World Data Products, a hardware lifecycle management company based in Minnesota, caught my eye with their free Cisco poster offer.

Not one to pass up geeky wall memorabilia, I sent them my contact information here. It only took about two minutes to fill out the form and have it queued for mailing.

Around a month later I had long forgotten about the poster, until I received it in the mail along with this accompanying letter:

Dear XXX,

Thank you for your interest in World Data Products. Enclosed you will find the Cisco Poster you requested from our website. This has been recently updated to include new router, switch, and firewall models and provides at-a-glance information on model capacities, interface cards, and available features. We hope you find this a valuable reference tool for network planning, network implementations and upgrades.

As the industry leader in Hardware Lifecycle Management, we deliver world-class solutions for server, storage, and network applications. Covering everything from planning thru disposal & recycling, World Data Products is committed to delivering the highest level of expertise available.

I will be following up with a phone call to ensure you’ve received the poster and answer any questions you might have about World Data Products and Hardware Lifecycle Management. If you have any questions or need help with any of your server, storage, or network needs, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Jay Roemhildt

World Data Products

What The Cisco Poster Contains

It wasn’t immediately clear as to what the poster consisted of when I saw the offer on their website. There wasn’t much information regarding the poster and the sample image (seen above) is too small to actually read anything.

The poster outlines the major routers and switches and their specifications. Some specifications include:

• Flash memory
• Amount of switching ports
• Slots for different network modules
• Power supply information
• Throughput
• VLAN Maximums

I arrived at the conclusion that this poster is perfect for a Cisco Academy class or for a workplace. It provides good reference for building new networks or just for new students to get an idea on what Cisco offers.

Closing Comments

I did decide that the poster was perhaps too technical for something I would need in my home; I ended up donating it to the local community college.

Now if WDP, the kind souls they are, would create a quick Cisco router configuration cheat sheet- it would be in my room without a second thought. Even when I’m not tinkering with my own routers and switches on my home network, I’m always using Packet Tracer to create new labs and tutorials. It would be nice to look up from my desk and see the basic IOS commands instead of having to consult the Cisco Bible or different websites. Something to think about, World Data Products! (hint hint)

I’d like to personally thank WDP for their generosity and urge them to keep up the great work!

Packet Tracer 5 has gained its reputation as succeeding where other technology software suites have failed. Whereas one may argue that it’s impossible to teach “hands on” experience through reading and using programs, Packet Tracer 5 throws a few curve balls at students. If you notice that you can’t receive data over the network you’ve just created, you might have to check that you turned the router on first- just as you would when dealing with a real network!

Cisco’s Packet Tracer 5 is ideal for printing out schematics when it comes time to assemble a physical network. Instead of the paper full of scribbles and eraser marks, you can have a freshly-printed schematic designed to perfection. Printing out the running configuration also saves time in initial router setup.

The good news is that Packet Tracer is among the best in network simulation software- and it won’t cost students, alumni, and faculty a single penny to use. Those who have been members of the Cisco Networking Academy will get full access to the program, and its updates, via the Cisco.Netacad.net login portal. The bad news is that the program isn’t public; everyone else will have to find other means of obtaining it.

Help! I’m Not In The Cisco Networking Academy

Cisco doesn’t endorse the ability for outsiders to use their software. Packet Tracer 5 is free software that Cisco gives as an incentive for students to take a CCNA course. Software of its caliber would otherwise cost upwards of several hundred dollars or more.

Self-learners are not without options, however, for they may either find alternative sources of downloading the material or side with another software suite.

Alternatives To Packet Tracer 5

The three major competitors are Boson’s Netsim, Dynagen, and GNS-3.

Boson’s Netsim – Netsim is the only one of the three that isn’t open source. Licensing ranges from $199 to $499, depending on the license necessary. Netsim is ideal for classrooms as it comes loaded with tutorials, quizzes, labs, and grading functions.

Dynagen – Dynagen is a front-end used with the Dynamips Cisco router emulator. The documentation isn’t the best for beginners to browse through, but it’s a free solution that is hard to beat.

GNS-3 – GNS-3 is also built to work with Dynamips. It’s considered to be more user-friendly and intuitive than Dynagen. It also offers video tutorials to get started and free support via forum in case problems arise or questions are formulated.

Downloading Packet Tracer 5 From Alternative Sources

You can’t be blamed if you want to stick with Packet Tracer 5. It’s the best there is, and it’s possible if you were to take a class in the future that you would be required to learn it. If you haven’t enrolled in Cisco classes, yet wish to learn more about Cisco networks, you can use the download link below to download the software:

• [link removed] – Please consult Cisco for a download.

Closing Comments

Don’t expect Packet Tracer 5 to be a walk in the park. It’s a development program, much like AutoCAD, and will take a moderate amount of time in learning. You may browse the included help files in the program or browse tutorials on Learn-Networking.com for a quick start guide on getting ahead in your CCNA course.

Enable Password – The Most Basic Of Security Features

The two most basic of passwords a Cisco router can provide support for is the enable password and enable secret commands. Depending on the IOS version, administrators will likely only need to setup the enable secret command.

For Cisco routers running IOS versions before version 10.3, enable password is going to be used. It is the outdated version of the two, and we’ll see why it isn’t used in average applications after we enable it. You can enable this basic password following the commands seen below.

Router> enable

Router# config terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

Router(config)# enable password mypassword

In this example, mypassword is the new password that is going to be set on the router. Try typing exit and navigate to the privileged mode, as seen below.

Router> enable

Password:

You’ll notice that before we can get into privileged mode, we have to enter the password we set earlier. If you followed the above example, you should be able to input mypassword and press Enter. You are now authenticated for privileged mode!

So why don’t we use the enable password command in most cases? The answer is simple: it’s an outdated format that anyone can have ample opportunity to take advantage of. Try following the below steps and note what you see.

Router# show running-config

Building configuration…

Current configuration : 162 bytes

!

version 12.2

no service password-encryption

!

hostname Router

!

!

enable password mypassword

!

As you can see, anyone can see the password in plain view. This is because it is stored as plain text- no encryption is being used! To help cover this vast security hole, Cisco created the enable secret command. As you can probably guess, it makes use of encryption this time around.

Enable Secret – An Evolved Form Of The Previous Example

Encryption can be a tough subject to tackle. But Cisco has made the process of enabling an encrypted password just as easy as the previous example. In fact, we are only changing one word in the process!

Router#configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

Router(config)#enable secret mypassword

Note that many routers will alert the user at this point if they have made the enable secret and the enable password values the same in terms of the password. Although the message that results is just a warning, and administrators can indeed set both to the same thing (although this is not recommended as it will almost defeat the purpose of the enable secret command).

Now let’s go back to the very beginning, and try logging back into privileged mode once more. We’ll take a look at the running configuration in the below example.

Router# show running-config

Building configuration…

Current configuration : 209 bytes

!

version 12.2

no service password-encryption

!

hostname Router

!

!

enable secret 5 $1$mERr$7sOd0mgRuXYhHwfWsV4QZ/

enable password mypassword

!

Notice how the enable secret password is unreadable, while the outdated command enable password is being displayed in plain view! Obviously, it comes as to no surprise that Cisco decided to do away with the command in order to improve network security.

Closing Comments

We’ve discussed only two of the five different passwords that Cisco allows network administrators to take advantage of. If you’d like to take security a step further, be sure to check out the next section that discusses subjects such as Telnet passwords, console passwords, and even auxiliary passwords!