Peenkcity

CCNA Finally!

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:04:00 +0000

I have always dreamed of this day when I can finally post here as a CCNA. For 3 months (November to January), I've focused all my energy in studying for this exam and at 12PM of March 06, 2012, all of it finally paid off. It wasn't really planned that I will take the exam on that date. A week before, I have hopes of finally taking the exam but I only knew when I'll be taking the exam the day before the exam itself when my parents finally got the money they loaned. So for a month, I just waited. Good thing I have my notes with me and the CCNA Labs for light reviewing.

On the day of the exam, I have to go to the testing center to have my exam scheduled on that same day. I travelled all the way from Pasay, Metro Manila to Sampaloc, Manila. At the testing center, the staff was having problem including my discount voucher from Cisco Networking Academy and it was because I haven't entered my Academy Connection ID in my PearsonVUE account. I resolved the issue, had my photo taken and paid the balance and proceeded with the exam at 11AM. I am the only one in the exam room and I am really tensed so I tried to relax and focus on the task at hand.

An hour later and I saw the message on the screen which says "Congratulations!..." and I wasn't able to read all of it because I was swept away with emotions. I was filled with so much joy and fulfilment. :)

I can't wait for my certificate to finally reach my home and see my name on it.

This is it... This is real world!

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:14:00 +0000

I am doing the lab, CCNA Labs - Cisco for the Real World in GNS3 and as of now I have reached the end of Phase 3 and I can say that this lab is amazing. I've configured familiar things which are on the CCNA scope like VLANS and Trunking, NAT, Static route. I also configured EtherChannel which is discussed in CCNA but I don't remember having configured one during labs on my Cisco Networking Academy class few years back. There are also major topics which are not in the CCNA scope like Inter-VLAN with L3 Switching and (drum roll) ... VPN configuration!

In this lab, I am to setup the Branch Office network which has different VLANS, runs VOIP, with two APs one for Public and one for Private. The Private AP is connected to the internal private network while the Public AP can only connect to the Internet. There is a SERVER which can be accessed from the Internet and hosts should be able to access the Internet by passing through NAT. Then the Branch Office must be able to connect to the Corporate Office using VPN where in the addresses must not pass NAT.

The most exciting part so far in doing this lab is connecting routers to the Internet via my Network Interface card and I am able to ping Google.com from GNS3! This is real world!

To verify that the tunnel is established:

B1_RT1#sh crypto ipsec sa

interface: FastEthernet0/1
    Crypto map tag: MAP_VPN, local addr 192.168.254.101

   protected vrf: (none)
   local  ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.1.64.0/255.255.248.0/0/0)
   remote ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.1.0.0/255.255.192.0/0/0)
   current_peer 192.168.254.106 port 500
     PERMIT, flags={origin_is_acl,}
    #pkts encaps: 14, #pkts encrypt: 14, #pkts digest: 14
    #pkts decaps: 15, #pkts decrypt: 15, #pkts verify: 15
    #pkts compressed: 0, #pkts decompressed: 0
    #pkts not compressed: 0, #pkts compr. failed: 0
    #pkts not decompressed: 0, #pkts decompress failed: 0
    #send errors 0, #recv errors 0

     local crypto endpt.: 192.168.254.101, remote crypto endpt.: 192.168.254.106
     path mtu 1500, ip mtu 1500
     current outbound spi: 0xF579CD64(4118400356)

     inbound esp sas:
      spi: 0x236155C6(593581510)
        transform: esp-aes esp-sha-hmac ,
        in use settings ={Tunnel, }
        conn id: 2001, flow_id: SW:1, crypto map: MAP_VPN
        sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4532799/3138)
        IV size: 16 bytes
        replay detection support: Y
        Status: ACTIVE

     inbound ah sas:

     inbound pcp sas:

     outbound esp sas:
      spi: 0xF579CD64(4118400356)
        transform: esp-aes esp-sha-hmac ,
        in use settings ={Tunnel, }
        conn id: 2002, flow_id: SW:2, crypto map: MAP_VPN
        sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4532799/3136)
        IV size: 16 bytes
        replay detection support: Y
        Status: ACTIVE

     outbound ah sas:

     outbound pcp sas:

   protected vrf: (none)
   local  ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.1.254.0/255.255.255.252/0/0)
   remote ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (10.1.0.0/255.255.192.0/0/0)
   current_peer 192.168.254.106 port 500
     PERMIT, flags={origin_is_acl,}
    #pkts encaps: 4, #pkts encrypt: 4, #pkts digest: 4
    #pkts decaps: 4, #pkts decrypt: 4, #pkts verify: 4
    #pkts compressed: 0, #pkts decompressed: 0
    #pkts not compressed: 0, #pkts compr. failed: 0
    #pkts not decompressed: 0, #pkts decompress failed: 0
    #send errors 0, #recv errors 0

     local crypto endpt.: 192.168.254.101, remote crypto endpt.: 192.168.254.106
     path mtu 1500, ip mtu 1500
     current outbound spi: 0xFA4A18A8(4199159976)

     inbound esp sas:
      spi: 0x77799CF7(2004458743)
        transform: esp-aes esp-sha-hmac ,
        in use settings ={Tunnel, }
        conn id: 2003, flow_id: SW:3, crypto map: MAP_VPN
        sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4597585/3590)
        IV size: 16 bytes
        replay detection support: Y
        Status: ACTIVE

     inbound ah sas:

     inbound pcp sas:

     outbound esp sas:
      spi: 0xFA4A18A8(4199159976)
        transform: esp-aes esp-sha-hmac ,
        in use settings ={Tunnel, }
        conn id: 2004, flow_id: SW:4, crypto map: MAP_VPN
        sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4597585/3587)
        IV size: 16 bytes
        replay detection support: Y
        Status: ACTIVE

     outbound ah sas:

     outbound pcp sas:

Inter-VLAN using L3 Switching on GNS3

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Wow, I am not aware it's almost a month since my last post here. I've been busy with other stuffs, sending out applications, getting interviewed, etc. I'm counting down the days towards graduation and hopefully my CCNA exam. After that, I think I can really focus all my energy in finding that networking job.

I don't usually write a post unless I have an inspiration for it and for this post, I got the inspiration from the 8th nugget of CCNA Labs – Cisco for the Real World. I am going to setup Inter-VLAN not with router-on-a-stick but with Layer 3 switching. This is the topology:

The switches in the topology are actually 3725 routers with a 16-port EtherSwitch module. This is how you emulate switches in GNS3. For the IOS, I am using c3725-advipservicesk9-mz.124-3 which I have been using in my labs. I changed the icon so that I can really feel that I am configuring switches and not routers.

There are 3 VLANS: VLAN 10 on SW2, VLAN 20 on SW3 while VLAN 30 is the Management VLAN on all switches. SW1 is our Layer 3 switch while SW2 and SW3 are access layer switches. To create VLANS on our switches, we need to use vlan database mode which is the older way of creating VLANS. I actually didn’t know about vlan database until last week after reading on some chapters of Network Warrior.

