My Networking Labs

How to Connect to Router or Switch Console if Serial Port is Not Available in Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 17:27:00 +0000

There is a possibility that your computer or laptop doesn't have a serial port if it is new. Today's latest laptops and computers don't have serial or printer ports. Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports have taken the place of the serial connectors.

Use a USB to Serial Adapter if you wish to connect to the console port on your router or switch. There's a chance the USB to Serial converter isn't plug-and-play. For these adapters, you also need to install the necessary drivers. The image below shows a common USB to Serial adapter with a console cable.

What is The Purpose of The Startup Configuration File on a Cisco router?

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 12:15:00 +0000

Cisco devices store commands in two configuration files:

· startup configuration

· running configuration

Difference between a running configuration and a startup configuration.

Your devices run under the startup configuration when they reboot or turn on. The configuration file that the device is now running on is known as the running configuration. The main distinction is that although no modifications are made to the startup configuration file, the running configuration file incorporates all recent configuration changes you've made since the last device reboot.

Why do startup and running configurations need to be in sync?

The running configuration file, which is kept in the device's Memory, is updated whenever you make a modification to the configurations of the device. Consequently, any recent modifications to the running configurations that were made will be lost every time the devices restart as a result of a manual reboot or a power outage.

Device configurations are frequently changed to address flaws or boost performance. Rebooting a device unexpectedly will remove all previous changes, leave it vulnerable to assaults, and cause network outages. You should make sure that all modifications made to the running configuration of devices are replicated to the starting configuration in order to prevent similar errors.

How do you copy the running configuration to the startup configuration?

The running configuration will immediately receive the command you type in the global configuration mode. All configured commands will be lost if a device loses power since a running configuration is stored in RAM.

You must duplicate your existing configuration into the startup configuration in order to prevent this scenario. All configuration changes are saved even if a device loses power since a startup configuration is kept in nonvolatile memory.

Use the show startup-config and show running-config commands on a Telnet or PuTTY console to see the most recent iterations of the startup and running configurations. Then you may manually compare these configurations to one another, export them, and copy the modifications to the startup configuration.

You must enter the command copy running-configuration startup-configuration in order to copy your running configuration into the startup configuration.

Router#copy running-config startup-config

Destination filename [startup-config]?

Building configuration...

[OK]

Router#

What Type of Cable is Used to Connect a Workstation Serial Port to a Cisco router Console Port?

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:30:00 +0000

In short, the answer to the question, What type of cable is used to connect a workstation serial port to a Cisco router console port? Is following, but if you are seeking a long answer with more detail please do not hesitate to read more.

crossover
rollover
straight-through
coaxial

Explanation: Wire pairs on UTP cables can be terminated in a variety of ways for usage in various applications. A UTP cable must be terminated as a rollover or console cable in order to connect it to a Cisco router from a PC serial port.

What kind of cable is utilized to connect a Workstation serial port to a Cisco Router Console Port? is a question that Workstation owners may have. Without utilizing the router's browser-based software, workstations can connect to the router's console ports and retrieve router data. To enable direct connection to the console, routers frequently ship with console cables and adapters.

Yet, you might not be aware of the proper cable to use while attaching the Workstation to the Cisco Router. Which cable is it then? Workstation serial ports can be connected to Cisco router console ports using rollover cables. Its typical hue is light blue or red, making it simpler to recognize than other network cables. Moreover, rollover cables link router consoles and computer terminals.

Which Cable Do You Require to Establish Connection between Workstation and Cisco Router Console?

You can connect the workstation to the Cisco Router using the rollover cable. To set it apart from other network cables, its color typically stays light blue or red.

Moreover, a cable may be used to link a computer and a switch or router. You must make sure that the cable is connected appropriately on both the sender and receiver sides while establishing a Local Area Network connection.

These rollovers, in contrast to other crossovers, coaxial and straight-through cables, attempt to interact with the device rather than take data.

Undoubtedly, numerous additional cables could centralize the entire network programming procedure. Rollover cables are still required for network hardware maintenance, troubleshooting, and upgrade procedures.

Which Pinouts of Rollover Cables Connect to Cisco Router Console Port?

Rollover cables have two boxes that have head-to-head connectors and are different from one another. RJ45 connectors are located on the cable's one end.

The right-side wire of the cable's eight wires is sequenced in descending order (top to bottom). On the other hand, the left side receives the numbers in ascending sequence (bottom to top).

The number of pinouts on both ends is the same yet they are opposite. The cable properly receives Rollover after connecting, which is how the cable got its name, Rollover.

Using terminal emulator software like HyperTerminal or Putty, you may control the device after the cable is connected. The console port settings must then be paired with the workstation serial port configuration. Here are some standard attributes:

No hardware flow control
No parity bits
9600 baud
8 data bits
One-stop bits

Conclusion

To view the router information, workstations can be connected to router console ports, doing away with the need for browser-based software.

In order to connect directly to the console, the router frequently includes a console cable and adapter. One of the null-modem cables used to connect the workstation serial port to the console section of the Cisco router is called rollover.

It stands out from other networking wires thanks to its flat, blue color. Moreover, these unshielded twisted wire pairs are offered in a variety of configurations for application in a variety of processes.

