NAT (Network Address Translation) can be broadly classified as below:
-
Static NAT: Static NAT maps an unregistered IP address to registered IP
(globally unique) addresses on one-to-one basis. The command used for this
purpose is: ip nat inside source static <local-ip> <global-ip>,
where, <local-ip> is the local IP address assigned to a host on the
inside network. <global-ip> is the globally unique IP address of an
inside host as it appears to the outside world.
-
Dynamic NAT: Maps an
unregistered IP address to a registered (globally unique) IP address from a
group of registered (globally unique) IP addresses.
-
Overloading - A
special case of dynamic NAT that maps multiple unregistered IP addresses to
a single registered (globally unique) IP address by using different port
numbers. Dynamic NAT with overloading is also known also as PAT (Port
Address Translation).
-
Overlapping - This occurs when your internal IP
addresses belong to global IP address range that belong to another network.
In such case, the internal IP addresses need to be hidden from the outside
network to prevent duplication. NAT overlapping allows the use of internal
global addresses by mapping them to globally unique IP addresses using
static or dynamic NAT.
On pinging successfully, you will receive "!" symbol. This
symbol is repeated 5 times, as a ping command sends 5 ICMP echo messages to
the host.
OSPF determines the router ID using the following criteria:
- Use the
address configured by the ospf router-id command
- Use the highest
numbered IP address of a loopback interface
- Use the highest IP address
of any physical interface
- If no interface exists, set the router-ID to
0.0.0.0
If no OSPF router ID is explicitly configured, OSPF computes the
router-ID based on the items 2, 3, and 4 and restarts OSPF (if the process
is enabled and router-ID has changed).
OSPF is a link state technology that uses Dijkstra algorithm to compute
routing information. It has the following advantages over Distance Vector
protocols such as RIP:
- Faster convergence: OSPF network converges faster
because routing changes are flooded immediately and computer in parallel.
- Support for VLSM: OSPF supports VLSM. However, please note that RIP
version2 also supports VLSM.
- Network Reachability: RIP networks are
limited to 15 hops. Therefore, networks with more than 15 hops can not be
reached by RIP by normal means. On the other hand, OSPF has practically no
reachability limitation.
- Metric: RIP uses only hop count for making
routing decisions. This may lead to severe problems in some cases, for
example, that a route is nearer but is very slow compared to another route
with plenty of bandwidth available. OSPF uses "cost" metric to
choose best path. Cisco uses "bandwidth" as metric to choose best
route.
- Efficiency: RIP uses routing updates every 30 seconds. OSPF
multicasts link-state updates and sends the updates only when there is a
change in the network.
OSPF keeps up to six equal-cost route entries in the routing table for
load balancing. Further, OSPF uses Dijkstra algorithm to calculate lowest
cost route. The algorithm adds up the total costs between the local router
and each destination network. The lowest cost route is always preferred
when there are multiple paths to a given destination.
OSPF process identifier is locally significant. Two neighboring router
interfaces can have same or different process ids. It is required to
identify a unique instance of OSPF database.
Port security enables securing switch ports as required. Typical
configuration commands for enabling port security are given below: Switch)#
config t Switch(config)# int fa0/1 Switch(config-if)# switchport
port-security By default, the port is locked to the first MAC address that
it learns via the port. You can also manually associate a specific MAC
address to a given port by issuing the command: switchport port-security
mac-address {MAC address} in the interface configuration mode.
RIP takes only hop count into account when computing routing entries.
Shortest hop count is the winner. Therefore, if RIP is used as routing
protocol, a packet will travel from A to B using the 56KBPS link. When both
EIGRP and OSPF are configured, EIGRP route takes precedence over OSPF
because EIGRP has an administrative distance of 90, whereas OSPF has an
administrative distance of 110. Therefore, the route discovered by EIGRP is
entered into the routing table. OSPF determines the route by taking only
bandwidth into account.
Consider two IPs 172.24.54.0/24 and 172.24.53.0/24. The summarized route
is calculated as below:
Step 1:
1. Take the first IP: 172.24.54.0/24 :
172.24. 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0.0
2. Take the second IP: 172.24.53.0/24 : 172.24. 0
0 1 1 0 1 0 1.0
Note that we are not really concerned about the octets that
have equal decimal values. This is because they don’t come into play
while calculating summarization route, in this case.