Prepare the topology
VLAN 10 : 192.168.10.0/24
VLAN 20 : 192.168.20.0/24
VLAN 30 : 192.168.30.0/24

PC1
IP address : 192.168.10.2/24
Gateway : 192.168.10.1

PC2
IP address : 192.168.20.2/24
Gateway : 192.168.20.1

So to start let us now create the VLANS on each switch:

SW1#vlan database
SW1(vlan)#vlan 10
VLAN 10 added:
    Name: VLAN0010
SW1(vlan)#vlan 20
VLAN 20 added:
    Name: VLAN0020
SW1(vlan)#vlan 30 name Management
VLAN 30 added:
    Name: Management
SW1(vlan)#exit
APPLY completed.
Exiting....

SW2#vlan database
SW2(vlan)#vlan 10
VLAN 10 added:
    Name: VLAN0010
SW2(vlan)#vlan 30 name Management
VLAN 30 added:
    Name: Management
SW2(vlan)#exit
APPLY completed.
Exiting....

SW3#vlan database
SW3(vlan)#vlan 20
VLAN 20 added:
    Name: VLAN0020
SW3(vlan)#vlan 30 name Management
VLAN 30 added:
    Name: Management
SW3(vlan)#exit
APPLY completed.
Exiting....

For the port assignments, Fa1/0 to Fa1/4 will be configured as trunk ports on all switches. While Fa1/5 to Fa1/10 will be on VLAN 10 on SW2 and VLAN 20 on SW3. The remaining ports are left to their default switchport mode and VLAN.

Setting the trunk ports on SW1:

SW1(config)#int range fa1/0 - 4
SW1(config-if-range)#switchport mode trunk

Assigning Fa1/5 to Fa1/10 to VLAN 10 on SW2:

SW2(config)#int range fa1/5 - 10
SW2(config-if-range)#switchport mode access
SW2(config-if-range)#switchport access vlan 10

We need to configure the management interfaces which belongs to VLAN 30 on SW2 and SW3

SW2(config)#interface vlan 30
SW2(config-if)#ip address 192.168.30.2 255.255.255.0
SW2(config-if)#exit
SW2(config)#ip default-gateway 192.168.30.1
SW2(config)#no ip routing

SW3(config)#interface vlan 30
SW3(config-if)#ip address 192.168.30.3 255.255.255.0
SW3(config-if)#exit
SW3(config)#ip default-gateway 192.168.30.1
SW3(config)#no ip routing

The command ip default-gateway allows the switches to be reached by other subnets on another VLAN and no ip routing allows the default gateway to be used.

At this point, PC1 and PC2 cannot communicate with each other yet. For that to happen we need to configure virtual interfaces on the Layer 3 switch which is SW1.

SW1(config)#interface vlan 10
*Mar  1 00:16:54.123: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Vlan10, changed state to up
SW1(config-if)#ip add 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0
SW1(config-if)#exit
SW1(config)#interface vlan 20
*Mar  1 00:17:07.523: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Vlan20, changed state to up
SW1(config-if)#ip add 192.168.20.1 255.255.255.0
SW1(config-if)#exit
SW1(config)#interface vlan 30
*Mar  1 00:18:09.587: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Vlan30, changed state to up
SW1(config-if)#ip add 192.168.30.1 255.255.255.0

To check connectivity, let's ping PC2 from PC1:

VPCS[1]> ping 192.168.20.2
192.168.20.2 icmp_seq=1 timeout
192.168.20.2 icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=15.000 ms
192.168.20.2 icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=64.000 ms
192.168.20.2 icmp_seq=4 ttl=63 time=49.000 ms
192.168.20.2 icmp_seq=5 ttl=63 time=22.000 ms

Now the management interface of SW2:

VPCS[1]> ping 192.168.30.2
192.168.30.2 icmp_seq=1 timeout
192.168.30.2 icmp_seq=2 timeout
192.168.30.2 icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=34.000 ms
192.168.30.2 icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=33.000 ms
192.168.30.2 icmp_seq=5 ttl=254 time=29.000 ms

Configuring EIGRP Authentication

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:05:00 +0000

Unlike OSPF, EIGRP supports only one type of authentication: MD5.

To configure MD5 authentication, first you need to define a key chain, one or more key numbers and a key-string. Then you need to enable MD5 authentication on the interface with this key chain.

To prepare the topology, we have this basic configuration, with other parameters left to default:

R1

hostname R1
!
interface Loopback0
 ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0
 ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
 clock rate 2000000
!
router eigrp 99
 network 1.0.0.0
 network 10.0.0.0
 no auto-summary

hostname R2
!
interface Loopback0
 ip address 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0
 ip address 10.1.1.2 255.255.255.0
 clock rate 2000000
!
router eigrp 99
 network 2.0.0.0
 network 10.0.0.0
 no auto-summary

With this configuration and interfaces in up/up state, we won't have any problems in establishing neighbor relationship between the two routers.

Now to define the key chain:

R1(config)#key chain EIGRP_KEY_R1
R1(config-keychain)#key 1
R1(config-keychain-key)#key-string cisco

R2(config)#key chain EIGRP_KEY_R2
R2(config-keychain)#key 1
R2(config-keychain-key)#key-string cisco

At this point, we are still not using authentication because MD5 is not enabled on both interfaces yet.

Let's enable it on R2 first and see what will happen:

R2(config)#int s0/0
R2(config-if)#ip authentication mode eigrp 99 md5
R2(config-if)#ip authentication key-chain eigrp 99 EIGRP_KEY_R2

I got the following output from R1's console:

*Mar  1 00:06:52.363: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 99: Neighbor 10.1.1.2 (Serial0/0) is down: Interface Goodbye received
*Mar  1 00:06:57.011: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 99: Neighbor 10.1.1.2 (Serial0/0) is up: new adjacency
*Mar  1 00:07:35.795: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 99: Neighbor 10.1.1.2 (Serial0/0) is down: Auth failure

Remember that when using EIGRP one of the conditions for routers to become neighbors is that they must pass authentication (if configured). In this case, R1 and R2 must use the same authentication type (no authentication versus MD5 authentication). From the output above, we can see that authentication has failed between the two routers.

R1(config)#int s0/0
R1(config-if)#ip authentication mode eigrp 99 md5
R1(config-if)#ip authentication key-chain eigrp 99 EIGRP_KEY_R1

As soon as MD5 is enabled on R1's s0/0/0 interface, I got the following output from R1's console:

*Mar  1 00:12:53.695: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 99: Neighbor 10.1.1.2 (Serial0/0) is up: new adjacency

Note that the key chain name does not need to match between the two routers. But the key number (1) and key-string (cisco) must match.

To check if there is no problem with routes being learned:

R1#sh ip route EIGRP
     2.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
D       2.2.2.0 [90/2297856] via 10.1.1.2, 01:15:45, Serial0/0

R2#sh ip ro EIGRP
     1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
D       1.1.1.0 [90/2297856] via 10.1.1.1, 01:16:29, Serial0/0

CCNA Latest Updates

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:34:00 +0000

Bad news to all fellow CCNA students and candidates, effective 01/16/2012, CCNA Composite Exam (640-802) has increased to $295 ($45 increase) and both ICND1 (640-822) and ICND2 (640-816) to $150 each ($25 increase).

