Cisco Telephony Providing...

     Cisco Telephony Providing The Very Best In Communications Hardware. Every modern business has come to depend upon up to date information and communication technology hardware within the last couple of decades.        The manner in which businesses operate has noticeably changed due to modern communications having advanced. There are not many aspects of the business world...

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In-depth Analys Of Network Cabling

     ‘Networking’, is a term that is commonly used for PCs and laptops, which have already become essential parts of our daily lives, nowadays. Because of this, it is not unusual to find a computer or laptop in each and every home and office. And in organizations, where numerous computers are already present, a good network topologies system becomes a must to have in place, because it lets the people work impeccably...

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Better network management

     Companies now are looking forward to better network management. Better network management means better and more effective productivity. All problems related to network management are taken care of with great care in all companies.      Companies are looking forward to tools and software which shall you with your network configuration management. T FTP server for network is a new revolution...

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OSI Model to Troubleshoot Networks

       Some of you might be thinking “theoretical models don’t help me” or “the OSI model is just some engineering thing for the nerds”. However, in reality, it is quite the opposite. The OSI model can help you. Let me show you how. Using the OSI model        First off, I want you to have a visual image of the OSI mode. It looks like this: This graphic is courtesy of the Abdus Salam International...

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Voice VLAN QoS Policy

       The following is a basic QoS Policy for a branch office router to prioritize voice traffic . The assumption made is that the voice traffic is marked at source (i.e. ip phones). This is an example of a LLQ (Low Latency Queue) in which voice traffic is placed in a priority queue and all other traffic is placed in a WFQ (Weighted Fair Queue). DMVPN is being used for connectivity back to the main office so we have...

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Network Security

       An enterprise network design must include security measures to mitigate network attacks. Fortunately, with the modularity of the Cisco Enterprise Architecture, you can address security concerns on a module-by-module basis. This section introduces the concept of a security policy, reviews various types of network attacks, discusses the elements of the Cisco Self-Defending Network, and helps you select appropriate...

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Why Move To IPv6?

       I did a post last week titled Are You Ready for IPv6? where I share some of my thoughts on IPv6 and the allocation of the last IPv4 /8 blocks. Since then, I've done some more reading and found a couple of very useful podcasts by Greg Ferro and Ethan Banks. It is where I first heard about v6RD. There are real reasons to move to IPv6. I recall a few statistics and examples from years ago that illustrate the need...

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Why is the Application Slow?

We've all encountered situations where an application is slow and the network gets blamed. I've been having some fun working with our Terry Slattery on consulting work to determine why a specific six applications are slow.  He's come up with some good insights into the applications at this particular site. And we've been talking about some of the reasons why applications might be slow. Yes, it might be the network. It also might be...

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Cisco Monitor Common Mistakes

I am going to touch on common mistakes in cisco network monitoring today. You know for sure that you need a network-monitoring tool for managing your network. There are wide varieties of tools available that range from simple to complex and free to enterprise ones. If you get one monitoring tool and install it, can you say that everything is under control? Are you going to be aware of what happened in your network? I will try to warn you about common...

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Network Monitoring Tools

What are your daily duties as the network administrator? You have to keep your network up and running. You have to answer calls which may relate to situations like “X location is down” or “Y location is slow”. You should monitor your network as described below to fulfill the tasks. You should monitor your network and take actions with respect to situations like device and line failures. You should analyze line utilizations, errors on the line...

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Advanced SSH settings Cisco IOS

I mentioned about basic SSH setting in SSH@Cisco article. But I saw that there are other questions about SSH settings, so, I decided to dive a bit deeper. The settings mentioned below are tested with IOS 12.4, but I am not sure about exact version that supports below features. Q1. What happens if I changed hostname or ip domain name after SSH settings has been done? A1. Nothing. You need them to create rsa keys but, but afterwards, if you change...

