CCNA LAB

[reddevil2]

Hi Guys
I might seem a bit thick with one, I apologise in advance for my dumbness.....
I have just got a Cisco 2600 series router, two Cisco 2500 series routers, and two Cisco 2900 XL series catalyst switches.
My questions are which router do I set clock rate on??
Can I plug my cable modem into one of the switches, or would it be better connected to a router, if so which one??
Which port do I use to connect the router to a switch,?? As the 2503 routers only have Aux, Serial 1 and 2, Bri, console and an AUI port on the back. Where as the 2610 has an ISDN BRI S/T port an Ethernet 0/0, console, Aux and two small serial ports...
My apologies again especially to MACZEN if the questions are worded wrong.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

reddevil2,

I would suggest that you learn a little about your routers and what you have BEFORE you try to hook them up to your cable modem!!!!!!!!!

Get a feel for the equipment and UNDERSTAND it before you move to trying to connect your Internet connection through your lab!!!!

You will need to get at least 1 WIC for the 2600, the ISDN BRI S/T port is not going to help you any!!! You will need a WIC-1T or WIC-2T and then you will need the right cables to connect from whichever one you get to the serial interfaces on the 2500s, the Clockrate is set on the DCE end and that will be based on the end of the cable you use, one side is normally DTE and the other is DCE depending on the cale you get!

Check out the cables at

http://www.anthonypanda.com

- look them over and you will see ALL the different types - learn by looking this stuff up!!!!!

What model 2500s - did you get? You should have an AUI port, which requires a transceiver to operate as your Ethernet interface. Transceivers are pretty cheap and readily available from Cisco resellers and ebay vendors - about $10 normally!

You might want to download this FREE 720 page Lab PDF, it will teach you lots of the stuff you are asking!!!

CCNA Version 5-Draft "Learning by Doing"
by Matt Basham

Publisher: bashamm
Copyright: © 2007 Standard Copyright License
Language: English
Country: United States
Edition: Fifth Edition

http://www.lulu.com/content/815026

You will connect the Ethernet ports to the switches. Once you have the proper WIC and cables, then you will connect your routers to each other through the serial ports!

Hope this helps!




E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[CiscoGuy33]

reddevil2,

I see you have 2503 routers - You will have an AUI port, which requires a transceiver to operate as your Ethernet interface. You will need to get these at Anthony Panda (address above) or Ebay.

YOU CONNECT YOUR ETHERNET PORTS TO THE ETHERNET PORTS ON THE SWITCHES!!!!!!

Console port is for your console cable from your PC to the router to configure it, you will need to get or make a console cable and you will need a transiever to connect to the serial port on your PC - you can buy console cables on ebay or Anthony Panda.

You will learn about the AUX port later, can do some things with it but that is beyound CCNA for right now.

You said the 2600 has - "two small serial ports" what kind of WIC card are these on - it should have a name or number on the front of the card.

If you have not - GET A GOOD CISCO BOOK and READ IT such as Sybex CCNA Study Guide by Todd Lammel - it will only get easier as you read and then do it!!!!!

Once again, hope this helps

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[reddevil2]

CISCOGUY33
2610 router has WIC 2A/S serial card, I have two CentreCOM 210T twisted pair transceiver,IEEE 802.3 10 BASE T that came with the lab. I have three straight through, three cross over two DCE-DTE cables, and a rollover cable which also came with the lab

 

[maczen]

Red,
From what i have read here you can begin with a setup like this...

PART 1:
Run a serial cable from the 2610 to one of the 2503 routers making sure that the DCE end is plugged into the 2503.
Run the second serial cable from that 2503 to the second 2503 router but the DCE end of the cable should be plugged into the same 2503 router. It will look like this...

2610=DTE=serial=DCE=2503#1=DCE=serial=DTE=2503#2

Now you have to have one DCE and one DTE per cable.. This HAS to match the actual cable as it should be labelled DTE/DCE. So plug both DCE ends into the MIDDLE router (2503#1)

Once this is done you will log into 2503#1 and set the clock rate commands which is how you make the two interfaces on this router a DCE.