How to connect and access a router or a switch using console connection

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:00:00 +0000

A console port, commonly referred to as the management port, is located on the back of every Cisco router or switch. As a router or switch lacks a display device, a console port is used to connect a computer directly to the device and manage it. Since there is initially no network connection to connect using SSH, HTTP, or HTTPS, the console port must be used to install routers on. RJ45 ports are commonly used for router console ports. On a router, the following image depicts a console port.

The computer's Serial/COM port is connected to the router or switch console port using a special cable known as a rollover cable. The cable has a DB9 to RJ45 converter that is molded onto one end and an RJ49 style connector on the other. Below is a photo of the console wire.

What Information About a Cisco Router Can Be Verified Using The Show Version Command?

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 16:32:00 +0000

The show version command is a cisco router and cisco switches IOS command which could be executed from the User Exec mode, Privileged mode, or diagnostic mode.

It provides detailed information about the internal components of the Cisco device, including software (IOS) version, memory, software release information, the system image file, configuration register, and other information.

The show version command is generally used to identify the version of Cisco IOS a device (Router, Switch, Firewall, etc.) is using.

The command displays the following information particularly:

· Software information

Main Cisco IOS image version
Main Cisco IOS image capabilities (feature set)
Location and name of bootfile in ROM
Bootflash image version (depending on platform)

· Device-specific information

Device name
System uptime
System reload reason
Config-register setting
Config-register settings for after the next reload (depending on platform)

· Hardware information

Platform type
Processor type
Processor hardware revision
Amount of main (processor) memory installed
Amount I/O memory installed
Amount of Flash memory installed on different types (depending on platform)
Processor board ID

The following is an example of the show version command on a Cisco 2514 router.

Router>show version

Cisco IOS Software [Everest], ISR Software (X86_64_LINUX_IOSD-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 16.6.4,RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)

Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport

Copyright (c) 1986-2018 by Cisco Systems, Inc.

Compiled Sun 08-Jul-18 04:33 by mcpre

Cisco IOS-XE software, Copyright (c) 2005-2018 by cisco Systems, Inc.

All rights reserved. Certain components of Cisco IOS-XE software are

licensed under the GNU General Public License ("GPL") Version 2.0. The

software code licensed under GPL Version 2.0 is free software that comes

with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You can redistribute and/or modify such

GPL code under the terms of GPL Version 2.0. For more details, see the

documentation or "License Notice" file accompanying the IOS-XE software,

or the applicable URL provided on the flyer accompanying the IOS-XE

software.

ROM: IOS-XE ROMMON

Router uptime is 33 seconds

Uptime for this control processor is 33 seconds

System returned to ROM by power-on

System image file is "bootflash:isr4300-universalk9.16.06.04.SPA.bin"

Last reload reason: PowerOn

This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to United

States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer and

use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply

third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use encryption.

Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for

compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product you

agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are unable

to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product immediately.

A summary of U.S. laws governing Cisco cryptographic products may be found at:

http://www.cisco.com/wwl/export/crypto/tool/stqrg.html

If you require further assistance please contact us by sending email to

export@cisco.com.

Suite License Information for Module:'esg'

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

Suite Suite Current Type Suite Next reboot

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

FoundationSuiteK9 None None None

securityk9

appxk9

AdvUCSuiteK9 None None None

uck9

cme - srst

cube

Technology Package License Information:

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

Technology Technology-package Technology-package

Current Type Next reboot

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

appxk9 None None None

uck9 None None None

securityk9 securityk9 Permanent securityk9

ipbase ipbasek9 Permanent ipbasek9

cisco ISR4331/K9 (1RU) processor with 1795999K/6147K bytes of memory.

Processor board ID FLM232010G0

3 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces

32768K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.

4194304K bytes of physical memory.

3207167K bytes of flash memory at bootflash:.

0K bytes of WebUI ODM Files at webui:.

Configuration register is 0x2102

So you could see that The information provided by the show version command is really useful. The show version command displays alternative hardware configuration and non-standard software settings depending on your router type. The next section focuses on the command's overall output:

The show version command prints the IOS version number and its internal name on the first few lines of output. The internal name of IOS provides information about its capabilities and options. As you can see in the sample above, The IOS version is 16.6.4, and the name is X86_64_LINUX_IOSD-UNIVERSALK9-M.

In the second part, the copyright issue and license are discussed.

Next to the system image file same and the location it is loaded from and system uptime is mentioned and at last, the value of the Configuration register is printed.

Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 19:58:00 +0000

If you are following this weblog, then you might have already read our previous post where we introduced the Interior Gateway Protocol. if I may recall, for both our new readers and those who read the previous weblog, we stated that the routing protocols could be classified according to their various characteristics which are purpose, operation, and behavior. We also stated that the routing protocols are divided into the interior gateway protocol IGP and exterior gateway protocol EGP according to their purpose.

As we have already explained the Interior Gateway Protocol, we will be discussing the Exterior Gateway Protocol in this post.

What is Exterior Gateway Protocol

Unlike Interior Gateway Protocol, the exterior gateway protocol is used to share the routing information in-between different autonomous systems. These routing information’s are simply the information by which networks could be accessed through certain autonomous systems.

The EGP routers are configured at the edge of the network. They announce that they can reach networks that are part of its autonomous system. The systems first exchange EGP Hello and I-Heard-You (I-H-U) messages before exchanging routing information. These messages provide the basis of a communication channel between two EGP gateways. The exchange of Hello and I-H-U messages is known as acquiring a neighbor, and computers communicating over EGP are known as EGP neighbors.