Meanwhile, good news for all Cisco Networking Academy students and alumni, Packet Tracer 5.3.3 is now released and available for download. Go to the Academy website and login with your account and click the Packet Tracer image at the left panel.

Packet Tracer version 5.3.3 is a maintenance release that fixes functional and technical issues in the previous versions. It replaces Packet Tracer version 5.3.2. Packet Tracer 5.3.3 supports activities authored in Packet Tracer 4.x, 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x, and 5.3.x. Please note that the last two courses of the CCNA Discovery and CCNA Exploration curricula require Packet Tracer version 4.11 at a minimum, CCNA Security requires version 5.2 at a minimum, and the Packet Tracer Skills Based Assessments require version 5.3.2 at a minimum. The curricula are fully compatible with Packet Tracer 5.3.3.

The End of Trilogy (Hopefully)

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:02:00 +0000

I was going through my usual reading today, to be exact, Chapter 3: Troubleshooting LAN Switching of CCNA ICND2 Official Cert Guide 3rd Edition and I came across a text explaining the details of switch forwarding path. And then I just realized that I totally miscomprehend the idea of VLAN tagging. The proof is my previous post explaining about the problem with Native VLAN.

Quoting what I've said:

As I ping from PC1 which is in VLAN 20 to the switches which has management interface of interface VLAN 88, it has to go to R1 from the trunk link. The frame was supposed to be tagged with VLAN 88 but since we defined VLAN 88 on S2 as the Native VLAN, the frame is not tagged (no 802.1Q header).

My idea is when a host has to send a frame to a host in another VLAN, the switch tags the frame with VLAN ID of the receiving host before forwarding it to the trunk link -- this is where I got it wrong.

What's right:

When a switch receives a frame on a port (assuming it's in STP Forwarding State), the switch checks the VLAN in which this port belongs. If this VLAN is not the Native VLAN then add an 802.1Q header with this VLAN ID before forwarding it to the trunk, otherwise forward the frame to the trunk without any 802.1Q header (untagged).

In this case therefore, the frame forwarded by S2 is tagged with VLAN 20 and not an untagged traffic.

I looked and looked for the right explanation and I got this:

Control traffic sent on the native VLAN should be untagged. If an 802.1Q trunk port receives a tagged frame on the native VLAN, it drops the frame.
~ CCNA3 LAN Switching and Wireless

So that explains it! So this is what actually happened: As I ping from PC1 (VLAN 20) to Interface VLAN 88 of S2, S2 receives the frame from PC1 sees that it came from VLAN 20, tags the frame with VLAN 20 before forwarding it to the trunk port. The router receives the frame on VLAN 20 subinterface, removes the data link headers and trailers, routes the packet, add the new headers and trailers, tags the frame with VLAN 88 and forwards the frame to the VLAN 88 subinterface. S2 receives the frame, sees the tag (VLAN 88) but since traffic sent to Native VLAN should be untagged, it drops the frame.

Old R1 config:

R1(config)#interface fa0/1.88
R1(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 88
R1(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.7.126 255.255.255.192

The solution I gave on my previous post which is to add the 'native' keyword in the command is still correct, only my explanation for why the ping gets dropped is wrong. So what the 'native' keyword does is that the frame from R1 will not be tagged with VLAN 88, instead R1 will not add any 802.1Q header in the frame (untagged). S2 will not drop the frame because it is untagged and therefore the ping will work.

New R1 config:

R1(config)#interface fa0/1.88
R1(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 88 native
R1(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.7.126 255.255.255.192

Conclusion: Native VLAN is a very confusing topic. There are so many discussions in LearningNetwork with people trying to understand how it works. So far this blog helps me keep track of development with my study. If I find mistake in my work, I can go through it again, try to make it right and learn, which is the whole point of all of this.

Packet Tracer Sim

Classless and Classful Routing

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:37:00 +0000

In this simple lab, my objective is to see how classful routing affects the packet forwarding process. Classful routing is enabled using the no ip classless command (classless routing is enabled by default).

Classless routing: When a packet’s destination only matches a router’s default route, and does not match any other routes, forward the packet using that default route.
Classful routing: When a packet’s destination only matches a router’s default route, and does not match any other routes, only use the default route if this router does not know any routes in the classful network in which the destination IP address resides.
~CCNA ICND2 Official Cert Guide (3rd Ed) by Wendell Odom

I applied this config on my routers. As you can see I enabled classful routing on R1. I also configured default routes on both routers.

hostname R1
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
 ip address 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0
 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
 clock rate 64000
!
no ip classless
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Serial0/0

hostname R2
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
 ip address 10.10.0.254 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0
 ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
 ip address 8.8.8.1 255.255.255.0
!
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Serial0/0

These are my configurations for the end hosts.
PC1
IP Address: 10.10.10.2
Default Gateway: 10.10.10.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

PC2
IP Address: 10.10.0.1
Default Gateway: 10.10.0.254
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

PC3
IP Address: 8.8.8.8
Default Gateway: 8.8.8.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Let's check R1's routing table:

Codes: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
       D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
       N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
       E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2
       i - IS-IS, su - IS-IS summary, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2
       ia - IS-IS inter area, * - candidate default, U - per-user static route
       o - ODR, P - periodic downloaded static route


Gateway of last resort is 0.0.0.0 to network 0.0.0.0


     10.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
C       10.10.10.0 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0
C    192.168.1.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/0
S*   0.0.0.0/0 is directly connected, Serial0/0

With the description of classful routing above, if I ping from PC1 to PC2 (10.10.0.1), the default route will not be used and the ping will fail. That's because of the presence of route to 10.10.10.0/24 subnet in R1's routing table. Remember that 10.0.0.0/8 is one classful network in which the networks 10.10.0.0/24 and 10.10.10.0/24 both resides. But if I ping from PC1 to PC3 (8.8.8.8), the default route will be used because there is no route to any subnets in the network 8.0.0.0/8 in R1's routing table.

To confirm the theory:

C:\Users\win7>ping 10.10.0.1

Pinging 10.10.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.10.10.1: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.10.10.1: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.10.10.1: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.10.10.1: Destination host unreachable.


Ping statistics for 10.10.0.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),


C:\Users\win7>ping 8.8.8.8

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=62
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=62
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=62
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=62


Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 28ms

Now if we disable classful routing thus enabling classless routing:

R1#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
R1(config)#ip classless

Let's see if the ping will work now:

C:\Users\win7>ping 10.10.0.1

Pinging 10.10.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.10.0.1: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=62
Reply from 10.10.0.1: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=62
Reply from 10.10.0.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=62
Reply from 10.10.0.1: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=62


Ping statistics for 10.10.0.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 18ms, Maximum = 42ms, Average = 25ms

For those of you who want to try this lab, I used Microsoft Loopback Adapter and VPCS. If you don't know how to install them read this tutorial here and here.

On GNS3: Add interface to PC1 using NIO Ethernet and choose the connection for Microsoft Loopback Adapter. Add interface to PC2 using NIO UDP with Local Port = 30001 and Remote Port = 20001 and to PC3 with Local Port = 30002 and Remote Port = 20002.

Configure the IPv4 address parameters for PC1 in Network Connections in Control Panel.