R2503>enable
R2503#conf t
R2503(config)int s0
R2503(config-if)clock rate 64000
R2503(config-if)no shutdown
R2503(config-if)<Press CTRL and Z>

R2503>enable
R2503#conf t
R2503(config)int s1
R2503(config-if)clock rate 64000
R2503(config-if)no shutdown
R2503(config-if)<Press CTRL and Z>

This is how you will set up the DTE/DCE aspects of this scenario. You will also have to configure IP addressing, routing protocols ETC.

This design will allow you to treat 2503#1 as a Frame Relay switch later when you reach that stage and will meet all CCNA design requirements.

PART 2:
You will want to connect the switches and there are several ways to do so... My suggestion would be to use the three crossover cables to uplink between the switches then use one of the regular straight through cables to run to the 2610 ethernet port. You can buy/make another crossover and run that between the 2503 transceivers to play later if you wish or change this configuration at any time.

The setup that I am discussing has one questionable area. You currently have a 10mbps ethernet port on the 2610 and that (should) not support Inter-VLAN Routing. (You will reach this later and it is an important CCNA concept). I have heard both sides of this argument.. ethernet does/does not support IVLR. My suggestion is to try it. I keep forgetting to.. LoL Try it and if it does not then you will waant to purchase an NM-1FE2W card (eBay). This will give you one Fast Ethernet Port that supports IVLR for sure as well as two additional WIC slots.

NOTE: You must have an IP Plus IOS in order to support IVLR. You can always check features at Cisco's Feature Navigator page:

http://www.cisco.com/go/fn/

Make sure to download the lab book that CiscoGuy mentioned from:

http://www.lulu.com/content/815026

If that does not work then just go to lulu.com and search for CCNA until you find the free book (That is what I had to do)...

LASTLY,
"My apologies again especially to MACZEN if the questions are worded wrong"

No worries, please do not take offense if I request a better explanation. In this line of work a forums are an invaluable resource. Learning forum etiquette as well as developing the ability to make a positive and informative post that makes the question well defined is not an ability. It is a skill that you have to develop (I am still working on it... LoL) It is often overlooked so take time to practice while you can... It will save you a LOT OF HEADACHE later... Good Luck and please post any more questions. It takes me a while to respond right now because I am working on my Security and not in the forum as often as I would like to be!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[CiscoGuy33]

reddevil2,

Set it up like maczen listed above, then as he said you will be ready when you move onto Frame Relay.

Google Cisco 2503 and Cisco 2610 and you will find a ton of information at Cisco on setting these routers up.

Download that PDF I listed above - it has 720 pages of hands on labs using 2500 routers, it starts with the very basic and works up to the complex, it is nice to have step by step labs to learn this stuff!

Ask questions!!!! Never worry if it is a dumb question - that is how you as well as many who are just reading will learn!!



E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[lerdalt]

I just had to download that pdf to check it out. That's an awesome book. A little dated, but the guts of it are still great. I wish I would have had something like that when I first started out.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

lerdalt,

The guy who wrote it was my "train the trainer" instructor about 8 years ago, he is teaching in Texas now - he got his Phd in Security at U of Florida.

He made national press about 2-3 years ago when he taught a college Cisco class and offered the text book for FREE!!

The book is a little dated as you said but it does use 2500s and for hands on for someone who has no idea on Cisco yet it is great AND the price is right - and for the most part the basics are the basics!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[maczen]

Here is a good link to a discussion on purchasing lab equipment we had in another forum (I normally don't link to other forums but this may help you).

https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/message/3724#3724

Hope this helps.. You can see that I love my 3640's!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[reddevil2]

Thanks for all the advice, downloaded a copy of that book as soon as I was given the link, all I need now is to get a power source and a place to place my little stack of cisco gear. But that will come in time.
Thought I had lost everything again yesterday, when I downloaded reccommended software of the MICROSFT site, Service Pack 3 for XP, boom bang nothing when I restarted the PC the whole thing seemed to clam up. Had to got into safe mode and remove the darn thing. Don't think I've lost much though. I won't be doing that again in a hurry.
Anyway I digress, again thanks for all your help and when it is up and running I'll let you know, all the manuals for it came on two CD's the files are WINZIPPED, so I cannot access them till I can get a copy of WINZIP, money a bit tight at the mo