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Configure A Router With Packet Tracer

January 8th, 2010 • Related • Filed Under

Computer networking professionals getting started with Packet Tracer may find the interface to be flustered. Being a development program, this is only natural. However, learning how to configure a router with Packet Tracer will put professionals on the right track to mastering the program in about half an hour.

By this time, you should already have the Packet Tracer download and have it installed on your computer. Open the program and select the router from the lower left-hand corner, and drag it into the center of the sandbox screen as seen below. (Click for larger picture)

Packet Tracer Router Configuration

We will be setting up a very basic network that allows two computers to communicate, so the next step is to select end devices from the bottom left-hand corner and drag it to the sandbox screen. Do this twice to make two computers appear below the router.

Now select connections from the same bottom left-hand corner. When you connect like-devices(Such as a router and computer)  you use a crossover cable, so you should select copper cross-over cable from the second menu to the immediate right. Click on Router0, and connect the cable via FastEthernet0/0 as seen below:

FastEthernet 0/0

Now click the PC0 and select FastEthernet. You will notice that although a link is established, it is not functional. You can tell by the red dots that are present on both ends of the connection. Once the router is configured correctly, the red dots will turn green to indicate the devices are able to communicate.

Do the same operation to PC1, only this time connect the cable to FastEthernet0/1 since FastEthernet0/0 is already taken by PC0. Your network should be similar to the one below at this point:

Crossover Cable Connections

Configuring The Router In Packet Tracer

A router that is turned off doesn’t work very well! Click on your router to bring up the configuration menu and verify that it is turned on.When on, there will be a small green light below the switch as seen in the diagram.

Turn The Router On

Next we have to open the Ethernet ports to allow communication. Although they are physically connected, they are in a state that is known as being in administrative shut down. Now click on the CLI tab to access the configuration menu. If you’ve used the Cisco IOS before, you will notice it looks and acts the same way.

1. Press RETURN to start the session

2. Type enable to get to privileged mode (this gives you more options in configuring the router)

3. Type config terminal (or config t for short) to access the configuration menu.

4. Type interface fastethernet0/0 to access Ethernet0/0

5. Type ip address 192.168.10.1  255.255.255.0 to assign an IP address and subnet mask to the interface.

6. Type no shutdown to open the interface up for business.

That’s it! You should now see a message similar to the following:

%LINK-5-CHANGED: Interface FastEthernet0/0, changed state to up
%LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface FastEthernet0/0, changed state to up

Now we have to do the same thing for fastethernet0/1. If you don’t, there still won’t be a connection to PC1! Make sure to enter the IP address carefully as seen below:

1. Press Ctrl + Z to go back to the previous mode.

1. Type interface fastethernet0/1

2. Type ip address 192.168.20.1  255.255.255.0

3. Type no shutdown

At this point our router is configured properly. If you test out a ping, you will notice that the computers still don’t communicate, however!

Configuring The Gateway In Packet Tracer

Our last step is to configure the gateway on each desktop computer. The gateway is the address we assigned to the Ethernet port that the desktop is connected to. It will allow the computer to interface with another network, so our ping won’t work without it!

Click on PC0 to bring up the configuration menu. Under global settings you will find a field for the gateway. Enter the corresponding IP address of the router’s interface, which is 192.168.10.1. Then click the FastEthernet tab on the left column to set the actual computer’s IP address to be on the network. Use 192.168.10.2 for the IP address, and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask.

gateway address

Do the same thing for PC1, only use 192.168.20.1 for the gateway address, 192.168.20.2 for the IP address, and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask. You can confirm that your network works by sending out a packet of information from PC0 to PC1, and vice versa. Click the packet icon on the right menu as seen below:

Click on PC0 and then click PC1. On the lower right of the screen you will see a message box that says “Successful.” If it doesn’t, you may have had a syntax error when putting in an IP address or router configuration command. Review your work or ask for help among the community if you are stuck.

Closing Comments

Congratulations! You have a small working network. A real-world application of this very network would be to have two computers connected to the Internet, whereas the router would then be connected to your telecommunications company. (Or what we would call the “cloud”)

More advanced devices and topologies won’t be so easy, but you’re now on the right path to becoming qualified for the CCNA certification exam.

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There Are 47 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Avery on 9 January 2010:

    Seriously, this is probably one of the best Packet Tracer tutorials i’ve come across. It sure beats having to watch a YouTube tutorial with some random guy typing text into Notepad because he can’t afford a microphone.

    Keep it up! I’ve subscribed.