On VPCS: Configure PC2 and PC3's IPv4 Address parameters:

PC2: ip 10.10.0.1 10.10.0.254 24
PC3: ip 8.8.8.8 8.8.8.1 24

OSPF and Frame Relay

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:20:00 +0000

In one lab I did in Packet Tracer, I used EIGRP with Frame Relay in a hub and spoke topology. I did not have a problem with this topology except with the issue of split horizon which can be solved by disabling the feature or implementing static routing (more complex solutions are to change the topology to full mesh or use subinterfaces). This is the topology of the network:

The network is working as it should so I thought of migrating it to OSPF. I haven’t encountered this kind of setup in the CCNA Certification Library and was not really discussed in those books. This is the first time I will be using OSPF in this kind of topology so I don’t really know the nature of this network. I usually use OSPF using point-to-point serial connection with HDLC or PPP. So to do that, I disabled EIGRP and applied the basic OSPF configuration which usually accomplishes the objective of having the routers learn the routes in the network:

hostname R1
!
interface Loopback0
 ip address 172.16.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0/0
 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
 encapsulation frame-relay
 frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.2 102
 frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.3 103
!
router ospf 1
 router-id 1.1.1.1
 log-adjacency-changes
 network 172.16.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
 network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

hostname R2
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 172.16.2.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Serial0/0/0
ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0
encapsulation frame-relay
frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.1 201
frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.3 201
ip ospf priority 0
!
router ospf 1
router-id 2.2.2.2
log-adjacency-changes
network 172.16.2.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

hostname R3

interface Loopback0

ip address 172.16.3.1 255.255.255.0

interface Serial0/0/0

ip address 192.168.1.3 255.255.255.0

encapsulation frame-relay

frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.1 301

frame-relay map ip 192.168.1.2 301

ip ospf priority 0

router ospf 1

router-id 3.3.3.3

log-adjacency-changes

network 172.16.3.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0

Before I test the network connectivity using Ping, I waited for the neighbor relationship to come up… and it did not. There was also no output when I issued the show ip ospf neighbor command. I was kind of expecting this result even though I don’t really know the reason behind it. Then I remember that even though there was no example of this kind of setup in the books, it was discussed there that OSPF has different network types which also require different configurations. Frame Relay belongs to the Non-broadcast Multi-access network type. The command for configuring the OSPF network type for a particular interface is ip ospf network type. So I tried this in Packet Tracer and got the following output:

R2(config)#int s0/0/0

R2(config-if)#ip ospf network ?

broadcast Specify OSPF broadcast multi-access network

point-to-point Specify OSPF point-to-point network

Bummer.

I checked the current network type configured in the interface

R2#show ip ospf interface s0/0/0

Serial0/0/0 is up, line protocol is up

Internet address is 192.168.1.2/24, Area 0

Process ID 1, Router ID 2.2.2.2, Network Type MULTI-POINT, Cost: 64

Transmit Delay is 1 sec, State WAITING, Priority 0

No designated router on this network

No backup designated router on this network

Timer intervals configured, Hello 30, Dead 120, Wait 120, Retransmit 5

Hello due in 00:00:13

Index 2/2, flood queue length 0

Next 0x0(0)/0x0(0)

Last flood scan length is 1, maximum is 1

Last flood scan time is 0 msec, maximum is 0 msec

Neighbor Count is 0, Adjacent neighbor count is 0

Suppress hello for 0 neighbor(s)

Notice the ospf network type configured on the interface, it says MULTI-POINT. Packet Tracer does not support the other OSPF network types. And I got really confused with the output so I decided to just look for the answers in the Internet and I found a very good tutorial on different OSPF network types. It was well-written and there were a lot of router show outputs so everyone can really follow with the discussion. Check out the post I am talking about written by Arden Packeer, CCIE # 20716 by clicking this link.

I learned in his tutorial the missing command in my configuration; the neighbor router subcommand on routers eligible for DR, in this case the hub, R1. This command is also not available in PT. I also learned there that in configuring ospf in Frame Relay network, the network type defaults to non-broadcast.

I also found this excerpt which explains the nature of NBMA networks in accordance with OSPF:

Special care should be taken when configuring OSPF over multi−access non−broadcast medias such as Frame Relay, X.25, ATM. The protocol considers these media like any other broadcast media such as Ethernet. NBMA clouds are usually built in a hub and spoke topology. PVCs or SVCs are laid out in a partial mesh and the physical topology does not provide the multi access that OSPF believes is out there. The selection of the DR becomes an issue because the DR and BDR need to have full physical connectivity with all routers that exist on the cloud. Also, because of the lack of broadcast capabilities, the DR and BDR need to have a static list of all other routers attached to the cloud. This is achieved using the neighbor ip−address [priority number] [poll−interval seconds] command, where the "ip−address" and "priority" are the IP address and the OSPF priority given to the neighbor. A neighbor with priority 0 is considered ineligible for DR election. The "poll−interval" is the amount of time an NBMA interface waits before polling (sending a Hello) to a presumably dead neighbor. The neighbor command applies to routers with a potential of being DRs or BDRs (interface priority not equal to 0).

Armed with the new knowledge and inspiration by Mr. Packeer, I was determined to finish the lab and fired up my GNS3.

This is now my configuration for R1

!
router ospf 1
router-id 1.1.1.1
log-adjacency-changes
network 172.16.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
neighbor 192.168.1.2
neighbor 192.168.1.3
!

The adjacency-changes logs show that neighbor relationship has been established

R1#
*Mar 1 00:02:20.219: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 3.3.3.3 on Serial0/0 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done
*Mar 1 00:02:20.227: %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process 1, Nbr 2.2.2.2 on Serial0/0 from LOADING to FULL, Loading Done

R1#sh ip ospf neigh

Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface
2.2.2.2 0 FULL/DROTHER 00:01:32 192.168.1.2 Serial0/0
3.3.3.3 0 FULL/DROTHER 00:01:38 192.168.1.3 Serial0/0

R2#sh ip ospf neigh

Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface
1.1.1.1 1 FULL/DR 00:01:35 192.168.1.1 Serial0/0

R3#sh ip ospf neigh

Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface
1.1.1.1 1 FULL/DR 00:01:55 192.168.1.1 Serial0/0

Now check out the network type configured on the interface

R1#sh ip ospf interface s0/0
Serial0/0 is up, line protocol is up
Internet Address 192.168.1.1/24, Area 0
Process ID 1, Router ID 1.1.1.1, Network Type NON_BROADCAST, Cost: 64
Transmit Delay is 1 sec, State DR, Priority 1
Designated Router (ID) 1.1.1.1, Interface address 192.168.1.1
No backup designated router on this network
Timer intervals configured, Hello 30, Dead 120, Wait 120, Retransmit 5
oob-resync timeout 120
Hello due in 00:00:19
Supports Link-local Signaling (LLS)
Index 2/2, flood queue length 0
Next 0x0(0)/0x0(0)
Last flood scan length is 1, maximum is 1
Last flood scan time is 4 msec, maximum is 4 msec
Neighbor Count is 2, Adjacent neighbor count is 2
Adjacent with neighbor 2.2.2.2
Adjacent with neighbor 3.3.3.3
Suppress hello for 0 neighbor(s)

You can see that the network type is configured for non-broadcast.