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SSH @ Cisco

       Recently, I had to swap the Internet router of my company. BGP and cef ate up the whole memory and it was not possible to upgrade the memory of Cisco 3725 router beyond 256MB. It was time to change it.        I had a chance to install a new Cisco 3845 with 1GB memory. Everything was fine except SSH access that I needed because of security policy. I searched the web and found...

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Top five learning tools

Guide to network adminGood network administration is the backbone of today's technology-dependent enterprises. Network administrators are charged with keeping expansive networks and numerous applications running smoothly, and the job can seem overwhelming at times. We're coming to the rescue with this guide that brings you back to basics. We polled our readers about their most common tasks to find out what the heart and soul of network administration consists of...

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Hardware/Software Life Cycle

Hardware Life CycleOn lists of hardware recommendations, you will see a status value which may be one of these four options: Early Adoption – equipment is new and is undergoing validation testing in company's network. Sites installing hardware of this type do so at their own risk but we do encourage a certain amount of creativity and look forward to receiving feedback on the community's experiences. We recommend early adoption hardware is installed...

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IOS Commands

Privileged Mode   enable - get to privileged mode   disable - get to user modeConfiguring the Router    sh running-config - details the running configuration file (RAM)   sh startup-config - displays the configuration stored in NVRAM   setup - Will start the the automatic setup; the same as when you first boot the router   config t - use to execute configuration commands from the terminal  ...

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Troubleshooting Strategy

How do you know when you are having a network problem? The answer to this question depends on your site's network configuration and on your network's normal behavior. See "Knowing Your Network" for more information. If you notice changes on your network, ask the following questions: Has this event ever occurred before? Is the change expected or unusual? Does the change involve a device or network path for which you already have a backup solution...

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Knowledge of Networking Practices

1 Implementing the Installation of the Network       1.1 Demonstrate awareness that administrative and test accounts, passwords, IP addresses, IP configurations, relevant SOPs, etc., must be obtained prior to network implementation.     1.2 Explain the impact of environmental factors on computer networks. Given a network installation scenario, identify unexpected or atypical conditions that could either cause...

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Troubleshooting the Network

How To Troubleshooting The Network Recognize the following steps as a systematic approach to identifying the extent of a network problem and, given a problem scenario, select the appropriate next step based on this approach:    1. determine whether the problem exists across the network,    2. determine whether the problem is workstation, workgroup, LAN or WAN,    3. determine whether the problem is consistent and replicable, and    4. use standard troubleshooting methods. Identify the following steps...

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Baseline & network health facts

- Ethernet segments should not exceed 40% Network Utilization - Token Ring should not exceed 70% Network Utilization - WAN Links should not exceed 70% Network Utilization - Response time should be less than 100ms - Broadcasts/Multicasts should be no more than 20% of all network traffic - On Ethernet there should be no more than 1 CRC error per 1million bytes of data - Cisco Router CPU Utilization should not exceed 75%...

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Data Center Access/ Visitor

Procedure Background        In order to reduce physical exposures to data center equipment, production operations and backed up application data files, access controls are required. This is a preventive measure to safeguard the continuous operation of Company Hubs. Data center access audits are performed quarterly and door checks are performed weekly. · The Data Center Facilities Team Lead is responsible to...

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802.1x Authentication

Figure 1: IOS Version Required Figure 2: Cisco 3560, 3750, 4500, 6500 802.1x Configuration Figure 3: Cisco 3560, 2750, 4500, 6500 802.1x Configuration Removal    1.  Introduction           The objective of this content is to provide an overview of the 802.1x capability of the Cisco IOS Switches.  This allows stakeholders to determine whether port-based authentication using 802.1x...

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Cisco 3G Aircard Configuration

1. Introduction       Wireless services offer a compelling alternative to traditional terrestrial services, and with the increasing expansion of the Service Provider offerings in the 3G space, this offers the network designer a new exciting paradigm in Wide Area Network design:               • a cheap alternative to leased line or satellite services               • a...

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