Router Configuration

• Router Fundamentals
• Connecting to the Console Port
• Router Modes -- User EXEC
• Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
• Lab #9 Goals
 Router Fundamentals
• Here, we will examine two types of networks: flat vs routed.
• Devices in a local area network (LAN) tend to be connected at
Layers 1 (Physical) and 2 (Data Link), by devices like hubs and
switches.
• Smaller LANs can be interconnected into a larger LAN, with the
aid of an additional switch.
o If the number of networked hosts is not too large, then it should not be
problematic.
o However, as the number of hosts increases, it can become a problem
because all the hosts will be part of a common broadcast domain.
 Router Fundamentals
• A broadcast domain is the set of hosts that will receive a
broadcast sent out on a network.
o Layer 2 switches create a common broadcast domain.
o If there are many hosts, slowdowns can happen because every
computer will have to look at a broadcast to decide whether or
not to respond
• When smaller LANs are combined into a larger LAN --
where all have the same broadcast domain -- you have a
flat network. These should usually be avoided because
of the increased network delays.
 Router Fundamentals
• A better option is a routed network, where Layer 3
addresses are used to determine where data packets
should be sent.
o For this reason, it is also known as a Layer 3 network.
o One such example is Figure 7-2. (Where have you seen this
figure before?)
• Figure 7-2 depicts a routed network, consisting of
o Four LANs: A, B, C, and D
o Three routers: A, B, and C
 Router Fundamentals
• Each LAN has a switch that interconnects
o The local hosts
o ...and one of the routers
• The network is divided into segments, such that a
segment is indicated by a connection
o From a router to a switch (one of the LANs)
o From a router to another router
• Each segment has an address, so it may also be called a
NET or a subnet.
 Router Fundamentals
• Unlike a flat network -- where the switches do not separate
broadcast domains -- the routers partition a Layer 3 network
into separate broadcast domains.
• The router has multiple Ethernet ports, each of which is
connected to one of the segments/subnets.
o Each LAN is its own subnet, where hosts IPs start at X.X.X.1, and IP for
router/gateway is X.X.X.250
 LAN A: 10.10.20.0
 LAN B: 10.10.10.0
 LAN C: 10.10.1.0
 LAN D: 10.10.5.0
 Router Fundamentals
o Each router-to-router connection is its own subnet, where
router local IPs start at X.X.X.1
 A-to-B: 10.10.200.0
 B-to-C: 10.10.150.0
 C-to-A: 10.10.100.0

• Within each LAN, the local router connection serves as the

default gateway
o This is where hosts send data packets addressed outside of the LAN.
o The router will have a local IP (i.e., the same subnet) that will be the
default gateway address.
o Network traffic to a destination outside of the LAN -- or into the LAN
from the outside -- will pass through the gateway.
 Router Fundamentals
• To determine if the destination IP is within the same subnet,
the source host will need to apply the subnet mask to it.
o If so, then it can simply be forwarded by the switch at Layer 2
o Otherwise, the data must be sent to the default gateway -- here,
the router.
• Once the router received the outward-bound data, it will
choose the next hop
• The next hop address is the IP of the next networking
device that can send the packet, to its eventual destination.
 Router Fundamentals
• This information is determined by consulting a routing
table, which may contain multiple paths, in case one
path is not functional.
• Each router or other internetworking device -- through
which the data must pass, on its way to its destination --
is a "hop".
o All
other things being equal, the preferred "next hop" is to
the shortest path to the destination.
o In many cases, "shortest" will simply mean the least hops.
 Connecting to the Console Port
• When configuring a router, you will often form a serial
connection between the RS-232 serial communications ports
of your computer and the router.
o On the router, this connection will take place at an RJ-45 jack.
(Looks like an Ethernet port but has a different function)
o On your computer, this will be a DB-9 or DB-25 connector, with the
latter being less common. See Figure 7-6

• This linkage will be made over a console cable, which runs

between a computer's serial port and a router's console port.
 Connecting to the Console Port
• This console cable make take a number of forms:
o An RJ-45 plug on one end and a DB-9 plug on the other
o Or, something with an adapter -- such as DB-9 to RJ-45.

• Once the physical connection is formed, you can

console into the router with a software program like
o HyperTerminal
o PuTTY
o ZTerm (Mac)
 Router Modes -- User EXEC
• Here, we will be speaking in the context of Cisco routers,
specifically.
oA Cisco router will run Cisco IOS - the Cisco Internet Operating
System
o You will interact with the OS via a command line interface (CLI)