One of the most popular Exterior Gateway Protocols used on the Internet is the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Interior Gateway Protocol

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 21:38:00 +0000

When it comes to the protocol classifications, routing protocols can be classified according to their various characteristics. They can be classified by their purpose, operation, and behavior.

The routing protocols are divided into the Interior Gateway Protocol IGP’s and Exterior Gateway Protocol EGP’s according to their purpose.

As it is very clearly stated in the following figure, the routing protocols are divided into three types, which are static, default, and Dynamic Routing Protocols. However, that’s the dynamic routing protocol which is furthermore classified into Interior Gateway Protocol IGP’s and ExteriorGateway Protocol EGP’s, according to their purpose.

In this post, we will be discussing the Interior Gateway protocol.

But even before getting into our main topic which is Interior Gateway protocol, we need to describe the Autonomous System (AS). Because the Internet is based on the AS concept and that’s why we need to have IGP’s and EGP’s, it is very much important to have an understanding of the Autonomous System.

What is the Autonomous System?

So, a group of connected routers managed and administered by a single entity or domain, for example, a company or an organization, is known as an autonomous system. Now there might be one or more than one network operator involved in administering these routers, but they need to be doing this on behalf of a single entity which for example could be an ISP network or a company’s internal network.

Ok, so now that we have understood what an autonomous system is, it is easy to understand what is Interior Gateway protocol.

what is Interior Gateway protocol?

IGP or Interior Gateway Protocol is a type of dynamic routing protocol which is used to share the routing information inside/within the same autonomous system. IGP’s are furthermore divided into Distance vector protocol and link-state protocol.

If an Interior Gateway Protocol would need to communicate with a network outside of its autonomous system, then they need to get help from EGP or exterior gateway protocol which are always installed at the edge routers and have a foot in two worlds, one on the Internet and another one in the organizations inside network.

Following protocols are examples of interior gateway protocols.

Routing Information Protocol version one (RIPv1) and Routing Information Protocol version two (RIPv2), which are popular for being used in small to medium-sized networks, and are based on the distance-vector algorithm.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), which is famous for being used in medium to large-sized networks, is based on the link-state algorithm.
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP), which is Cisco developed proprietary protocol, is based on the distance-vector protocol algorithm.
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), which is also based on the Distance-vector algorithm.
Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), which is a link-state routing protocol.

What is Administrative Distance

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:56:00 +0000

In Computer Networking, when it comes to the best route selection, which is also called the best path selection, different attributes are determined by the routers to select the best path and send the packets. These attributes are route specificity, Metric, and Administrative Distance. Each of these attributes is considered in a different scenario. For example, the metric is used to determine the best route over multiple paths learned via one single protocol (same protocol). Let’s say if a router finds three paths to a destination in its routing table and all these three routes are advertised using Routing Information Protocol (RIP), then the router uses the metric to determine the best path.

The administrative distance is used in a different scenario than that, which we are going to discuss in this post.

Introduction to Administrative Distance

From above, we learned that the metric structure and algorithm are used by routers to determine the best path if the paths are learned through the same protocol. But what if the routers have to select the best path over multiple routes learned by different routing protocols? Is metric compatible in that case as well? The answer is, No, it is NOT.

The ability to share route information and pick the optimal path across various routing protocols is crucial in a network where several routing protocols are present.

When routers learn multiple routes to the same destination advertised through different routing protocols, they prefer the administrative distance to determine the best path. Administrative distance rates the trustworthiness of routing information and defines how much a routing protocol is reliable.

It is a numeric integer value ranging from 0 to 255 used to prioritize each routing protocol's reliability from the most reliable routing protocol to the less reliable and trustable routing protocol. The routing protocol with a smaller administrative distance value is the most trustable and reliable. Therefore, any routing protocol with the administrative distance value of 0 is considered to be the most trustable and reliable, while with the administrative distance value of 255 it’s considered to be the worst.

We have already said that the protocol is considered to be more reliable if its administrative distance value is smaller. For example, if a router learns about a route to a network advertised both through Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) the router prefer to select Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) because the rip administrative distance is 120 while the EIGRP administrative distance is 100. and that’s why it’s considered to be more reliable than RIP. However, if for any reason the route learned by EIGRP is down, the router will use the RIP until EIGRP is up and running again.

It is also very common that sometimes the route selected based on its lower administrative distance value would have less bandwidth or connections speed than the route ignored, because of having a higher administrative distance value. in such cases, the network administrators can change the default administrative distance values of a route to change the ranking manually and chose the best path they prefer packets should be forwarded through. On the Cisco routers, the default Administrative distance value of static route is 1 which makes it a preferred route over the routes learned by dynamic routing protocols.

Keep in mind that the significance of Administrative Distance is local only and it is not advertised on the routing updates.

The list of Default Administrative Distance Values

In the following table, you can find the list of all cisco supported protocols with their default administrative distance values:

Routing Protocol	Default Administrative Distance Value
Directly connected interface	0
Static route	1
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol summary route - EIGRP administrative distance	5
External Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) - external BGP administrative distance	20
Internal EIGRP	90
IGRP Administrative Distance	100
OSPF administrative distance	110
Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) Administrative Distance	115
Routing Information Protocol (RIP administrative distance)	120
Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) administrative distance	140
External EIGRP	170
Internal BGP administrative distance	200
Unknown	255

Please keep in mind that the router considers 255 as the worst administrative distance and does not recognize it and will not allow it into the routing table.

