Switches and VTP Trunking!!

changed pick as of: 12/16/2007::

If you can see I have many cables. I made my own cross-over cables. Else I would have paid 25.00 USD for each cross-over. Noway! For that price, makes and IT person want to make their own cables. And I do. Screw that price. I am IT and I make my own! Well any ways. I have all these cables connecting to my switches so VLAN informatin and be posted to each switch. From the bottom up I have 2924, 2950, 1900, 1900. The 1900 have the CLI and menu system. I dont like the menu system. I love CLI. So what I do is create a VTP domain and have each above switch become a client. And config VTP trunking on all switchports to allow VLAN database to be reproduced on all switches. Cool huh! Yeah!

Close-up of my Access Router System

Pic changed 12/16/2007::

New 1200 Aironet Cisco Access router. sweet! and PIX 501 brand new under $100.00 0n ebay!

What I do is I have on top a cheesy Linksys wireless/lan router. Of which I will be replacing it with a PIX firewall some day soon. Then I have below that in white, a KVM switch. I got tired of having 100 monitors so I bought this off of ebay and it connects to 2 monitors that can access all my PCs. Then below the KVM is my Cisco 2511 access router. Love it. I connect all my cisco equipment with a Octal cable and configured my access router on its async port 1-8 to connect to my cisco devices reverse telnet off of my Loopback on my 2511. Easy setup it was. Then I have below my Access router R2 (2501), R1 (2520), FRC(2520), and R3 (2520). I have my own Frame Relay Cloud that I configured myself. FRC stands for this. I use a BOSON Sim 7.0 for my ISDN simulator. They are pricy. Like 500.00 and above for an ISDN type of simulator. But I saw some kit a guy built in Europe for 200.00s and sold in USA. I will look around. It is nice to have real equipment. I have used both sims and real. I like real better. Cause sims do not act 100% like real equipment. And that is crucial. It has to act the same!

Nice Explanation on DTE and DCE Devices....A must!

The requirement for RJ45 cross-over, or x-over, cables is dictated by the type of devices that are being connected. There are two interface types associated with networking equipment, DTE (Data Terminating Equipment) and DCE (Data Communications Equipment). DTE devices mainly consist of PC NICs and Routers. When connecting a DTE device to a DCE device, e.g., a PC to a Hub, a straight cable is required. When the two connecting devices have the same interface type, i.e., both DCE or both DTE, then a x-over cable is necessary.

Unfortunately, these examples do not constitute hard and fast rules. Some Cable Modems, especially those integrated in Set-Top Boxes, have DTE interfaces, so any PC or Router that connects to it will need a x-over cable. Also, when connecting two hubs together a x-over cable may not be necessary if one of the hubs has an uplink port. An uplink port will have a DTE type interface, so a straight cable can be used to connect to another DCE port, such as a hub port. On many hubs, one of the ports may have a port that is switchable between DCE and DTE. This function can be manual, so a switch has to be activated, or an interface can auto-detect what type of interface it needs to be.

Nice pinout diagram of the Crossover

I like this diagram cause it leaves out the other wires. If you can see what wires cross over. It is pretty easy to see which wire cross over. I like my pictures. But if you do enough of them you will have it down. We all hate it at first. But it gets easier once you do 100 or more cables and figure out your own tricks on how not to break the wires while stripping off the plastic cover and how to make sure the wires are flat when you push them into the RJ-45 connector. But it is possible to get good. I am handicapped. I am missing my left pointer finger and I am pratically blind (okay not blind but it feels like it sometimes) hahaahh. They call me "Ole One Eye!"

hahah

You can do it! If I can!

Cross-over side of RJ-45 Cat 5 568a CRXd

Okay this is the crossed side. Just make one side like the above (normal) and then make the other side of the cable like this pinout picture. What the poor man does to test his cable out if he has no cross over tester. is this. Once I make my cables. I Hook up both up to a PC and test them. You need crossover cable between to like devices. The term is called DTE to DTE or DCE to DCE.

The basic concept in crossover cables is that when connecting similar devices such as a DTE to a DTE or a DCE to a DCE the cable needed for the job is of crossover design. On the other hand, when connecting a DTE to a DCE, the cable required is a straight through cable. But read above on DTE and DCE it does depend on the port and how it is wired. The port can be wired different. And these rules can be broken or modified....

Normal Cat 5 568a - both ends like this picture

I love this picture. I just print both normal and crossed pictures out and build my cables by looking at the bigs pics. I have poor eyesight and this is great for the legally blind. ahahahah!

If you have made cables before just make both ends look like this. Make sure you look into the clear window of the RJ-45 connector and not the clip side. Holding both ends side by side with same orientation should look the same as this pinout diagram. Tip: making 100 of these, you really get good! hahahhaa I have had to where I work (top secret) when we had to remake all our patch cables to work with our new VOIP system. Man! nothing beats a patch cable party! yahooooooooo! love it!

My Network Map of my Home Lab CCNA 802 - Tight!!!

This is my sweet network map of home CCNA lab. I have a home network and a CCNA lab to play on. I use a 2511 access router made by cisco systems to manage all my cisco devices. I work a Frame Relay Switch which is the big red symbol device in the middle of the Frame cloud as it is called. Can burst from 1 byte to 1.544 Mbps. To the upper left is my ISDN simulator. It would be nice to have a home ISDN simulator but they cost from 500.00 USD (cheap) to 1,000s USD. So I decided to buy Boson Netsim 7.0 for 200.00 USD which should do the trick. Notice I have VTP trunking on my switches and I have a Etherchannel going on there as well. I can access my entire system from the outside world. I used a outside DNS servers that costs me only like 125.00 to run public sites. And helps get gain access to my system from anywhere in the world. This has been my goal as an IT professional. To truely understand how to travers the "TCP/IP" world. But just when I think I have learned enough, there is always more I do not know. Which make my career fun, sad at times, exhausting at times but well worth it. Very exciting underworld I call it. CLI --- Love it!

--- IT daddy out!