Setting up a router and need a 101

[Kactus]

Hey there,

I've just been given a new job and it's taken me into a whole new area: setting up a new office complete with WAN. I'm happy setting up Servers and stuff but I've never had to set up a router from scratch before.

Does anyone know any good places to start reading about the best way to do this? Basically I'm looking for a 'Routers 101'.

Also (and I don't want to become a burden here) does anyone have any good 'Watch out for...' tips?

Thanks for your help,
Dave

 

[plshlpme]

cisco's website is a great resource...
as soon as you know what you need... ie the type of wan connection..
just search on that
they give alot of configuration examples..
after that ask here on this board. youll get a good answer nice and quick

 

[tech1994]

Don't forget to copy run start!!!

Cisco's website is a great resource but can be tough to navigate through the 11 million webpages.

Forums are a great source of information in my opinion.

Good luck!

----------------------

http://www.ciscohq.com

 

[Kactus]

Thanks guys,

As soon as I know exactly what it is they want I'll search a little more specifically. I suppose I was initially a little put off by Cisco's vast amount of information.

Thanks for your help,
Dave

 

[CorruptedLogic]

You may also want to look at downloading Cisco's Config Maker. It can pretty much configure your whole network (very basically) for you by you just answering a few questions. I found it useful when i was first starting out as it throws a reasonable script in your router and you can then go in and customize it and tewak it to what you want.

Good luck!

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....

 

[techkiwi]

What size office are you looking at? Will a a single router and a switch be sufficient? Let us know how many users you are looking at supporting.

Also I'm guessing you don't need me to tell you this, but start thinking about your addressing now! This will be dependant on factors such as how many users you need to support and your WAN connectivity.

Graham

 

[Kactus]

Hello,

It's a bit of a 'green-field' start up for some new branches and details are still being finalised.

Graham, your comment about thinking about addressing makes me wonder what there is to think about addressing? Previously when setting up servers and workstations I've been allocated IP address ranges - is this not something that just cascades from a higher router?

What sort of things should I be considering for address ranges? Subnet masks? Have we just strayed into an area that is not applicable to this thread? Am I showing my ignorance?

Cheers,
Dave

 

[plshlpme]

the addressing doesn't really cascade.. with classless ip routing you can take control of how you want the addressing to go..

you say that you have been given ranges.. so would it be the case again that someone else will assign a range to you for this location?

putting it on paper and having a plan now will save you alot of time down the road.
ie.
sitea 10.1.0.0 /17
siteb 10.1.128.0 /17
sitec 10.2.0.0/17 etc....
you want to make sure you give each site enough ips both for now and for projected growth...