Which Dynamic Routing Protocol was Developed to Interconnect Different Internet Service Providers?

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 20:57:00 +0000

Well this is a question from the CCNA Exam, and I would like to explain this in my way, hopefully, you will enjoy and learn from the post.

To explain this better, I would like to divide the question into the following two parts and explain each one of them first,

Dynamic routing protocol
Internet Service providers

What is Dynamic routing protocol

while we will be discussing Dynamic routing protocol in detail in an upcoming post, but to give an overview and provide a good answer to this question the dynamic routing protocol could be explained as follows:

in dynamic routing, the routers do not need the administrators to configure events of any changes like they do in the static routing, but instead, they learn the routing information automatically and add the route to its routing table. When a router uses a dynamic routing protocol, it saves the best route to its routing database and can also find an alternative path if the original one fails.

Some of the examples of dynamic routing protocols are:

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

What are Internet Service Providers?

A corporation, or company that provides Internet connections and services to people and companies is known as an Internet service provider (ISP). Some ISPs may also provide services of software packages like Internet browsers, websites, email services. Furthermore, all of these ISP’s are also interconnected with each other to share information, exchange data, and interconnect their customers.

When different ISP’s interconnect with each other, they create a big network, a huge one. In the huge network topologies, where a lot of different network devices are connected with each other, it is not possible for an administrator to keep and maintain a manual routing table, that is why dynamic routing protocols are used. Furthermore, each ISPs have their own routing policy, so they are defined with different autonomous system numbers.

Among all the different dynamic routing protocols, the border gateway protocol (BGP) is used to exchange routing information between different autonomous system numbers.

So our answer to this question is “BGP is a protocol developed to interconnect different levels of ISPs as well as ISPs and some of their larger private clients.”

What is Routing and Switching, What is The Difference Between Routing and Switching

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 16:12:00 +0000

Routing and Switching are the two main functionalities and basic terminologies of computer networks. Both routing and switching are distinct concepts with distinct functions, they are not the same thing. In this post, we are going to discuss what is routing and switching and focus on the main differences between routing and switching.

But before we get into the main topic, let me clarify that routing is used in the 3^rd layer of the OSI reference model (The Network Layer) while switching is done on the 2^nd layer of the OSI reference model (Data Link Layer); most of the time people used to use the term packet for the chunk of data sent as a unit over both layers, means they used to use the term packet in the both routing and switching, though it is understandable, still, it is not right. A packet is a term used to describe a chunk of data sent as a unit over layer 3 of the OSI model, while for the chunk of data sent over layer 2 we use the term Frame.

What is Switching?

When it comes to switching, the frames, or what people commonly call the data packets, stay in between devices on the same network, for example, they are sent and received in the LAN (Local Area Network). As we have already described above, switches operate at the 2^nd layer of the OSI (Open System Interconnection) model. In the switching, a switching device, switch, decides where to deliver data packets or what we have called the frames. A table of mac addresses (a network adapter's physical address) is known as the MAC Address table also known as the CAM table, which keeps the record of all physical switch ports they are connected to.

Circuit switching, packet switching, and message switching are the three different types of switching procedures.

What is routing?

We have already described that routing takes place in the 3^rd layer (Network Layer) of the OSI (Open System Interconnection) reference model, where routing connects different networks at the same time. Setting a path for data packets to go through a network or across numerous networks is what the routing process is all about. The Network component of the destination IP (Internet Protocol) address is used by a Router to send a data packet. A table named Routing Table is kept by a routing device that contains all the paths to the destination network. Thus the best path to the destination network is also calculated using the information stored in this table.

If there are numerous conductors, electricity will flow through the one with the lowest resistance route. A router, on the other hand, seeks to transfer data packets through the shortest path possible while connecting several networks.

Ok, so after reading the above-detailed explanation you may have already come to understand how routing and switching differ fundamentally. But in the nutshell, the following chart could provide you a short and brief illustration of the difference between routing and switching.

Difference Between Routing and Switching

Routing	Switching
A process on the Network Layer	Processed on the Data Link Layer
A chunk of data is known as a packet	A chunk of data is known as frame
Different Network (WAN)	Same Network (LAN)
Routing Table	Mac Address table or CAM Table
Connects other network devices	Connects end devices

What is Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:39:00 +0000

In this post, we are going to learn what is Cisco CDP protocol

The Cisco discovery protocol (also known as CDP) is a network protocol that operates in layer 2 (Data Link Layer). It is designed by Cisco to gather information about hardware, operating system versions, protocols, and IP address of nearby, directly connected, neighboring Cisco devices. It does all these things in order to simplify network administration of cisco equipment, and as it is designed and developed by Cisco and works on cisco devices only, so it is mainly a Cisco proprietary protocol.

This protocol makes it easier to manage Cisco devices by identifying them, knowing how they're setup, and allowing systems to communicate with each other and learn about one another using various network-layer protocols.

All supported devices, including Cisco routers and switches, have CDP enabled by default.

