So thanks to fakenamegenerator.com I thought I should add some people and setup various workstations around my fake network. With that said, here is my list:

name	user id	country	PC
Hazel B. Forrest	hforrest	USA	MS-DOS
James M. White	jwhite	USA	Windows 3.1
Russell I. Ward	rward	USA
Valerie H. Shimp	vshimp	USA
Vera H. Williams	vwilliams	USA
Marie J. Brown	mbrown	UK	Windows 95
Jason S. Seymore	jseymore	UK
Mingmei Hao	mhao	HK	OS/2 1.21
Guang Huang	ghuang	HK
Wit Pawlak	wpawlak	PL	WindowsNT 4.0
Fabio Napolitani	fnapolitani	IT

Which is enough to get me started in creating some users.

For starters I thought it would be fun to make up some applications the users can ‘use’ on this fine network.  A mainframe is a must, however Hercules doesn’t emulate SNA networks.  Which is kind of sad.  I did find an evaluation copy of Microsoft SNA Server 2.11 which runs great on NT 3.5 and higher.  However it is limited to two sessions, but to be honest back when I used a mainframe for work, Microsoft SNA server was honestly the best thing out there.  I had a NT 4.0 / SNA 2.11 install that had uptime in YEARS, while the later SNA 3.0, 4.0 and HIS stuff constantly had issues.

For email, I thought I’d go with something positively ancient, Microsoft Mail 2.1c.

Back then, email programs were just flat databases that allowed multiple people to read/write/lock files over a network. It is very reminisce of how BBS multiuser doors & databases work. MS Mail 2.1 includes clients for MS-DOS, Windows 3.X while the later 3.5 version included an OS/2 client that used the WLO libraries, which was a port of Windows 3.0 to run on top of OS/2.  I kind of covered this thing back here, although it was mostly geared to version 3.5, it basically is the same thing.

I’ve been using a Windows NT 4.0 server loaded up with the FPNW, so it looks like a NetWare server.  Although Netware 3.12 runs on Qemu 0.90, it is lacking UDP bridge support to communicate with dynagen/dynamips.  I did find out that VirtualBOX does support the UDP bridge, and will even run Netware 3.12, HOWEVER, after transferring a few megabytes, the server will stop responding, and dynamips will crash.  Not a very satisfactory solution.  So until I get around to backporting the UDP code, this NT server will serve as my virtual ‘Netware’ server for the time being.

I was also going to run SQL Server 4.21a on WindowsNT, however I did come across SQL Server for OS/2, so I will be installing an OS/2 machine complete with Lan Manager, and SQL Server.  The only downside is that LanManager relies on the non-routable NetBEUI protocol.  However it is just as awkward as bridging mainframe traffic, so I guess that is a hidden plus. While a program to talk to the database outside of the old isql stuff would be nice, I suspect that doing anything beyond Visual Basic + ODBC would take too much time, and honestly not really be all that worth it.

Also looking at this fine program, Stomper, which lets your share a modem over a network, I thought it would be fun to try in combination with rlfossil for some BBSing adventures.  Back before the internet was open to commercial ISPs it wasn’t uncommon for corporations to pool modems over a LAN.  Remote access was typically handled with specialized hardware appliances like the Shiva LanRover. As far as I know, the only real dialup server that Microsoft had was incorporated with Windows NT 3.5.

Once I get this networking operating correctly, then I’ll start to add things like redundancy via HSRP in my core site, backup network connections, an internet connection, upgrade to an exchange server, some BGP peering, and a VPN server.

Just like the real world!

Cisco routers are born to do TCP/IP.  And looking at the networking world today, it is pretty safe to say that you will be on a TCP/IP network.  Luckily configuring TCP/IP on the router is pretty easy.  IP addresses are assigned per interface, as a typical router will have many ip addresses.

As always it does help to have a ‘plan’ for what ip addresses will go where in your network.

I’m using the network that I described earlier, here.