• When you console into a Cisco router, you will see a

command prompt consisting of two parts:
o Yourrouter's hostname -- the name by which it is known on the
network
o A symbol, such as # or >
 Router Modes -- User EXEC
• For example, when starting the GNS3 labs, your router's
hostname is probably "R1", so you may get a prompt
that looks like this: R1>
• This is a clue that you are connected in user EXEC mode --
also known as user mode.
o (Ifyou have a ">" instead of a "#", then you are already in a
different mode, which we will cover below...)
• User EXEC mode will not allow you to configure the
router, but you can get some basic information about your
device.
 Router Modes -- User EXEC
• In this mode, there are some basic commands, such as:
o ? (The help command)
 On its own, the help command will give you a list of commands and
their descriptions
 After another command, it will give you possible options and
arguments to that command.
o show
 Can display various pieces of information about the system,
according to the arguments supplied
 show flash - Information about router's flash memory
 show version - The version of Cisco IOS on your router.
 Router Modes -- User EXEC
o ping - Testing whether a host is reachable over the network
o traceroute - Display route between your current host and
some endpoint
o enable -- Brings you to privileged EXEC mode

o disable -- Opposite of enable

 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
• If you want to configure your Cisco router's ports and other
features, then you will need to be in privileged mode.
o If you are currently only in user EXEC mode, then you can use the
enable command to enter the privileged mode.
o You will know you are there when your command is the router's
hostname, followed by a "#" symbol. For example: R1#
o Once you make your router password protected, you will need the
password to get in
o Be careful in this mode, as any mistakes could adversely affect
your network.
 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
• In privileged mode, a very useful command is show ip
interface brief, which will display basic information for the
various network interfaces on your router.
• To see more commands, type ? and press Enter
• For actual configuration tasks, you will need to enter
configuration mode, using the command configure terminal
o A shorthand version of this command is conf t
o Many commands have shorthand versions, which you can look up
in the textbook and online
o If shorthand does not work, then just use the full command
 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
• When you enter configuration mode, your prompt will have
(config) between the hostname and "#" symbol. For
example: R1(config)#
• In configuration mode, you can...
o Changing the router's hostname:
 Enter the command hostname, followed by the router's new name
 Example: hostname itvm29-6b
o Password protection for privileged mode:
 Enter the command enable, followed by the option secret and
the password you chose
 Example: enable secret itvm29-6b
 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
o Configuring FastEthernet and serial interfaces:
 Enter the command interface, followed by the name of the interface you
want to configure
 Examples: interface FastEthernet0/0 interface Serial0/0
 In interface configuration mode, your prompt will replace (config) with (config-
if). Example: R1(config-if)#
o Setting a domain name server, if you want your router to be able to
resolve URLs into IP addresses
 Enter the command ip, followed by name-server and the IP address for your
server of choice.
 Example: ip name-server 10.0.0.1
 After name-server, you can enter up to 6 IP addresses, if you want multiple
domain name servers
 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
o To see more commands available to you in this mode, type ? and
press Enter
o Leaving configuration mode: Type exit and press Enter
• When you are in interface configuration mode, some
important tasks you can do are...
o Setting the network address for the interface:
 Enter the command ip, followed by address and arguments
 Static IP example: ip address 10.0.29.250
 Dynamic IP example: ip address dhcp
 Router Modes -- Privileged EXEC
o Starting up the interface: Enter the command no shutdown
o Stopping the interface: Enter the command shutdown
o To see more commands available to you in this mode, type ? and
press Enter
o Leaving interface configuration mode: Type exit and press Enter
• As before, many of these commands have shorthand forms
that can save you some typing
o sh ip int br for show ip interface brief
o no shut for no shutdown
 Lab #9 Goals
• In the 9th lab, we are setting up simulated LANs in GNS3 -- each
consisting of three PCs and a router, all interconnected by a
switch in the middle.
• The simulated LAN has the subnet address of 192.168.2x.0/24,
where 2x is the number (21-28) of your physical machine.
o The host computers' IP addresses start at 192.168.2x.101,
which you configure accordingly.
o The router is connected to the switch on its FastEthernet0/1
interface, which is configured with the IP address 192.168.2x.1
o Therefore, for the hosts, the default gateway address is
192.168.2x.1
 Lab #9 Goals
• On your router's other network interface, FastEthernet0/0, it
will be connected to the IT Lab LAN, with an IP address in the
10.0.0.0/24 subnet.
is the same subnet on which the physical machines in the
o This
lab are connected.
o Therefore, your router forms a gateway between your
simulated LAN (192.168.2x.0/24) and the IT Lab LAN
(10.0.0.0/24).
• You do not manually configure the FastEthernet0/0
interface on your router -- at least not the specifics.
 Lab #9 Goals
• Instead, you will "configure" the FastEthernet0/0 interface
to obtain its configuration information (IP address, subnet
mask, default gateway, etc.) automatically -- via DHCP.
o DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.
o The network interface will obtain its information from a
source -- a DHCP server -- that allocates this information
according to its own settings.
• At this point, hosts on your simulated LAN should be able to:
o Send and receive data among themselves
o Send data to a destination outside the LAN
 Lab #9 Goals
• However, they will not be able to:
o Receive traffic from a source outside the LAN
o Interact with hosts in other groups' simulated LANs

• With a combination of NAT and static routing ,

though, we can do both of these...