By default, messages received from a neighboring Cisco device are not transmitted to any other devices. This implies that Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is only sent to Cisco devices that are physically linked. The messages received from neighbor devices are stored in a table that may be seen using the show CDP neighbors command on any Cisco device that implements Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

Whenever a Cisco device, such as a CDP-enabled router, gets a CDP packet, it starts to create a table of adjacent devices. Once the devices have been found, they transmit to each other a packet of updated data on a regular basis. These CDP packets provide a variety of useful data about network devices, including:

Device type
Hardware platform
Hardware capabilities
IOS version number
Hostname
The interface that generates CDP message
IP address of the device
Port ID
Number of seconds for CDP advertisement is valid

the multicast destination address 01:00:0C:CC:CC:CC is used by Cisco devices to deliver Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) messages. On interfaces that implement Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP) headers, CDP messages are transmitted every 60 seconds. Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP) support isn't available on all data link layer media types. Ethernet, Token Ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and Frame Relay are among the media types supported by Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

An Introduction to Distance Vector Routing Protocols

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 16:41:00 +0000

When it comes to the different types of routing protocols, the simplest and easiest one of them is Distance vector routing protocols. Confused why it is the simplest and easiest one? It is because that Distance Vector Routing Protocols uses bellman ford algorithm.

The approach used by distance vector routing protocols is also known as routing by rumor. This is because that all those routers that use distance vector routing protocols, instead of possessing the topological information about the network, they rely on the neighbors information. Such routers, periodically update their neighbors about the network changes using limited broadcast with the destination IP address 255.255.255.255.

The term “Distance Vector” comes from the fact that distance vector routing protocols use the distance, as a metric, and direction, as a next-hop, for the best path selections.

In all directions, Distance Vector algorithms send updates to their near neighbors If the routing table is updated in any way. At each exchange, the router adds its own distance value to the distance value received for a route. The router that got the update sends the revised table forth again, and the procedure is repeated by receiving routers.

Every router using the distance vector routing protocol will rely on the information of its neighbors, even if that information isn't always accurate. Due to the possibility of routing loops arising as a result of this phenomenon, extra loop avoidance mechanisms have been added to distance vector routing protocols.

The routers using Distance Vector routing protocols do not verify if anyone is listening to the updates they send, however they broadcast the updates on a regular basis even if the network topology remains unchanged.

Some examples of Distance Vector routing protocols (that definitely uses distance vector routing algorithm) are Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP). The routing information protocol (RIP) which comes in two versions RIPv1 and RIPv2 is an open standard, while Interior Gate Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a Cisco proprietary protocol. Cisco Introduced Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol as an enhancement to IGRP. EIGRP was formerly a Cisco proprietary protocol, but in 2013, Cisco declared it an open standard protocol that may be used on any business equipment.

What is Routing Information Protocol (RIP), RIPv1, RIPv2, and what is the main difference between ripv1 and ripv2

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 20:33:00 +0000

It is said that the RIP, Routing Information Protocol is a distance vector routing protocol but I would call it the simplest routing protocol to get into the world of network routing or internetworking. However, ip rip is really a distance vector routing protocol, but not the whole of it. Confused? Let me solve this for you. Actually, rip comes in two different versions, rip version 1 and rip version 2. version one [RIPv1] is distance vector routing protocol while version 2 [RIPv2] is a hybrid routing protocol. A Hybrid Routing protocol has the advantages of both Distance Vector and Link State Routing protocols.

Note: Please do check RFC 1058 and RFCs 1721,1722 for RIPv1 and RIPv2 being distance vector and hybrid routing protocol.

Routing Information Protocol Version 1 (RIPv1)

Both versions of RIP use a hop count of 15 as a metric in order to avoid packets from circling around a loop forever. It means any packet that reaches the sixteenth hop, hop count exceeded, will be dropped automatically. RIPv1 shares routing information periodically after every 30 seconds by default using local broadcasts. RIPv1 is a classful routing protocol and supports up to six equal-cost paths to a single destination. Equal-cost paths are the paths where the metric is the same.

Routing Information Protocol (RIPv2)

RIPv2 is based on RIPv1, which means it is a distance vector routing protocol but with some routing enhancements built into it from the vector routing protocols. Therefore, it is commonly called a hybrid routing protocol.

RIP version 2 supports variable length subnet masking (VLSM) and is a classless routing protocol. It uses multicast to send routing updates and share routing information. It uses a 224.0.0.9 multicast address to send routing updates, after every 30 seconds, and as well as whenever a change in the network occurs (also called triggered updates).

What is the main Difference Between Ripv1 and Ripv2 (ripv1 vs ripv2)

Please refer to the following table to understand the main differences between RIPv1 and RIPv2

RIPv1

RIPv2

Supports classful routing only, and does not support variable length subnet masking (VLSM)

In order to allow classless routing advertisements, RIPv2 includes the network mask in the update.

There is no authentication

There is authentication available

RIPv1 uses Broadcast for the updates

Instead of broadcast, RIPv2 uses multicast. The burden on the network devices that do not need to listen to RIP updates are reduced with the multicast communication

In our next post, we will see how to configure the routing information protocol example practically, hopefully, that cisco packet tracer labs answers your concerns regarding the practical configuration of the RIP. we will also make sure to available the routing information protocol ppt file, PowerPoint slides, somewhere online so you could download it as have them ready for your studies offline as well.