From my corertr1 router I’m going to setup 3 networks, a server network, a user network, and finally a network to connect to my WAN router.  The IP networks that I’m going to use are the following:

WAN 138.1.0.0/24
SERVER 138.1.1.0/24
USER 138.1.10.0/24

The first thing I want to do is examine the existing configuration of the FastEthernet 0/0 port which will be my ‘wan’ network port.

corertr1#sho run int fa0/0
Building configuration…

Current configuration : 83 bytes
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
end

As you can see it is shut down, and has no ip address assigned.  We can also check the ethernet’s status with a show interface fa0/0

corertr1#sho interfaces fastEthernet 0/0
FastEthernet0/0 is administratively down, line protocol is down
Hardware is i82543 (Livengood), address is ca00.383b.0008 (bia ca00.383b.0008)
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input 00:02:30, output 00:01:40, output hang never
Last clearing of “show interface” counters 00:00:01
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
0 packets input, 0 bytes
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 watchdog
0 input packets with dribble condition detected
0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

The important part here is this line:

FastEthernet0/0 is administratively down, line protocol is down

First the interface is ‘administratively down’ meaning that it is configured this way. In cisco speak this interface is ‘down, down’. This is different from a ‘up/down’ interface that is configured to be ‘up’ or operational, but is not working.  That will appear like this:

FastEthernet0/0 is administratively up, line protocol is down

Which indicates that there is a hardware problem.

The first thing we are going to do is turn the interface ‘on’.

corertr1#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
corertr1(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
corertr1(config-if)#no shut
corertr1(config-if)#exit
corertr1(config)#exit
corertr1#
16:41:01: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0/0, changed state to up
16:41:01: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console
16:41:02: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0/0, changed state to up
corertr1#

Notice that when we type in “interface fastEthernet 0/0” the prompt changes to (config-if) meaning that we are now configuring an interface.  Type in the question mark, and you can see all the possible options you have on this interface.  The physical interface is where you select things like speed, duplex, line encapsulation.  If the interface doesn’t have any ‘virtual’ members like 802.1Q, or frame relay as a few examples, you can put an ip address on the interface.  Also take note that when I typed in the first ‘exit’ the prompt changed back to (config) meaning we are no longer configuring the fastEthernet 0/0 interface.  The next exit then takes us out of the config mode all together.

The next thing that happens is that the router turns the interface on, and then generates a syslog event which is followed by a console message letting us know that that fastEthernet interface is now operational as its state is now up.

Now I’m going to go back into the configuration mode, and setup the IP address

corertr1#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
corertr1(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
corertr1(config-if)# description WAN network
corertr1(config-if)# ip address 138.1.0.5 255.255.255.0
corertr1(config-if)#exit
corertr1(config)#exit
corertr1#

Notice that I also set a description on the interface.  This makes it easier to remember what goes where.  Always if possible put in descriptions! Now if we check the interface configuration we will now see:

corertr1#sho run interface fastEthernet 0/0
Building configuration…

Current configuration : 119 bytes
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
description WAN network
ip address 138.1.0.5 255.255.255.0
duplex auto
speed auto
end

Which looks fine.

Another GREAT feature of the cisco routers is the CDP protocol, or cisco discovery protocol.  CDP will broadcast on every interface a special packet that other cisco devices will pick up on, to let you know that who/what you are plugged into.  To take a look simply run the command show cdp neigh

corertr1#sho cdp neigh
Capability Codes: R – Router, T – Trans Bridge, B – Source Route Bridge
S – Switch, H – Host, I – IGMP, r – Repeater

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
corewan1 Fas 0/0 134 R 7206VXR Fas 0/0

This tells us that our Fast ethernet 0/0 is connected to a 7206VXR called corewan1 on it’s Fast ethernet 0/0.  You can get even more information with the command ‘show cdp neighbors detail’

corertr1#show cdp neighbors detail
————————-
Device ID: corewan1
Entry address(es):
Platform: cisco 7206VXR, Capabilities: Router
Interface: FastEthernet0/0, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/0
Holdtime : 129 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ 7200 Software (C7200-JS-M), Version 12.2(31), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 11-Aug-05 15:57 by tinhuang

advertisement version: 2
Duplex: full

As you can see this even tells us what version of software our neighbour is running. Sometimes you don’t want to tell people (like 3rd parties) what you are running so you can turn off CDP on the router, or just the interface that is connected to the 3rd party.