  2. Comment by TJ on 20 January 2010:

    nice… and hoping for more

  3. Comment by casseine on 25 January 2010:

    this is a nice refresher for me– haven’t had a networking course in years and this brought back memories

  4. Comment by roshiro on 3 February 2010:

    you are the only resource found in Google that even had PT tuts that wasn’t a danged video tutorial

    can’t exactly watch a video when i’m at work on break. .

  5. Comment by bart on 8 February 2010:

    I am new in this world and indeed it worked. Instructions are well arranged and easy to follow

  6. Comment by ramdhani on 14 February 2010:

    hi, thanks for your tutorial. and i already try step by step. i just want to give some feedback about one step. here:
    1. Press Ctrl + Z to go back to the previous mode.

    1. Type interface fastethernet0/1

    2. Type ip address 192.168.20.1 255.255.255.0

    3. Type no shutdown

    when i tried this one, it was not work. so actually as the first step we have to use/type “config terminal” before type interface fastethernet0/1. thanks

    hope you’ll make much more tutorials, because it is clearly for beginner like me.

  7. Comment by poro on 15 February 2010:

    this has helped me for my beginning router config class.
    wish my teacher had better material like this stuff

  8. Comment by networkPro on 15 February 2010:

    @ram – I got this working perfect, I think you might have skipped some of the steps or skimmed through a vital part of the tutorial.

  9. Comment by Nori on 25 February 2010:

    thank you. it helped me a lot…

  10. Comment by jz on 7 March 2010:

    Very nice, helpful and yes hoping for more! Small eratum:
    1. Type interface fastethernet0/1
    Should be:
    1. Type interface fastethernet1/0

  11. Comment by jayan on 30 March 2010:

    usefull

  12. Comment by rams on 11 April 2010:

    how to configure router to router?

  13. Comment by musa on 12 April 2010:

    it does work as exactly i want

  14. Comment by alam on 14 April 2010:

    very nice tutorial
    I almost desperate to search for help
    and this one is really enlighten me :D

  15. Comment by good on 22 April 2010:

    well it is quiet good

  16. Comment by me on 25 April 2010:

    thx!!

  17. Comment by Haroon ur Rashid on 15 May 2010:

    Excellent. Thanks for providing good one

  18. Comment by mudasir on 28 May 2010:

    this really works help me to be a good network administrator n send topics related to networking

  19. Comment by Mohd on 10 June 2010:

    Thank you for the tutorial and for the hard work !
    well Job dear.

  20. Comment by Kewal Chahal on 6 July 2010:

    Great tutorial for getting started with the Cisco Packet Tracer.
    Would love it if more examples could be published as I am going for my CCNA

  21. Comment by Okoro Anselm on 27 July 2010:

    Pls. how can I get the packet Tracer software to enable me prepare for my ccna exam.
    Thanks in anticipation.

  22. Comment by BreedingtheSpawn on 7 August 2010:

    Thanks for this refresher I am sure I will get plenty of opportunities in October to configure a router.

  23. Comment by Sar on 14 August 2010:

    Thanks for the guide, can u help me with this, In ROW 1 or level 1 I have 3 routers RT1, RT2 and RT3 connected to each other; at level 2 or row 2 I have 3 switches SW1, SW2, SW3; switches 1 and 2 connect to RT1 and switch 3 to RT2 one PC to RT3; at level 3, 3 PCs are connected to each switch and two additional PC’s to RT3 directly… All connections are fast Ethernet 100 Mbits/sec full duplex. could u please show config for this scenario with and without VLAN’s and different routing algo’s. what modules would be suitable for extension and can I use a TFTP server in packet tracer.. and also main router connecting to RT1 and RT3 to implement STP. PLEASE HELP :(

  24. Comment by Shaun on 2 December 2010:

    Hi. I am using Packet Tracer to create a network consisting of a router, 2 switches, and 4 PCs. I am unable to get a successful Ping and all green dots. Too, which connectors to use for Switches to Routers and from Routers to Switches. Totally unfamiliar with Packet Tracer. Any suggestions?

  25. Comment by amir on 5 January 2011:

    It was Awesome ;) thanks alot !!

  26. Comment by dennis on 19 January 2011:

    how to configure 4 or more router with the static routing,,please help me with that

  27. Comment by Manduna on 2 February 2011:

    perfect tutorial

  28. Comment by Hammad on 10 February 2011:

    it is really very good tutorial
    please post a comlete guide for using all packet tracer features

  29. Comment by David on 21 February 2011:

    I’m about to take a cisco educational way, so i’m pretty new at this.
    I do wonder why you give the router a IP for each port?
    Normally a router got a static IP you connect with.

    I’m sure there is a explonation for this, but so far it seems strange to me, anyone would explain it?

