CCNP Lab 1

[mikeleahy]

Hi guys
i have 5 routers and a few switches. I am using the latest cisco press book and their configs need 10 routers etc (ridiculous) . i find it very hard to get the lab working properly because of this. does any one know a good lab book which uses a few routers and just does the basics for the routing exam

 

[techkiwi]

I suggest you design your own labs.

Think about what it is you're trying to achieve - for example, you might want to set up an OSPF lab to examine how the election of DR and BDR take place. So you could hook together 4 routers via their ethernet ports, draw up a little diagram with addressing and so on, then do your configs. This has the advantage that you are not labbing up something the AUTHOR wants you to know, you are labbing up what YOU need to know. This is what I do when studying for an exam.

Regards, Graham

 

[mikeleahy]

would using ethernet be good enough?? should i not use serial

 

[leedsit]

Hi,

when learning about routing etc then ethernet will do... there are some circumstanced such as OSPF working slightly different on Point to multipoint circuits etc, however ethernet will do for the Routing.

With BCRAN, you may want to play more with BRI and serial circuits to prepare for the exam, and I would invest in a cheap ISDN switch off ebay for approx £50.

LEEroy
MCNE6,CCNP,CWNA,CCSA,Project+

 

[mikeleahy]

when i addres the ethernet , is there any particular scheme i should use with 4-5 routers and on switch that i could use

router 1 192.168.1.1
router 2 192.168.2.1
router 3 192.168.3.1

woould this be good enough

what ip should the switch get then

 

[CiscoGuy33]

mikeleahy,

What kind of routers are you trying to use?

You can use any IP sceme that you want but if you are hooking these up Ethernet to Ethernet then they will need to be in same subnet.

If R1 E0 is connected to R2 E0 by a crossover cable then one end would be 192.168.1.1/24 and the other end would be 192.168.1.2/24 - if all 3 are connected in the same switch then R3 E0 would be 192.168.1.3/24

To see the big picture (kind of like in the real world) it would really help if you had some 2501s or 2514s or 2610 and 2611s and connect the serial ports for the WANs and have the Ethernet ports (LANs) connect into different VLANs on the switch. This will give you a MUCH better understanding of CCNP content!

Just my thoughts!




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

 

[mikeleahy]

i have two 3810, two 2501 and one 2610. any info on how i should cable them

 

[mikeleahy]

i have some routers. with dte / dce cables. i have connected serial 0 on one to serial 0 to the other. the first router is configured as a frame-relay dce device and they are both using frame-relay encapsulation. they are configured with ip addresses etc and serial 0 and line protocol is up but they cant ping each other .... why is this??

 

[leedsit]

Hi,

I would`nt use framerelay at this stage ( you will cover that in BCRAN )

just setup one end with

Encapsulation HDLC
clock rate 64000 ( for example )
ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.252 ( for example )
no shut

the other

Encapsulation HDLC
ip address 1.1.1.2 255.255.255.252
no clock rate
no shut

if my memory serves me right, that should do the trick.


LEEroy
MCNE6,CCNP,CWNA,CCSA,Project+

 

[mikeleahy]

thanks for that. i have dte / dce cables. i presume the dce end goes into the one with the clockrate set. Will rip routes and eigrp show up if they are just advertising the same subnet. i have five routers. should i cable them all or would three do.

serial 0 on router 1 to serial 0 on the router 2
serial 1 on router 2 to serial 0 on router 3

any other idead man. im having lots of trouble getting it up and running

 

[leedsit]

Hi,

yes the DCE end goes on the interface with the Clockrate set. Its upto you, 3 in a chain is fine. If you create a few loopbacks on the end routers and distribute those into your routing protocol, gives you more to play with.
5 Would be better, then you can really play with multiple networks, different routing domains ( autonomous systems ) etc which will really help you in understanding the protocol.

Ripv1 can be a little confusing if your not used to classful / classless routing as it summarizes. so make sure you use Ripv2.

I`ll be honest, best thing to do is play.

LEEroy
MCNE6,CCNP,CWNA,CCSA,Project+

 

[mikeleahy]

i have 5. the books labs are just so complex. way too much so. what i need is something that tells me exactly what i need to know for the labs

 

[mikeleahy]

sorry again , but last nite i hooked up a few serial cables to 3 routers and gave them ips etc. COnfigured as dce and dte. Interface was up and line protocol was up, but i couldnt ping the serial ip addresses. they were getting the routes from the ethernet connectivity . i was using frame-relay encapsulation. any idea why this is

 

[leedsit]

Hi,

with framerelay, you need a framerelay switch to be able to switch packets accoring to DLCI`s, two DLCI`s make up a PVC. I suspect you did not setup a framerelay switch inbetween the two circuits???? Cisco routers will do this, however you need to switch it on + add some config commands.... hence I suggested using HDLC as your encapsulation method.

HTH.

LEEroy
MCNE6,CCNP,CWNA,CCSA,Project+

 

[leedsit]

Hi,

Check out

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=170741&seqNum=7&rl=1

Lee

LEEroy
MCNE6,CCNP,CWNA,CCSA,Project+