An Introduction to IP Addresses

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 15:10:00 +0000

IP Address is the shorter way of saying “Internet Protocol Address”. It is a numeric identifier that is assigned to each machine on an IP network. It was introduced for use on the Internet, and it therefore makes sense to discuss it in this context. Although we use names in Internet when we seek information e.g. www.mynetworkinglabs.com because they are easier for us to remember, but computers does not understand names they communicate with each other on the basis of their numeric address that is assigned to them, thus computers translate these names into numerical addresses so they can send data to the right location. Public IP addresses are used to communicate in the Internet, while on the other hand the Private IP addresses are defined to be used by anyone without any global coordination.

Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)

There are currently two different versions of IP addresses in use – IPv4 and IPv6, and they look quite different from one another. They are actually just long string of number, like 1736459382, but to make them easier to read, we write them in a special way. IPv4 addresses are written in the string of four numbers separated by dots [.] called Octet, where in each Octet we are allowed to write numbers between 0 and 255. A typical IPv4 address looks like this: 192.168.0.22.

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

IPv6 addresses are considerably longer strings of numbers, so they are written in hexadecimal numbers that can be used to fit more information in fewer digits. There are 8 segments instead of 4 and colons are used to separate these segments in IPv6 instead of dots; for example 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0053. You can ignore those segments containing zeros only by using two colons side by side. The sort version is written like 2001:0db8::53.

What Happened to IPv5?

This question might be in every ones mind, Well, according to the ICANN's publicly available documents IPv5 was an experimental protocol and was never used practically, but some of the concepts it developed have been incorporated in other protocols.

Why do we need IP address?

There might also be a question that why every device needs an IP address?

When connected to a network, your device needs to be identified and IP addresses are the numbers that identify devices connected to a network. If you need to access a local network only, then your device can be identified with an address that has only a local context. Which are called private IP addresses. But when you need to access services on other networks, then your devices needs to use a unique address. Which is known as Public IP address, while in some cases, this is done by translating a private address into a unique address (Public IP address) at the border between your network and your ISP’s network. This technology is known as Network Address Translation, or NAT, which we will discuss it in detail in our upcoming posts.

How are IP addresses distributed?

The IP addresses are distributed in a hierarchal system. As a department of ICANN, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible to coordinate the allocation and distribution of IP addresses worldwide, by providing them to the five Regional Internet Registries. The RIRs then allocate smaller IP address blocks to ISPs and other network operators. From there, the ISPs and other Internet operators assign the addresses to the individual Internet connections you are probably accustomed to. The Five RIR’s are as follow.

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)

AFRINIC	Serving Africa	Founded in 2005
APNIC	Serving the Asia Pacific region	Founded in 1993
ARIN	Serving North America	Founded in 1997
LACNIC	Serving South America and the Caribbean	Founded in 2001
RIPE NCC	Serving Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East	Founded in 1992

A Global Snapshot of IXP's in the World

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 07:47:00 +0000

In the previous post “what is an Internet Exchange Point?” we introduced the IXP and mentioned and explained some terms used in IXP world like Peering and agreements. If you haven’t read the post I would encourage you to read that first, especially if the term IXP is new to you, and then continue reading this one.

In this post we will have a look on some statistics on the number and locations of IXP’s in the world. To write this blog which of course is also a part of my university thesis (working on it) I have taken help from the PCH website and from an outcome document of the IGF 2015.

The IXP model of network interconnection and traffic exchange is a widely-adopted industry practice with nearly 512 active IXP’s in 130 countries. According to the Packet Clearing House (PCH) 51 more IXP’s in 29 countries are planned to be stablished. 10 out of these 29 countries which also includes Afghanistan will be establishing an IXP for the first time.

"512 Active IXP's in 130 Countries"

The following table shows the total number of IXP's by region. It also helps you to understand which region has the highest number of IXP's installed, in how many countries and cities.

Region	Number of IXP’s	Number of Countries	Number of Cities
Africa	44	32	39
Asia-Pacific	96	24	48
Europe	189	46	131
Latine America	80	22	74
North America	103	4	61

With 6.04T data peak, Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange DE-CIX Frankfurt, is the biggest IXP in the size. It was established in 1995 and has 776 members. On the other hand, Ponto de Troca de Tráfego Metro São Paulo, located in Brazil is the IXP with the highest number of members. It has 1467 members and was established on 4 October 2004.

The location and numbers of an IXP can be selected by considering many factors, such as country demographics, market conditions and global economy.

Most of time, the countries with one IXP have it located in the capital city as it totals the most of the population of a country. The 2^nd IXP will be placed in the 2^nd populated area or city in a country.

"10 more countries, including Afghanistan, trying to Establish an IXP for the first time"

The market dynamics can also have an impact on the number and location of IXP’s in a given country or region. In some territories, the size of the Internet industry (ISP’s, content providers, data centers, etc) has resulted in the development of multiple IXP’s to provide sufficient space for the growth of the traffic exchange among the networks.

And finally, the global economy can also has its impacts on the numbers and location of IXP’s. For an instance, there would be a larger concentration of service providers, carriers and data centers in the region that has a higher dependency on digital economy, which fosters demand for IXP’s.

Just recently I came to know that Afghan MCIT (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology) is working to complete NIXA (National Internet Exchange of Afghanistan) on which they have been working since 2011. but still this was not any official announcement, I came to know about it during an unofficial discussion, lets hope for the best.

What is an Internet Exchange Point (IXP)?