  30. Comment by selva on 3 March 2011:

    I finished ccna.due to the bad facilities i didnt learn fully.now i want to study the router configuration by using packet tracer software.i need help how to configure,what can i do?

  31. Comment by David Duncan on 6 March 2011:

    I just finished up a course using Packet Tracer. This tutorial definitely makes it easy to take virtual lab testing to the real world application. Hats off to Cisco and the makers of Packet Tracer.

  32. Comment by bornoy on 15 April 2011:

    hi,I was installing the internet download manager on my notebook but after that, I can’t have the internet access. When I remove this program my internet access is coming back. How can I solve this problem?

  33. Comment by varyb on 20 April 2011:

    i revised my configs and at alast it is successful
    Thanks for the person who build this site which is very useful for all the students who are at learning stage like me.

    Cheers
    Varun

  34. Comment by Ransford on 28 April 2011:

    This is excellent, for beginners like me, I’ve enjoyed this. please give us more and complex lab, thanks a lot

  35. Comment by CandyBullets on 8 June 2011:

    David;

    You need to configure a static address on each router port because the two ports on the router are routing ports, not switchports. The 192.168.X.X is a class C address space, which means that 192.168.10.0 and 192.168.20.0 are in different networks.

    The router will automatically be aware of any networks it is directly connected to, but bear in mind that you’ll need to enable a routing protocol (EIGRP, OSPF, RIPv2) if you connect two or more routers together.

  36. Comment by john on 13 July 2011:

    you guys can type int fa 0/0 instead of interface fastethernet 0/0 for short cuts. same as configure terminal u can put config t.

  37. Comment by Christian Esperar on 16 July 2011:

    Successfully configure router because of this tutorial. Thanks. BTW do you know how to do RIP?

  38. Comment by Khim Heartbender on 15 August 2011:

    This is the best tutorial on router configuration i’ve ever come across. THANK YOU ! THUMBS’ UP!!!

  39. Comment by jonathanrentino on 24 September 2011:

    Learning Objectives

    Configure Cisco router global configuration settings
    Configure Cisco router password access
    Configure Cisco router interfaces
    Save the router configuration file
    Configure a Cisco switch
    Introduction:

    In this lab students will configure common settings on a Cisco Router and Cisco Switch.

    Given an IP address of 198.133.219.0/24, with 4 bits borrowed for subnets, fill in the following information in the table above in your notebook or on a separate sheet of paper. (Hint: fill in the subnet number, then the host address. Address information will be easy to compute with the subnet number filled in first)

    Maximum number of usable subnets (including the 0th subnet)?
    Number of usable hosts per subnet?

  40. Comment by gary on 2 November 2011:

    Had never heard of this until this morning, and am a total newbie. I have watched a few tutorials on you tube, but not much good. Am now going to print off these tutorials and do them in my own time

  41. Comment by saif on 23 November 2011:

    hello evry one …
    m going to connect switch to router and attach end devices to switch . buhh having a problem it didnt ping to the other side of router ,,,, anyone can help me plz?

  42. Comment by karen on 5 December 2011:

    Thanks for the guide, I need your help to answer this question with the objectives as follows:

    Configure Cisco router global configuration settings
    Configure Cisco router password access
    Configure Cisco router interfaces
    Save the router configuration file
    Configure a Cisco switch
    Introduction:

    In this lab students will configure common settings on a Cisco Router and Cisco Switch.

    Given an IP address of 198.133.219.0/24, with 4 bits borrowed for subnets, fill in the following information in the table above in your notebook or on a separate sheet of paper. (Hint: fill in the subnet number, then the host address. Address information will be easy to compute with the subnet number filled in first)

    Maximum number of usable subnets (including the 0th subnet)?
    Number of usable hosts per subnet?

    I am having a challenge with subnetting.

  43. Comment by ali on 14 December 2011:

    how can i install configration router and how i can do update infoblox

  44. Comment by Chetra on 20 December 2011:

    How to save the configuration?

  45. Comment by shivaji on 7 February 2012:

    Two routers are required. Router 1 has three Fast Ethernet interfaces that are connected to Switch A and Switch B respectively. Router 2 has two Fast Ethernet interfaces that are connected to Switch C and Switch D respectively. 3 PCs are connected to a Switch A. 4 PCs are connected to Switch B. 5 PCs are connected to a Switch C. 6 PCs are connected to Switch D. A Windows Server is directly connected to router 1. 2 PCs are also connected to router 1 but through a Hub.

    can any one help with this

  46. Comment by mischarm on 25 March 2012:

    the best tutor to come across about router config using packet tracer

  47. Comment by Ezaz Aslam on 4 April 2012:

    how to Configure Cisco router password access?

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