It’s time to check the routing table

R3#sh ip route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2
i - IS-IS, su - IS-IS summary, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2
ia - IS-IS inter area, * - candidate default, U - per-user static route
o - ODR, P - periodic downloaded static route

Gateway of last resort is not set

172.16.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 3 subnets, 2 masks
O 172.16.1.1/32 [110/65] via 192.168.1.1, 00:06:52, Serial0/0
C 172.16.3.0/24 is directly connected, Loopback0
O 172.16.2.1/32 [110/65] via 192.168.1.2, 00:06:52, Serial0/0
C 192.168.1.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/0

Finally, the ping results

R3#ping 172.16.1.1

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.16.1.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 4/28/80 ms
R3#ping 172.16.2.1

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.16.2.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 4/53/128 ms

That’s it. We solved the mystery of the non-broadcast ospf network type.

GNS3 topology and PT file

Cisco Router Boot Sequence

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:44:00 +0000

1. The router performs Power-On Self Test (POST) to discover the hardware components and verify that all components work properly.

2. The router copies a bootstrap program from ROM into RAM and run the bootstrap program.

3. The bootstrap program decides which IOS image to load into RAM based on the low-order four bits in configuration register:
0 = use ROMmon OS
1 = load first IOS file in flash
2-F = a) try each boot system command in startup config in order until one works
b) if none of the boot system command works load first IOS file in flash

4. If the bootstrap program has loaded IOS, IOS finds configuration file (typically startup config in NVRAM) and loads it into RAM as running-config. If startup config cannot be located in NVRAM, enter setup mode.

5. If no IOS file is found in flash or tftp, simply load ROMmon (an IOS file be copied into flash from a tftp using ROMmon).

Configuration Register:
0x2102 – default
0x2142 – ignore NVRAM contents

Router(config)#config-register value

boot system commands:
The first file from flash is loaded

Router(config)#boot system flash

IOS with the filename is loaded from flash

Router(config)#boot system flash filename

IOS with the filename is loaded from tftp server

Router(config)#boot system tftp filename address

Reference: CCNA ICND1 Official Cert Guide (3rd Ed) by Wendell Odom

Certified and Skilled

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:04:00 +0000

I got inspired by this post so I thought I want to share. I don't own this.

8 TIPS TO BECOME A RELEVANT NETWORK ENGINEER

Over the last few years I've had the opportunity to work with many great engineers and I've also had the displeasure of working with many not so great engineers. I worked a contract at the Sprint World Headquarters in Kansas City where I was in a room with 8 to 10 extremely skilled network engineers who may or may not have been CCIEs and/or JNCIEs. These were the kind of engineers that literally spoke routing protocols as a first language, throwing around the more advanced concepts without thinking about it, much like a book worm uses big words all the time, wondering why everyone else "doesn't get it." These were the engineers who never spoke of their certifications because their extreme skill spoke for itself. Network technologies radiated from their pores and you never once questioned their judgement, their knowledge, or their certifications (if they even had any). At the same time I've had the displeasure of working with newly minted CCNAs who failed to grasp the concept behind drawing physical layer diagrams of not-so-complex networks using CDP. These were the kinds of engineers - and I use the term engineers loosely - who were quite frankly lazy. These are the kind of people who got into IT because of the promise of a big paycheck, nice cars, big fancy homes, huge salaries, never ending vacation time, and so on. These were the people who rambled on and one about how they're a CCNA and they've made the big time. They managed to get hired into a room full of contractors at Sprint and they think they are hot stuff.

It is time to set the record straight people. The economy sucks. Finding a way to pass the CCNA exam is NOT going to land you that dream job you have been searching for. You are going to get run through a technical interview, and I can tell you for fact 95% of you will fail. I have been going through resume after resume after resume for the past 3 weeks trying to find competent engineers. Many resumes looked amazing and I had high hopes of finally striking some golden talent, only to be disappointed time after time. People are CCNAs, CCNA Security, CCNPs, and on and on and on. Tell me, what study methods are people with these types of certifications using that they can't tell me on a phone interview how to create a freaking VLAN. I am extremely annoyed at the lack of talent I am finding in the majority of people I am interviewing.

And this annoyance is what you can thank for this article. My top 10 tips to becoming a relevant network engineer, with or without certification.

1. Drop the brain dumps. I know, you are in a big hurry to get certified because as soon as you get that paper you won't be able to keep track of all the interviews you will be getting. WRONG. I've get 10 telephone interview questions that will weed you out of the candidate pool faster than can hit your #1 speed dial.

2. Build your own lab. I know, it is expensive and you can't afford it. WRONG. You can't afford NOT to build a lab. When you are in my lab doing the break/fix portion of my interview process I will know almost instantly if you've logged in to live equipment. Something as simple as knowing how to work a PuTTy session when you have a console connection to racked equipment will give you away. Another dead giveaway is how clumsy you are at the CLI. Build a lab already. You aren't doing yourself any favors memorizing commands from a book.

3. Put it to use. What do I mean? I mean, when you read about a technology in your exam certification guides, or whatever it is you read to study, put it to use. Find a way to use it. Reading about spanning-tree doesn't help you "get it." It may give you ideas, but nothing solidifies concepts better than putting them to use. If you read about spanning tree, create bridging loop. How can you identify a bridging loop under pressure in production if you've never seen one? How can you have confidence in your spanning tree configurations if you've never seen all the variations of how it can be configured?

4. Get creative. When you are going through your lab exercises change stuff around, mix things up, give yourself different topologies to work with. If you do the same lab over and over and over again, you are certain to miss out on learning opportunities presented by different scenarios. No two networks are ever the same. There are common design principles and expected ways of deploying services, but I promise you, no two networks are the same. Mix it up and it will pay off big.

5. High availability. When I have my rack fired up and I am working with new technology I don't spend too much time on the "simple configurations." Don't get me wrong, I make sure I have the basics down, but if you want to REALLY learn something, you need redundancy. Building high availability lab topologies will bring a whole new set of issues to your door, and with that, you will build a whole new set of skills. I used to frequent a certification exam forum that was pretty good about keeping brain dumpers out, but every once in a while some troll would come knocking asking all the wrong questions. For example, "Why use two links?" My answer, "Why NOT use two links?" "Why NOT have redundant paths?" "I want my network to be available to the business."

6. That lead nicely into number 6. Ask the RIGHT questions. Be a contrarian at times and defend your designs. As you become more skilled you will realize more and more just how unskilled so many people actually are and with that you will come across people who are unsuccessful because they ask the wrong questions. They do this because they are lazy and they just don't get it. They don't know why they have jobs and as a result never ask the right questions, and frankly can't do the job.

7. Teach someone else how to do it and/or find a lab partner. I have to tell you, some of my strongest learning experiences have come from teaching someone else what I know (or thought I knew) and bouncing ideas off someone else. The reason this is so great is because the person you are teaching will inevitably ask questions that you are not prepared to answer in a way that will make you question yourself, and what you know. Getting an answer to the question will cause you to learn, and because you are engaged in an exchange with another human being providing constant feedback and questions, it will be that much more difficult to forget what you have learned. A great sounding board is an invaluable learning tool.

