Part Two - Basic Setup Information
In Part Two, we'll look at how to Access the router, HyperTerminal, TFTP software, and Token Ring setup.
Console Port Connection
When you first get a router, you may wonder how to access it so you can start practicing commands, etc. The usual way is through the RJ-45-based Console port which is located on the front of the router and is clearly marked (we are assuming that the router is a 2500 series router). But what kind of cable do you need to access this Console port? To access the Console port, you need to have a console cable, which is usually referred to as a rolled RJ-45-to-RJ-45 cable.
The easiest way to tell a rolled RJ-45-to-RJ-45 cable is to hold both ends of the cable together side-by-side with the clips facing away from you. You'll see eight colored pins on each of the RJ-45 ends. If the order of the colored pins is the same on each RJ-45 end, then the cable is straight. If the order of the colors is reversed on each RJ-45 end, then the cable is rolled. So, let抯 say you are holding the RJ-45 ends up and looking at them. First, look at the RJ-45 on the left. Looking at the colored pins from left to right, you notice that they are (depending on which RJ-45 is on the left and who manufactured the cable) Gray, Orange, Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Brown. The RJ-45 on the right should be reversed when looking at the colored pins from left to right: Brown, Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, Black, Orange, and Gray. Now you know that you are got a rolled RJ-45-to-RJ-45 cable.
To access the router, plug one end of the rolled RJ-45-to-RJ-45 cable into the Console port of the router. The other end will be plugged into either an RJ-45-to-DB-25 terminal adapter or an RJ-45-to-DB-9 terminal adapter, depending on the serial port you have on the back of your PC. Your PC may have a DB-9, DB-25, or both types of serial ports on the back.
HyperTerminal Setup
OK, you抳e now got one end of the cable plugged into the router and the other end into the serial port on the back of your PC. What do you do now? Well, you are got to make sure that the HyperTerminal application on your PC is configured correctly. For example, to access the HyperTerminal application on a Windows 98 PC, click on the Start button in the bottom left corner, go to Programs, Accessories, Communications, HyperTerminal (If you don't have HyperTerminal, you can download it from http://www.hilgraeve.com). The HyperTerminal window should appear with a number of icons in it. You want to double click the HyperTrm.exe icon. This opens a 揅onnection Description?dialog box. Type 揅isco?(without the quotes) in the 揘ame:?field. This can actually be any name you want but since you抣l be using it for Cisco devices, this name will be fine. Then click OK. You will now be at a 揅onnect To?dialog box. Since the router is connected directly to the serial port on the back of your PC, all you have to do is click on the small arrow to the right of the 揅onnect using:?field and choose 揇irect to Com1? All the other fields will then automatically gray out. Click OK. You will now be at the 揅om1 Properties?dialog box. Here you will set up the port settings for Com1 as follows:
Bits per second: 9600
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow Control: None
Click OK and you will be at the dialog box 揅isco ?HyperTerminal? At this point, you should be able to turn on your router, hit Enter on your PC, and you should now be accessing the router!
Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes for anything to show up in this window, so be patient. If nothing shows up, check your HyperTerminal settings again. If the settings are correct, and you still can抰 access the router, go out to the Cisco website and search for some answers. They are there, so get used to using the Cisco website to troubleshoot problems!
When you close the HyperTerminal session, you will be asked if you want to save the 揅isco?session. Click yes. This will save the session as an icon called Cisco.ht within the HyperTerminal Application window. Now, whenever you need to access the router, just go to the HyperTerminal Application through Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, HyperTerminal and double click the Cisco.ht icon. Make sure your router is turned on and press Enter on your PC. Or, better yet, drag a shortcut to your desktop for easier access.