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:36:00 +0000

It has been a while since my last post published in this blog, while I was busy contributing to the blogs other than my own, so my apologies to my chilled (mynetworkinglabs.com) and its followers. Let me be honest with all of you, I might have not been able to write even this post, if I had not started working on my university thesis (Understanding the Importance of Internet Exchange Points in today’s Internet Ecosystem – from Afghanistan’s prospective). But I assure you to keep feeding this blog with new posts by sharing the most relevant topics from my Thesis while I keep writing it. Especially from the BGP configuration Chapter.

So without wasting much of your time, let’s get back to the main topic.

The Internet is a collection of thousands of private networks that-interconnects and create the ‘network of networks’ that has reduced the world to a global village by enabling individuals to communicate easily and quickly, thus has also greatly impacted communication. The Internet has also changed the traditional ways of buying and selling and has transformed commercial activities. As of Jun 2017, 51.7% of world’s population is on Internet, which means half of the world is still unconnected. The gap between those who are connected to the Internet and those who are not is known as Digital Divide. There are many factors causes the digital divide out of which availability of access and affordability are two of them. The Internet’s physical infrastructure plays a big role in bridging the Digital Divide. The way how the Internet is connected and how the packets are routed does not only impacts on bridging the Digital Divide but it also plays a big role in the economy.

An Internet Exchange Point is a physical infrastructure that inter connects Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s) to exchange Internet traffic in order to keep local traffic local. The goal of IXP’s are to reduce the amount of traffic of an ISP that has to be delivered through their upstream transit providers to effectively reduce the average per-bit delivery cost of their service.

If two networks located in the same area need to exchange data but are not connected to a local IXP, then they have to pass their data through their upstream transit providers. This incurs added costs and delays, as upstream providers charge them by capacity or utilization, and their traffic will often be passed through other cities before reaching its destination. The largest costs that any ISP faces are the upstream capacity costs of connection. To avoid these costs and other drawbacks associated with sending their traffic across a third-party network, member companies connect with each other in these special IXP nodes to cut down on costs and shorten distances. These kind of connections intended to exchange national or international IP traffic through an Internet Exchange Points are generally known as Peering. Peering is the exchange of traffic between ISP’s. These exchanges of data between ISP’s often takes place free and without charging each other, thereby the relationship is called settlement free peering, and in order to settle these terms ISP’s use settlement agreement. This helps to reduce the cost of IP traffic in a significant way, but it is not really important that these settlement agreement of transferring data should always be free of cost. For example, large networks with relatively equal share market may not charge other large networks for peering with them, while they might charge smaller networks for transit costs. In an IXP, member companies may have different way of arrangements with several different members.

The Internet Subscribers are effected with the overall operational costs of the ISP’s. This costs can be reduced by proper management and utilization of the International bandwidth, which is very expensive, and as well as by increasing the domestic interconnectivity. As a result, the subscribers will experience better Quality of Services in a cheaper price while communicating locally. This can also increase the number of Internet subscribers tremendously.

The Above picture shows a layer 2 Exchange point where different ISP’s are connected with a central Ethernet Switch and a server is offering common good services like TLD DNS, Routing registry and etc. The routers in the above design are brought by the member ISP’s in the IXP location.

I will publish more about the IXP's and their role in the Internet Ecosystem in my upcoming posts. so stay tuned and keep reading.

Afghanistan Internet History – A Light on The lost part from the Taliban Regime.

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 10:20:00 +0000

If you do some google searches about the history of internet in Afghanistan, you will definitely come up with the results that shows year 2002 the starting year for internet in the country. The contents available online also shows that there were no Internet connection in the Taliban regime. But if it was like how it being written all over the web, then why they have announced it banned.

I work at Afghan Ministry of Information & Culture (MoIC), that is further more divided into Deputy Ministries of Youth, Culture, Tourism and Information and Publication. There is a Directorate works under the Deputy Ministry of information and publication called Bakhtar News Agency which has more than 70 years of history in Afghanistan Media and journalism. I was pretty much amazed when I heard an employee of Bakhtar News Agency claiming that they had Internet connection back in Year 2000 and 2001 in the Taliban regime. He says “there were only two people in whole ministry within the employees who were able to operate a computer and that was me and my supervisor”, according to him there were only two computers in whole ministry, out of which only one of them had internet connection and only one person was allowed to use internet who was his supervisor. “My job was to type the news that was produced by agency on the computer, put it on a floppy and give it to him, while his job was to send the news somewhere using internet” He says.

He has got no idea that through what medium they were connected to the internet as he didn’t had any technical knowledge about the networks and internet connectivity, but he says that they had a line connected to the computer and the connectivity was being maintained by his supervisor.

The Ministry of information and culture (MoIC) is located in the center of the Kabul City and is a neighboring building to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) which at that time was knows as the Ministry of Communication. So there are chances that they might had a connection from MCIT, which also points towards chances of internet availability at Ministry of communication of that time as well.

According to a news published on 4 July 2009 by Aljazeera news agency the Taliban bans use of Internet on July 2001 after declaring it against Islamic law.