8. Figure out how it works. Always find out how it works, whether it is a PING from host A to host B on the same switch, or a routing update produced by a topology change in EIGRP, always find out how it works. When you are on a production network with things going wrong, you can't even begin to provide effective troubleshooting if you don't know how stuff works. Break things in your lab to test your thesis. Put workstation with wireshark in between two routers and watch the traffic flow. Telnet to port 80 on web server and watch what happens. Overflow the CAM table on your Catalyst and observe unicast flooding in action.

To sum it all up - don't be lazy in your studies. Doing your due diligence up front will pay huge dividends. I'm not a highly certified individual, but I outperform many highly certified individuals. I once had an extremely technical phone interview with a large company here in town who told me I gave them the best presentation of routing protocol knowledge they had ever seen. The certification is not the reward folks. It is the journey that pays the dividends. The certification is just a piece of paper. Don't believe me? Ask the 14 "network engineers" who couldn't answer "How do you create a VLAN on a Cisco Catalyst 2960?"

credits: image

Native VLAN Problem Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:22:00 +0000

As I prepare for CCNA, I had the opportunity to really get into the bottom of things. Today, I finally settled it with Native VLAN. During my Cisco Networking Academy days, we had to do our skill-based exam for CCNA 3 (LAN Switching and Wireless) which lasted 10 hours because of a problem with Native VLAN. I even made a post about it. But that was the end of it, we made a mistake and we learned to never configure Native VLAN on the trunk link of the switch connected to the router configured for router-on-a-stick. We just moved on, we did not even bother to research why is that a problem. Even our instructor did not enlighten us with the issue.

But it's been bugging me since that day. Why? WHY? Now I have the answers.

First, let me review the problem:

I applied the command switchport trunk native vlan 88 on the trunk link of S2. This trunk link is connected to R1 which is configured for router-on-a-stick. The Native VLAN in LAB1 domain is VLAN 88. When I ping S1's management interface from PC1, the ping doesn't work.

Now this is my theory:

As I ping from PC1 which is in VLAN 20 to the switches which has management interface of interface VLAN 88, it has to go to R1 from the trunk link. The frame was supposed to be tagged with VLAN 88 but since we defined VLAN 88 on S2 as the Native VLAN, the frame is not tagged (no 802.1Q header).

The router has not been configured to handle untagged traffic, thus it is dropped. So the immediate solution is to simply not configure a Native VLAN on S2's trunk link with no switchport trunk native vlan 88. But that is not the right solution, it may allow the ping to pass in which the frame is tagged with VLAN 88 while all untagged traffic will be forwarded in VLAN 1, but still the router has no mechanism to handle untagged traffic.

There must be a real solution. Actually there are two and I don't have to apply the no switchport trunk native vlan 88 command anymore.

First is to configure the router to handle untagged traffic. Second is to set VLAN 88 as Native VLAN in the router by just adding one keyword in the existing command.

Configuring the router to handle untagged traffic is to simply remove fa0/1.88 with no interface fa0/1.88 and apply its address to the main interface which is interface fa0/1. So the new configuration would be:

R1(config)#no interface fa0/1.88
R1(config)#interface fa0/1
R1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.7.126 255.255.255.192

The second solution is more convenient because it will use the existing configuration but with the native keyword:

R1(config)#interface fa0/1.88
R1(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 88 native
R1(config-subif)#ip address 192.168.7.126 255.255.255.192

Quoting from CCNA ICND2 Official Cert Guide (3rd Ed), encapsulation dot1q vlan-id native command "not only tell the router that the subinterface is associated with vlan-id, but also not to use any 802.1Q headers with that subinterface".

Note: 01/29/12
If you're thinking that what I've said above which is "The frame was supposed to be tagged with VLAN 88..." is wrong, you are right. Give yourself credit for noticing that. I already addressed that in my later post here.

Ultimate CCNA Challenge Lab

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

After reading on different CCNA concepts, I thought I wanted to assess myself by building a network where almost all the concepts I learned will come and work altogether, a simulation lab which will test my familiarity with different Cisco CLI commands. I began by thinking, What do I want my network to do? What technologies I want to use to enable those functions? Then I started building the topology and I came up with this:

These are the CCNA concepts used in this lab:

VLANS and VTP
Inter-VLAN
WAN
IP Routing
NAT/PAT
ACL

I did this lab in Packet Tracer and lucky I was able to finish it. My approach was focus on one portion and list out what I need to accomplish on that portion of the network, like, for the Local Area Network, hosts on the same subnets should be able to communicate with each other and so on.

I thought others might want to try this so I made a documentation which comes along with a Packet Tracer file with the topology already set up, but with clear configurations (except for some devices). I also included my finished Packet Tracer file which can be used for testing the final output.

At the end of this activity you should accomplish the following functions in the network:

Two VTP domains with VLANS
Hosts from different VLANS can communicate
Hosts from different networks can communicate over the WAN
Hosts can access the internal server (except those that are blocked by ACL)
Hosts can access the Internet (except those that are blocked by ACL)
Internal web server can be accessed from the Internet

Piece of cake right? So go ahead and hit the download link.

Download

Feel free to ask questions and please give some feedback to this lab after you have tried it. Good luck and happy labbing!!

UPDATE: 12/04/11

I just have a correction in Step #2 - LAN with Inter-VLAN

c) S1, S2, S3 can be accessed through its management interface by Host A, B, C, D. (on the PC’s command prompt, successful telnet to each switch: password “cisco”). ~~Then enable the switches to be accessed remotely (test this after accomplishing Step #4)~~

The command to enable the switches to be accessed remotely must be applied so that Host A, B, C, D can telnet to the switches in the first place. Because the management interface is in VLAN 30 and Host A, B, C, D are on different VLANs.

But of course accomplishing Step #4 will allow other hosts from remote networks (over the WAN) to telnet to this switches.

Cisco Security Device Manager

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:16:00 +0000

If you are studying for CCNA, it is not enough that you know how to configure Cisco routers using the CLI, you also have to learn how to use Cisco SDM (Security Device Manager) as stated in the exam objectives:

Configure, verify and troubleshoot DHCP and DNS operation on a router (using both the CLI and SDM)
Access and utilize the router to set basic parameters.(including: CLI/SDM)
Configure and apply ACLs based on network filtering requirements using SDM and CLI
Configure and apply an ACL to limit telnet and SSH access to the router using SDM and CLI
Configure NAT for given network requirements using SDM and CLI

Another reason for learning how to use SDM, as quoted from CCNA ICND1 Official Cert Guide (3rd Ed):

Routers that are built specifically for consumers as Internet access routers ship from the factory with DHCP client services enabled on the Internet-facing interface, DHCP server functions enabled on the local interface, and PAT functions enabled. Enterprise routers, which have many features and may not necessarily be used as Internet access routers, ship from the factory without these features enabled by default.

So for your enterprise-class routers, you can configure DHCP client, DHCP server and PAT using SDM. which are necessary functions to be able to connect to the Internet.