Step 2:
Count the
number of bits in the third octet that are aligned (or lined up) with same
values. In this case 6 bits are lined up in the third octet. The
summarization route is calculated by adding this number (6) to the octets
preceding the third (first and second octets). Therefore, the number of
bits in the summarized route is 8+8+6 = 22
Step 3:
Calculate the decimal
equivalent for third octet with 6 bits as given in the matching binary.
That is 0 0 1 1 0 1 x x. Note x is because it corresponds to non matching
binary number. It is equal to 128*0 + 64*0 + 32*1 + 16*1 + 8*0 + 4*1 or
32+16+4 or 52.
Therefore, the summarized route is: 172.24.52.0/22
Runts are packets that are smaller than the medium's minimum packet
size. For example, Ethernet has a minimum allowed packet size of 64 bytes.
Any packet that is less than 64 bytes in size is considered a runt in
Ethernet. Giants are packets that bigger than the medium's maximum packet
size. Fro example, Ethernet has a maximum allowed packet size of 1,518
bytes. Any packet that is bigger than 1,518 bytes is considered a Giant in
Ethernet. CRC error occurs when the check sum calculated at the receiving
end of the frame does not match with the check sum calculated at the source
end. The most probable reasons for runts, giants, and CRC errors is frame
collisions while traveling from source to destination. It is also possible
that a network card or device is bad and generating runts and giants.
sh hosts ---> displays the host names and related IP addresses.
sh
int s0 ---> Among other things, you can see the encapsulation type
(layer 2) used.
Ping ----> sends an ICMP echo message.
Show version: The command displays
a. The current version of IOS running
in a switch
b. Available hardware, RAM, Flash memory,
c. Switch uptime
d.
Configuration register’s content
e. Reason for the last reload etc.
Show running-config [interface <type> <mod>/<num> |
vlan <vlan-id> | module <mod>]: The command displays the
contents of the configuration file. Show tech-support: The command is
primarily used to send switch information to Cisco TAC support personnel.
Verify flash:<filename> -This command is used to verify whether the
Flash contents are intact, and not corrupted. The checksum of the flashfile
specified is verified for correctness.
Some of the important terms used in Enhanced IGRP are:
- Successor: A
route (or routes) selected as the primary route(s) used to transport
packets to reach destination. Note that successor entries are kept in the
routing table of the router.
- Feasible successor: A route (or routes)
selected as backup route(s) used to transport packets to reach destination.
Note that feasible successor entries are kept in the topology table of a
router. There can be up to 6 (six) feasible successors for IOS version 11.0
or later. The default is 4 feasible successors.
- DUAL (Diffusing Update
Algorithm): Enhanced IGRP uses DUAL algorithm to calculate the best route
to a destination.
SONET defines interface standards at the physical layer of the OSI
seven-layer model. The standard defines a hierarchy of interface rates that
allow data streams at different rates to be multiplexed. SONET establishes
Optical Carrier (OC) levels from 51.8 Mbps (OC-1) to 9.95 Gbps (OC-192).
The High Level Data Link Control protocol (HDLC) is the default
encapsulation used on the synchronous serial interfaces of a Cisco router.
HDLC is a Data Link layer protocol used to encapsulate and transmit packets
over point-to-point links.
STP is enabled on every port on Cisco switches, by default. It is
preferred to leave it enabled, so that bridging loops don't occur. STP can
be disabled selectively on any specific port by issuing the command: Switch
(enable) set spantree disable <mod-number>/<port-number>. Ex:
Switch (enable) set spantree disable 2/4 The above command disables STP on
port 4 of module 2.
The "hello" packets are sent periodically out of each
interface using IP multicast addresses. The hello interval specifies the
frequency in seconds that a router sends hellos. This is 10 seconds on
multi access networks.
The Catalyst IOS software is very similar to a router IOS. IOS image
files are stored in the Flash memory on a switch.
The command traceroute <destination ip address> shows the hop by
hop path through the IP network from the source device. The path is shown
in terms of IP addresses (Layer 3 addresses) and not MAC addresses (Layer 2
addresses).
The command "show ip ospf database" displays the contents of
the topological database maintained by the router. This command also
displays router id and the ospf process id.