Auxiliary Port
You may be wondering if you can access the router using the Auxiliary port which is located next to the Console port. The answer is yes. You can access the router using either port using the same cable. However, you should use the Console port when accessing the router locally and use the Auxiliary port when accessing the router remotely through a modem. The main difference between the Console and Auxiliary ports is that the Auxiliary port supports hardware flow control and the Console port does not. Flow control paces the transmission of data between a sending device and a receiving device. Flow control ensures that the receiving device can absorb the data sent to it before the sending device sends more. When the buffers on the receiving device are full, a message is sent to the sending device to suspend transmission until the data in the buffers has been processed. Because the Auxiliary port supports flow-control, it is ideally suited for use with the high-speed transmissions of a modem. Console terminals like PC抯 and laptops transmit at slower speeds than modems; therefore, the Console port is ideally suited for use with Console terminals.
If possible, don抰 use the Console port when accessing the router remotely because of security problems. For example, unprotected modems should not be connected to the Console port. The Console ports do not log users off when the carrier detect is lost, which can leave a security hole. To avoid this, use a secure modem, or connect via the Auxiliary port.
TFTP Software
If you抮e going to load an updated IOS on your router or you want to copy your current Flash image to your PC, you can use TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) software on your PC. What is TFTP? According to RFC783, 揟FTP is a simple protocol to transfer files, and therefore was named the Trivial File Transfer Protocol or TFTP. It has been implemented on top of the Internet User Datagram Protocol (UDP or Datagram) so it may be used to move files between machines on different networks implementing UDP. (This should not exclude the possibility of implementing TFTP on top of other datagram protocols.) It is designed to be small and easy to implement. Therefore, it lacks most of the features of a regular FTP. The only thing it can do is read and write files (or mail) from/to a remote server. It cannot list Directories, and currently has no provisions for user authentication. In common with other Internet protocols, it passes 8 bit bytes of data?
You are probably wondering where you can get TFTP software. Cisco offers a free version at their site:
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/tftp. Another very good TFTP program is Pumpkin. This is the one we use. You can download it free at www.klever.net.
How do you use TFTP software to load a new IOS image or copy your Flash image to your PC? We抣l use Pumpkin as an example and copy our current Flash image (this is where the IOS is stored) to our PC. You should always do this before copying a new IOS Flash image to your router. If something happens to the new image when you抮e copying it to your router, you抣l have the old one as a backup.
First, make sure you open the Pumpkin TFTP program by double clicking on the pumpkin.exe file, which should be on your PC if you抳e downloaded it from www.klever.com. If your TFTP program isn抰 open, you抣l receive an error when trying to either copy your current image to your PC or load a new one to the router. After opening the program, there will be an 揙ptions?button that you can click on to set your root directory. This is the directory on your PC where your current Flash image will be copied. It is also the directory where you would put the new IOS image that you download from Cisco. Basically, the root is where Pumpkin looks for files or copies files.
The best way to copy the files to and from your router or PC is to use a small hub. You can then plug the Category 5 cable from the PC Ethernet card into the hub. At the same time, you also plug the Category 5 cable from the router抯 Ethernet port into the hub. Now you have the connection between the PC and the router. You can抰 run the cable directly from the PC抯 Ethernet card port directly into the router抯 Ethernet port because it won抰 work. You need a hub or switch in between them.
Now, you抣l need the IP address of your PC, or TFTP server (remote host). At the DOS prompt, type 搘inipcfg?(without the quotes) if you抮e using a Windows 95/98 PC or 搃pconfig?(without the quotes) if you抮e using an NT PC. You will find your IP address here. Next, open your 揅isco.ht?HyperTerminal Session that you created earlier and get into your router. Get into Privileged EXEC mode and type the command 搒how flash?(without the quotes) to get the name of the IOS file that is stored in Flash. It will be something like c2500-js-l_120-9.bin depending on what type of router you have and what version of IOS you have. Write this file name down. Next, type the command 揷opy flash tftp?(without the quotes). This command is going to copy your Flash image to your PC, or TFTP server. You will be asked to type in the information you gathered earlier. It will look like the following. Press Enter after you enter each portion of information they ask for:
Router2501#copy flash tftp
Source filename []? C2500-js-l_120-9.bin
Address or name of remote host []? 172.16.10.2
Destination filename [C2500-js-l_120-9.bin]?