In my previous post, I said I am going to try SDM using GNS3, and I didn't know I will have a lot of trouble setting it up. It only works on older versions of Java (1.6.0_03) so I got to download it from the Oracle website and disable my latest Java for it. Then, it requires some commands to be configured on the router before it can work. So this is my current topology (which I used in the previous post about using tftp server) and the host is configured as my laptop using the Microsoft loopback adapter. The router's interface address is 10.10.10.1 while my adapter's address is 10.10.10.2, so the addresses should be in the same subnet.

These are the router CLI commands:

Router(config)# ip http server
Router(config)# ip http secure-server
Router(config)# ip http authentication local
Router(config)# username username privilege 15 password 0 password
Router(config)# line vty 0 4
Router(config-line)# privilege level 15
Router(config-line)# login local
Router(config-line)# transport input ssh
Router(config-line)# exit

So after you have installed SDM and Java, configured your router, verified the IP configuration of your host, then you can now access use SDM using your web browser (turn off pop-up blocker).

TFTP on GNS3

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:08:00 +0000

I've been trying many things with the enabled connection between my virtual router in GNS3 and my own laptop (through the Microsoft Loopback Adapter). First I tried SSH then Telnet and now I've tried to set up a tftp server which I got here and execute this simple command:

R1#copy running-config tftp

Here's the output--Sweet!

Next on my list is to try the new Cisco Configuration Professional and SDM :)

Exploring GNS3

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:26:00 +0000

GNS3 is freakin amazing! I was just reading some stuff on the website (gns3.net) and I am really curious about how to connect hosts in my topology. First I learned about using the Microsoft loopback adapter which is really a complicated task. Then I read that there's a simpler way if you are just gonna use the host for Ping and traceroute. It is through vpcs (Virtual PC Simulator). I connected 2 hosts and I configured the ip address of each host using vpcs. Then I configured the ip address of interface of the router in GNS3. Finally I tried pinging the remote host from the other host, the pings were successful (as seen from the image below). It was amazing! And vpcs can even save the configuration, which is really handy.

Thanks to this tutorial. I am going to try more complicated topology now that I know how to use hosts in my network.

Towards CCNA

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:28:00 +0000

Today I am officially starting my CCNA Certification self-review. This is really what I want to achieve for now, and then have a long-term career in networking. I will not totally give up programming though, I will from time to time try to program (I love Java and VB .Net!).

I will be using one book for reference: CCNA Study Guide by Todd Lammle and video series: CBT Nuggets CCNA Certification Package by Jeremy Cioara and with the help of Packet Tracer and GNS3 for hands-on lab. I hope I have everything I need to get me prepared for the exam.

Good luck to me! I hope I can achieve my dreams! To CCNA, Cheers! :)

ZWLMDAS on Google Docs

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:50:00 +0000

It's been 6 months since I last posted about our senior project entitled Zigbee-based Water Level Monitoring and Data Acquisition System. I finally managed to get the paper done to make it available for reading online. This is a brief discussion of the system.

View on Google Docs

Our project caught the attention of the Public Safety Office of the city and they were interested in adapting the system for flood monitoring of the city.

SP Update 3.0: Completion & Tweets

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:29:00 +0000

Previous Post : SP Update 2.5: GUI

Zigbee-based Water Level Monitoring and Data Acquisition System is complete. It has already been deployed in a river. The alarm device is operational and being controlled by the GUI according to the processed data. The people of Brgy. Dinaga can be warned from impending flood risks.

I had fun doing this project and I am lucky to be given the opportunity to do such a great project along with my group mates. I learned a lot during this whole experience.

Defense will be on Saturday, March 7. Wish us luck! MAGIS!!!

As an added feature to the system, the application can connect to Twitter.com and post the data online. Visit the twitter account @zwlmonitoring

SP Update 2.5: The GUI: VB .Net

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:44:00 +0000

Previous Post: SP Update 2.0

The GUI was developed using Visual Basic 2010 Express. This was the first time I made a Visual Basic application and thanks to many tutorials on the internet about VB .NET, I was able to build this. The GUI shows the status of the Zigbee network, and the water level being monitored. Basically, it sends a signal (a byte) on the serial port which is transmitted through the Zigbee network. When the mote receives this signal, the Arduino performs analogRead() and then sends the data back to the serial port. The application continuously listens for incoming data from the serial port. The raw data is converted to actual measurements based on the calibration of the sensor.

Other functionality of the application:
1. Save the data to SQL server database
2. Plot the last 15 (most recent) data on the graph for the two motes.
3. Display the last 30 (most recent) data on the table for the two motes.
4. Set the time interval of data acquisition.
5. Set the serial port and database connection.

And by the way, we already installed the system on the actual location, it's already monitoring the river level but only for testing purposes. Actual deployment soon.

Below is our mote inside a PVC box.

SP Update 2.0: XBee Wireless Communication

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Previous post: SP Update 1.5

The stackable headers have arrived from E-Gizmo and finally we were able to test Zigbee wireless communication!!!

First we followed this tutorial from Sparfkun in assembling the shield. Then we uploaded our sketch to Arduino to send ADC readings of the sensor to the gateway and computer. We also programmed the XBees to communicate in Star Topology network.

Below is the package of our "mote". We have here the sensor, sensor signal amplification ciruit, the stacked Arduino, and XBee shield with the XBee. The tube from the sensor goes to a drum filled with water. To test the circuit, we tried to remove then place water to the drum, observe and take note of the readings. We observed that for every 5cm increase, the ADC readings increase 1 bit. For full testing, we are going to deploy this project on a real river.

We have below the gateway which receives the data from the mote.

I made a Visual Basic application which sends a string through the serial port.The XBee plugged into the computer will send broadcasts to the two motes and when the motes receive this string, sensor reading will be initiated. Mote 1 will send immediately but mote 2 will have a delay of 1 second before doing the read and sending the data.

Our next task is improve the GUI of the application, and make it a real monitoring system application with graphs .and database to display and store the data,

PIC Thermometer

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:41:00 +0000

SCHEMATIC:

Digital Thermometer using PIC16F877A microcontroller. The circuit uses LM35 as its temperature sensor, and displays the temperature (0-99 Celsius) using the two 7 segment display.

Input voltage: 9-12V DC
then it is regulated to 5V DC connected to PIN 6 and PIN 1 of the microcontroller and input to the sensor

MATERIALS:

pic16f877a
22pF x 2

10nF
10uF
100nF x 2
10uF electrolytic
470uF electrolytic
7805 voltage regulator
2.2k
10k
470ohms x 8
LM35
BC558 x 2
7 Segment Common Cathode x 2
4 MHz Crystal

DC jack

wires
PicKit2
Pic Programmer

POWER SUPPLY:

The circuit is also programmed to turn on devices using the RC pins. Example: RC0 is ON when the temperature is above 39 Celsius. One application is to turn on a fan when it is already too hot. That's why we included additional circuit for this application

OPTIONAL (Motor Circuit):

The output of the RC0 can work like a switch to ON/OFF the motor

Temperature > 39 : turn on the fan

Additional Materials:

Battery holder (2 x AA batteries)

3V DC Motor
1N4003 diode
2N7000 transistor
100k

DOWNLOAD (program in hex, schematic)

Original circuit from HAMRADIOINDIA. The circuit there uses two temperature sensors and 3 seven segment displays because of decimal point in the output (e.g. 25.6 Celsius). I modified the circuit and simplified it by removing the spare sensor and using only two display. The reason is when I simulated it in Proteus, the output is somehow wrong. I don't know if the output is right on actual but since I want to make sure with the actual circuit, I followed my schematic that gives the right output on simulation. I did not program the microcontroller. The HEX is from the site and the code is available there.

