numbering issue.

    Good that you found this. It's simple mistakes like this that can provide the valuable lesson of "check everything" and "assume nothing".

    Hope this helps!
    Currently Working: CCIE R&S
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!)
  • mikesprangermikespranger Member Posts: 54 ■■□□□□□□□□
    as soon as you said "EDIT: I ask 'cause I'm somehow thinking that the IP that switch1 is pinging from isn't necessarily the same one you're trying to ping to when you try to reach it, for whatever reason." i knew it

    thanks again
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