So with our first interface configured, I’m going to go and setup the rest of my interfaces, then I’m going to show an overview with the ‘sho ip interface brief’ command like this:

corertr1#sho ip interface brief
Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol
FastEthernet0/0 138.1.0.5 YES manual up up
FastEthernet0/1 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/0 138.1.1.1 YES NVRAM up up
Ethernet1/1 138.1.10.1 YES NVRAM up up
Ethernet1/2 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/3 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/4 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/5 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/6 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down
Ethernet1/7 unassigned YES NVRAM administratively down down

As you see this shows the interfaces that are capable of having an ip address, and which ones do have an ip address.  Now let’s configure the ‘WAN’ router with an IP address so we can do a ping. From dynagen bring up the corewan1 console:

=> console corewan1

You will probably want to setup the router much like how we did in the prior page.

corewan1#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
corewan1(config)#int fa0/0
corewan1(config-if)#desc WAN network
corewan1(config-if)#ip address 138.1.0.6 255.255.255.0
corewan1(config-if)#exit
corewan1(config)#exit

Notice that I gave it .6 not .5 as that would be a duplicate ip address!  CDP updates every 60 seconds by default, so after a minute this is what we now see from corertr1:

corertr1#show cdp neighbors detail
————————-
Device ID: corewan1
Entry address(es):
IP address: 138.1.0.6
Platform: cisco 7206VXR, Capabilities: Router
Interface: FastEthernet0/0, Port ID (outgoing port): FastEthernet0/0
Holdtime : 124 sec

Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS ™ 7200 Software (C7200-JS-M), Version 12.2(31), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 11-Aug-05 15:57 by tinhuang

advertisement version: 2
Duplex: full

Notice we now see the peer ip addres!  Now we can ping.

corertr1#ping 138.1.0.6

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 138.1.0.6, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 20/21/24 ms

Although it may not be important now, but ping has an incredible featureset on cisco routers.  Simply type in ping this time, and be amazed.  Google will lead you to what all these options mean for now, but just be aware this is one of the reason people buy cisco routers.

corertr1#ping
Protocol [ip]:
Target IP address: 138.1.0.6
Repeat count [5]:
Datagram size [100]: 1000
Timeout in seconds [2]: 3
Extended commands [n]: y
Source address or interface: 138.1.0.5
Type of service [0]:
Set DF bit in IP header? [no]: y
Validate reply data? [no]: y
Data pattern [0xABCD]:
Loose, Strict, Record, Timestamp, Verbose[none]:
Sweep range of sizes [n]: y
Sweep min size [36]: 500
Sweep max size [18024]: 600
Sweep interval [1]:
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 505, [500..600]-byte ICMP Echos to 138.1.0.6, timeout is 3 seconds:
Packet sent with a source address of 138.1.0.5
Packet sent with the DF bit set
Reply data will be validated
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (505/505), round-trip min/avg/max = 16/21/44 ms
corertr1#

Now that we can ping, we can even telnet to the wan router from the core router.

corertr1#138.1.0.6
Trying 138.1.0.6 … Open

|\ _,,,—,,_
/,`.-‘`’ -. ;-;;,_
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `’-‘
‘—”(_/–‘ `-‘\_) Welcome to the corewan1

Authorized users ONLY!!!!

User Access Verification

Password:

We can even check to see who is ‘on’ the router with the who command.

corewan1>who
Line User Host(s) Idle Location
0 con 0 idle 00:00:17
* 2 vty 0 idle 00:00:00 138.1.0.5

Interface User Mode Idle Peer Address

corewan1>q

Wasn’t that simple?

This is part of my on going thing about cisco networking.