There were some foreign aid agencies that were functional in the country during the Taliban regime, and there is the possibility that they would have access to internet using Telephone lines from the neighboring country Pakistan. But still; even declaring it against the Islamic law and banning it, a question arises that how the Taliban were actually monitoring that no one is using Internet in the country? So even that it was announced to be a ban; there were some people who were using internet given that there was no solution to monitor them.

and it also seems that Internet was banned on all Afghanistan in the Taliban regime, but still there were some NGO’s and key governmental organizations that had internet connections at that time as well, and there were some lucky peoples (like that guy) who had internet connection at that time and they were using internet (Lucky people, really, really lucky people).

The Internet is growing and boosting each day in Afghanistan. Both the infrastructure and services are getting better then what it was in the last decade (though there is a lot more to change). We have 6 Telecom service providers, 54 Internet Service Providers (according to the ATRA), we have fiber connectivity, 3G, (4G on the way), 5-7 million Internet users and you can find more then 2500000+ Afghan’s on Facebook. With all this limited data available about the Internet, The History of Internet of Afghanistan is not totally complete and someone has to find the lost parts of it somewhere from the shadows of the history. If you know anything about the lost part, please do not hesitate to share it with us by giving comments.

Introduction to Internet Governance (Who are the Governing bodies of the Internet?)

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 10:47:00 +0000

What is Governance?

Well the concept of governance is evolving and changing; as societies became more advance the mechanism of governance became more advanced. But as a short we can define governance as stablishing of policies and continuous monitoring of their proper implementation by the members of the governing bodies.

Participation, Transparency, Responsiveness, Consensus Orientation or understanding, and accountability are the most important aspects for the good governance.

Introduction to Internet Governance (What is Internet Governance ?)

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 06:28:00 +0000

This might be a totally new topic in Afghanistan, well for me …. Yes it is.

Actually a couple of months ago I attend a webinar on the topic of the Internet governance just from back of my office disk which was held by NITPAA (National IT Professionals Association of Afghanistan) with the help of ICANN. The webinar was being represented by Mr. Fahd Batayneh who is the ICANN's Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator of the Middle East.

This two to Three hours webinar took my consideration regarding to the Internet governance and forced me to search more about the topic to learn more. While searching and studying about the topic in different websites I decided why I shouldn’t share whatever I found with all of you. So following are what I have found and learned about the Internet Governance.

Basic Ethernet Cabling Types

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 07:03:00 +0000

A network is made of several interconnected devices. The interconnection between these devices takes place using various media types. These media types could be wired or wireless. In this post we would discuss the wired media, but as wired media in it self is a very big topic and we won't be able to cover all of it in one Post so I am going to target the Ethernet Cables specifically, and promise to cover the rest of the topic in the upcoming posts. but before that i would like to name all types of wired transmission media and then we will continue our main topic.

Router and Switch Administrative Configurations

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 09:04:00 +0000

This post has no concern with your Router or Switch work on a network, but still it is a very important one. In here, we will learn some commands that will help you administer your network. Following are those administrative functions, which you can use to make your job simply done. None of these will make your router or switch work faster or better on the network, but believe me it will make your life lot better if you just take the time and configure them in each and every network device available in your internetwork. These are Hostnames, Banners, Passwords, and Interface descriptions. As we have already discussed the cisco router passwords in depth so no need to revise it here, instead i will link it with this post so that you would be able to find it easily.

Understanding Windows Intune in a Scenario.

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:43:00 +0000

Lets assume that you are managing director of a company You rely on employee pc's so you need them to be operated at peak performance, highly alerted and keep secure regardless so would have they are in use in the main office, at branch office at home or on the road. This is not so easy when you consider that every company pc is configure differently and it is not always within reach.

Configuring a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on Windows Server 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:47:00 +0000

Does any employee, manager or director of your organization wanted to use their files, applications, printers and other resources of the office from outside (Home, out of country or on the road) or have you ever faced a situation where you wanted to connect your sub branches to your main branch securely.

None of the above tasks can be done without using a VPN, and as IT personnel, it is your job to plan, configure and maintain a VPN server + VPN client in your organization if needed. in this post, we will learn Step - by - Step configuration of a VPN server using Windows Server 2012 and then, will have a look at client side configuration using windows 8.1. However, before that you will have to understand what a VPN is. It is 100% grunted that until the end of this post you would be able to understand what a VPN is and how to configure it using Windows Server 2012 and windows 8.1. So do not Stop Reading.

Reviewing 2013 and Welcoming the Year 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 08:59:00 +0000

It has been a huge year in news, not only for Afghans but around the world.

From sports achievements and new technology announcements to celebrity deaths and tragic bombing, I will try my best to share some grand incidents and innovations in this post that you need to know to look at the 2013 year in review, but our full consideration will be on new technology announced in the year 2013. So in order to fully concentrate on the topic i have divided this topic into the following two main categories.

Sports, Celebrity and tragic bombings

In the last year world had lost so many precious lives. Nelson Mandela one of the greatest anti-racism politicians and Paul Walker the Brain O'Conner of "Fast & Furious" were among them. when the world was suffering tragic bombings in Afghanistan,

Distance Vector vs Link State routing

noreply@blogger.com (Waleed Khaliqi) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Both the "Distance vector" and "Link State" are terms used to describe and group routing Protocols into two broad categories. The purpose of using any routing protocol by a router is to dynamically communicate information about all network paths which are used to reach a destination network and select the best out of them to forward packets between networks. The decision of selecting the best path will be taken by the routing protocols based on whether the routing protocols select the best routing path based on a distance metric (the distance)