Motor circuit from NERDKITS. Great explanation of the basic principle of motors.

SNAPSHOTS:

SP Update 1.5: WSN Materials: Arduino & XBee

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:24:00 +0000

Previous post: SP Update 1.0

1/16/11 - Finally, the materials have arrived. It was a dream come true for us that finally after so many mishaps that happened, we got our hands on these precious little things.

I've submitted the order to Sparkfun.com and a shipping confirmation has been sent from Sparkfun last 1/3/11. We are expecting that it will arrive after 3 days. But 4 days had passed and no news about our package. Tracking the order, we discovered that it arrived here in the Philippines on 1/06/11. But for some clearance issues, it has been delayed and after 5 days of being delayed, we decided to call FedEx to verify. We have been told that we are going to pay an additional PHP5,000 for the taxes before we can receive our package which is almost 50% of the amount ($276). It was our 2nd time to do online shipping and we did not know about this whole tax thing! It was insane! But because we are so delayed in our project, we have no choice but to pay them the amount to finally get our package. Today, we have our materials with us, and it was 10 days after it has arrived here in the Philippines. It was really unfair on our part, because we are only students and we need these things for our Senior Project but we were not informed and a big damage has been done to us.

But, we can't really do anything but move on and proceed with the project implementation.

More snapshots: Look how small these things are!

Unfortunately, we couldn't test these things yet because there is one material missing which I've overlooked, the 6 and 8 pin stackable headers for the Arduino and XBee Shield. I thought it was included in the shield (FAIL!). On the brighter side, I've just finished making the layout of the sensor circuit and we will start building the circuit tomorrow.

- Sensor circuit (practicalarduino.com)
- Sensor (MPX2050DP)

Activate your free mobile Internet (Philippines)

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:31:00 +0000

YOU MUST HAVE:

- Java-capable phone

- Activated GPRS

- Mobile Network: SMART or GLOBE
- Minimum of PHP 1.00 load

NOTE: Please see update date below. If the update is too old then most likely the trick doesn't work anymore.

**UPDATE (6/1/11) - SMART SETTINGS NOT WORKING ANYMORE. NEW SETTINGS for GLOBE users with built-in browser in their phone. Just follow the first two steps and surf the internet from your mobile phone's browser or use the default OPERAMINI browser (non-handler)

Look for these similar settings in your phone:

1) CONFIGURE YOUR GPRS SETTINGS

Connectivity >> Data Account >> GPRS

For SMART

Account Name: SMART INTERNET

APN: internet

Username:

Password:

For GLOBE

Account Name: myGlobe CONNECT

APN: http.globe.com.ph

Username:

Password:

2) CONFIGURE YOUR INTERNET SERVICES

Internet Services >> Settings >> Profile

Create or Edit Profiles

For SMART

Profile Name: SMART INTERNET

Homepage: http://wap.smart.com.ph

Data Account: Choose SMART INTERNET

Connection Type: HTTP

Use Proxy: Yes

Proxy Address: 10.102.61.238

Port: 80

For GLOBE

Profile Name: myGlobe CONNECT

Homepage: http://www.globe.com.ph/globe.asp

Data Account: Choose myGlobe CONNECT

Connection Type: HTTP

Use Proxy: Yes

Proxy Address: 10.200.88.21

Port: 80

3) DOWNLOAD OPERAMINI 4.2

Now Download Operamini 4.2 Handler (from Kinghari of Symbianize.com) in your PC

SMART OM4.2
GLOBE OM4.2

Copy the .jar file to your phone

Launch the Installer

At startup you will see the Handler Menu Settings

4) CONFIGURE THE HANDLER MENU

Look for these parameters and change the values

For GLOBE

HTTP server: http://globe.gigigo.com or t.globe.com.ph

Custom Socket Server: socket://globe.gigigo.com

Front query: twitter.globe.com.ph/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/010110A/http/
Remove string url: global-4-lvs-usa.opera-mini.net

For SMART

HTTP Server: http://server4.operamini.com:80/

Custom Socket Server: http://smart.ph.smsarena.com/

Front query: smart.ph.smsarena.com

Remove string url: global-4-lvs-seele.opera-mini.net

Press OK and finish installation. Don't run the application yet. Exit Operamini.

5) CONFIGURE YOUR JAVA SETTINGS

Go to your Java Settings

Choose the Profile you created depending on your network

SMART INTERNET for SMART

myGlobe CONNECT for GLOBE

6) Open Operamini and start SURFING for FREE!

CLICK "LIKE" BUTTON ABOVE IF YOU'RE ABLE TO MAKE IT WORK.

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

http://www.symbianize.com/

SP Update 1.0

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:15:00 +0000

"Water Level Monitoring and Data Acquisition System"

Note: Go to this post to have an overview of our SP

As of 12/09/10 we have prepared all the things we will be needing for our project. The only thing that's keeping us from moving on is we haven't purchased any materials yet. The problem is the budget. We have finalized the list products we will be purchasing from Sparkfun.com which amounts to almost $250 or Php 11,000. The sensor circuit and alarm system is not included in the list yet.

But this is our current progress as of now
1. Sparkfun list (Arduino, XBee, Wireless Shield, Dongle)
2. XBee network parameters setup (Coordinator, End Devices) *
3. Arduino code V1.0 of the two "motes"
- sends the analog reading from sensor and corresponding ID of the mote
4. Visual Basic application V1.0
- reads data from serial port
- parses the string
- identifies the source of data wether it is from "mote1" or "mote2"
- display the data and time it was received
5. Sensor circuit and installation procedures *
6. Mini UPS circuit for the motes*

*For implementation

CCNA 3 Skill-based

noreply@blogger.com (vne) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:48:00 +0000

I rebuild the network model (not the exact) using Packet Tracer we actually designed and implemented last October 24, 2010 during our Cisco Final Skill-based Assessment in which we are required to design a network with 2 domains (LAB1 and LAB2) where each domain contains different VLANS. We should also implement router-on-a-stick to make the VLANS communicate with each other. Plus some hosts must be able to connect to the Cisco Server and access the Cisco curriculum, while some will be refused connectivity from the wireless routers using Mac Address Filtering.

The one biggest mistake we did was to configure the trunk interface of the switch connected to the router (R1) with a Native VLAN with the command:

S2(config-if)#switchport trunk native vlan 88

Thus, the switch cannot be pinged by any other device except the router it is directly connected with. That issue took us 4 hours to troubleshoot, (6 hours of completing the whole activity + 4 hours of troubleshooting = 10 hours!). So the solution we made is simply remove the Native VLAN configuration of the switch.

S2(config-if)#no switchport trunk native vlan 88

PT file and Addressing Table:
Download

Note: 01/29/12
It is wrong for me to say that it was a mistake to configure the Native VLAN on S2's trunk. The real mistake was a missing configuration on R1 which I addressed on a later post here.