!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
.
. We抳e omitted a lot of this middle portion
.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10225360 bytes copied in 611.76 secs (16735 bytes/sec)
Router2501#
You have now copied your current Flash image to your PC!
Copying a new IOS version to your router is very similar. First, you download the new IOS image from Cisco into the directory you specified as your TFTP root on your PC. Next, log into your router in Privileged EXEC mode and type the command 揷opy tftp flash?(without the quotes) and follow the prompts!
Token Ring Lab Setup
Setting up a Token Ring router is an area that confuses people more than it should. It is quite simple. We抣l begin by eXPlaining the equipment that needs to be purchased and then tell you how to set it up.
First of all, Token Ring can use standard Category 5 straight-through network cables. Token Ring uses different pins than Ethernet, but since it抯 a straight-through cable, it will use the correct pins.
When you purchase a Token Ring router (like a 2502 or 2504), you will also want to purchase a Token Ring MAU, which is basically a hub you plug your cables into. You can get a MAU as either powered or un-powered. The powered MAU抯 are normally more expensive. You can do just fine with an un-powered MAU. Many people purchase a MAU and freak out when they can抰 find anywhere to plug in a power cord. This is an un-powered MAU and actually runs off of the power from the device you plug into it. When you plug a device into the MAU, you will usually hear the relays inside the MAU start to click. Depending on the MAU you get, it will normally have a number of ports to plug devices into and also two ports labeled 揜ing In?(RI) and 揜ing Out?(RO). These are used for attaching other MAU抯 to the MAU. You can plug another MAU into the 揜ing In?(RI) port and have another cable connected to the 揜ing Out?(RO) port that goes to another MAU, and so on. There is also a push-type button next to the RI port and one next to the RO port labeled 揥rap? These buttons allow you to actually cascade a number of MAU抯 to each other if the buttons are out, or disabled. If you push the buttons in, or enable them, this means that you usually have only the one MAU and this causes the ring to wrap. In your lab, you will probably only have one MAU, so keep the buttons pushed in, or enabled.
You will also need to purchase one or two 揟oken Ring media filters? This is just a fancy name for an adapter that converts an RJ-45 connector to a Token Ring DB-9. The Token Ring port on a Token Ring router is a DB-9 so you have to convert the RJ-45 end on your Cat 5 cable to DB-9 so you can plug it in.
Finally, you need to purchase a Token Ring NIC card to install in your PC. Usually you抣l get an IBM Auto 16/4 ISA Token Ring Adapter. The drivers for this card are readily available on the Internet if you don抰 receive them with the NIC card. If you install the Token Ring card in a PC that already has an Ethernet NIC card installed, you will probably have to either disable the Ethernet NIC through Device Manager or create a new hardware profile. Creating a new hardware profile will allow you to log into the PC and choose which NIC card you want active for that session. The Token Ring NIC card will usually have two ports on it, an RJ-45 port and a DB-9 port. However, some only have the DB-9 connector on it, so you抣l have to purchase another Token Ring media filter so you can plug the Cat 5 RJ-45 into it and then attach the media filter to the NIC card.
OK, you抳e got the Token Ring NIC card installed in the PC, the Token Ring router, the CAT 5 cables, the MAU, and the Token Ring media filter(s). How do you hook it all together? First, attach one of the media filters to the router抯 Token Ring DB-9 port. Plug one end of a Cat 5 cable into the media filter and the other end into one of the ports on the MAU (don抰 plug it into the RI or RO ports. Remember, these ports are used for attaching other MAU抯). Next, attach the other media filter to the Token Ring NIC card in your PC (if you need to) and plug one end of a Cat 5 cable into it. Plug the other end of the cable into one of the ports on the MAU. That抯 it!
Get into your router and check to make sure that the Token Ring port, to0, is up. You may have to wipe out the configuration on this port and add it back in again for it to start working. If you are still having problems, start poking around Cisco抯 website for answers. If you are going to be working with Cisco equipment, you are got to know how to get around their website!