The command "show spantree" includes information about the
following:
- VALN number
- Root bridge priority, MAC address
- Bridge
timers (Max Age, Hello Time, Forward Delay)
The command “no switchport” enables a switch port for layer 3
operation. On the other hand, the command “switchport” enables a switch
port for layer 2 operation.
The command show frame-relay lmi displays the LMI status, where as the
command show frame-relay pvc displays the frame-relay pvc status. Show
interface displays the physical interface status.
The command show ip route displays the contents of the ip routing table.
The command show frame-relay map displays the frame-relay mapping
information. The commands show frame-relay detail and show map frame-relay
are incorrect.
The command syntax for assigning a management domain for a switch is:
Switch# vtp domain <domain-name>
For example, if the domain name is
newyork, the command is:
Switch# vtp domain newyork
You need to create a
domain while configuring the first switch in a switch network. For
subsequent switches, you only need to join the existing domain. The
password is required if the domain need to be secured by a password. The
command allows you to create a new domain ( in case the first switch is
being configured) or to join an existing domain (one or more switches have
already been assigned a domain).
The command that is used for configuring OSPF in NBMA mode is: “ip
ospf network non-broadcast”. However, note that NBMA mode is used by
default.
The configuration command that statically maps the DLCI with higher
layer protocol is:
Router1(config-if)# frame-relay map <protocol>
<protocol-address> <dlci> [broadcast] [ietf | cisco].
Here, the
protocol-address specifies the destination network protocol address.
For
example the following command maps the IP 192.168.36.9 with dlci 200:
Router1(config-if)# frame-relay map ip 192.168.36.9 200
The correct syntax for enabling dynamic NAT to translate many inside
hosts to an inside global IP address is: ip nat inside source list
<access-list-number> pool <pool-name> overload where
<access-list-number> is the standard access list number, and
<pool-name> is the pool name. Note that the option 'overload'
specifies many to one relationship. This configuration is typically used
when many hosts with private IP addresses need to access Internet through a
specified globally unique IP address.
The default administrative distances are as below:
Directly connected
----- 0
Static Route ------------- 1
EIGRP Summary--------- 5
EIGRP
--------------------- 90
IGRP ----------- 100
OSPF ----------- 110
RIP
------------ 120
Unreachable ------------ 255
It is important to remember
the default administrative distances for protocols given above because some
questions on routing decisions may require this knowledge.
The default administrative distances for important protocols/routes is
given below:
a. Connected interface : 0
b. Static route: 1
c. Enhanced
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) summary route: 5
d. Internal
EIGRP: 90
e. OSPF: 110
f. Routing Information Protocol (RIP): 120
g.
External EIGRP: 170
h. Unknown: 255
The default VTP configuration parameters for the Catalyst switch are as
follows:
- VTP domain name: None
- VTP mode: Server
- VTP password: None
- VTP pruning: Disabled
- VTP trap: Disabled
The VTP domain name can be specified manually or learned across a
configured trunk line from a server with a domain name configured. By
default, the domain name is not set. If you configure a VTP password, VTP
does not function properly unless you assign the same password to each
switch in the domain. VTP trap is disabled by default. If you enable this
feature, it causes an SNMP message to be generated every time a new VTP
message is sent.
The command 'ipconfig' is one of the most widely used commands on a
Windows NT/98 computer in a network environment. The commands displays the
following details:
- Computer/host name
- DNS servers IP addresses
- IP
routing enabled or not, WINS Proxy enabled or not
- The network adapter
details including IP address, subnet mask, default gateway etc.
The enable a switch port for layer 2 functionality use the following
commands:
- switch(config)# interface <type> <mod>/<num>
- switch(config-if)# switchport
The first command enters interface configuration mode for the switch
interface <mod>/<num>, and the second command enables layer 2
functionality on the port. Use the “no” form of the switchport command
to enable layer3 functionality.
The following are main features of route summarization in EIGRP:
- By default, EIGRP summarizes routes at the major network boundaries (classful
boundaries).
- To enable summarization at any level other than major
network boundary, you need to disable auto summarization using the command:
No auto-summary
- The following command enables summarization at an
arbitrary network boundary: Ip summary-address <as-number> <address-mask>
- Note that you need to specify the IP address and routing mask of the
summary route. No need to specify the metrics.