I guess I can go on about various serial port standards from the good old fashioned RS-232, and V.35.  Not to mention things like T1/E1/J1’s with HDLC, Frame relay, Ethernet, TokenRing, ATM….

 

And of course various virtual technologies like VPN’s, and tunnelling.

 

So for now, my placeholder will just contain one little gem of wisdom about V35 cables.

When you are connecting V35’s remember to slowly screw them in, and try to screw both screws in at the same time, or a little bit on each side.  If you try to screw one side in all at once, you could break the screw, or worse it’ll help you strip the other screw trying to go in as it’ll be all lopsided.

 

Frame Relay

Frame relay is a great ‘slow’ networking cloud solution from back in the day.  For people who were going to deploy global WAN solutions that were going to be sub T1/E1 speeds, frame relay was the way to go.  You would simply get a T1 port installed in each of the sites, then the provider will then create PVC’s from each of the sites.  What is great is you can (theoretically) quickly provision new sites, and change service classes as needed.  Sadly for frame relay it is hampered by the port speed being only a T1/E1, limiting it to 1.5MB/2MB.  But heck it is from the mid 1980’s, so what do you expect?

Configuration

On the Dynamips / Dynagen simulation configuring frame relay is pretty simple.  The Frame Relay switch is already configured in my example here:

[FRSW F1]]
1:102 = 2:201
1:103 = 3:301

Which just specifies that on my WAN router pvc 102 goes to pvc 201 in New York, and pvc 103 goes to pvc 301 in Hong Kong. For simplicity sakes, all the physical serial ports are S1/0. With this in mind, let us first configure the physical interfaces in all the routers.

So the first step is to set the encapsulation on the serial interface to frame-relay.  Then turn the interface on.

nycrtr1#config t

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
nycrtr1(config)#int s1/0
nycrtr1(config-if)#encapsulation frame-relay
nycrtr1(config-if)#no shut
nycrtr1(config-if)#^Z
nycrtr1#

Now we wait for the interface to transition.

nycrtr1#
00:18:43: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Serial1/0, changed state to up
00:18:54: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Serial1/0, changed state to up
nycrtr1#

Now we can check to see if the router see’s the PVC going to the core wan router.

nycrtr1#sho frame-relay pvc

PVC Statistics for interface Serial1/0 (Frame Relay DTE)

Active Inactive Deleted Static
Local 0 0 0 0
Switched 0 0 0 0
Unused 1 0 0 0

DLCI = 201, DLCI USAGE = UNUSED, PVC STATUS = ACTIVE, INTERFACE = Serial1/0

input pkts 0 output pkts 0 in bytes 0
out bytes 0 dropped pkts 0 in pkts dropped 0
out pkts dropped 0 out bytes dropped 0
in FECN pkts 0 in BECN pkts 0 out FECN pkts 0
out BECN pkts 0 in DE pkts 0 out DE pkts 0
out bcast pkts 0 out bcast bytes 0
switched pkts 0
Detailed packet drop counters:
no out intf 0 out intf down 0 no out PVC 0
in PVC down 0 out PVC down 0 pkt too big 0
shaping Q full 0 pkt above DE 0 policing drop 0
pvc create time 00:02:12, last time pvc status changed 00:02:02

Looks good!

Now lets configure the DLC on the frame relay sub interface

nycrtr1#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

nycrtr1(config)#int s1/0.201 point-to-point
nycrtr1(config-subif)#frame-relay interface-dlci 201
nycrtr1(config-subif)#ip address 135.0.0.6 255.255.255.252
nycrtr1(config-subif)#^Z

nycrtr1#

Now for the ultimate test once the other side is configured.

corewan1#sho run int s1/0.102
Building configuration…

Current configuration : 140 bytes
!
interface Serial1/0.102 point-to-point
description NewYork
ip address 135.0.0.5 255.255.255.252
frame-relay interface-dlci 102
end

corewan1#ping 135.0.0.6

Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 135.0.0.6, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 20/20/24 ms
corewan1#

And there we go, our Frame relay is up!