July, 2008

Cisco’s new LearnNetSpace website has a lot to offer

Cisco has unveiled a new web site - LearnNetSpace - to help us in a dedicated forum to share problems and helpful solutions that many of us have learned through trial and error. Networking with your peers is a great solution. I was just viewing the web site, and WOW, what a great place to share and be taught. There is information on CCNA, CCNP, and CCSP certification, study materials, blogs, discussions, etc. Be sure and check this one out.

For further information on this new opportunity for growth, please see the Cisco article, Cisco Boosts Worldwide Talent Development Efforts to Meet Increasing Demand for Networking Skills.

Three show commands that will help you as a Cisco Admin

Show version – This command lists information like the IOS filename and version currently in use. Another very important thing this command shows is the configuration register value The register value 0×2102 is the default factory value. You will need this value, for instance, if you do not know the password on your router. For more information on router passwords, please see my article, How to properly secure your Cisco router with passwords. For more information on the show version, please see the Cisco Use of the Configuration Register on All Cisco Routers documentation.

Show file information –  Similar to MS DOS, it displays file information about the specific file.
You must be in EXEC mode to use this command.
Example: Router1#Router# show file information tftp://gener/davis/c3300-d-a.b
tftp:// gener/davis/c3300-d-a.b:
type is image (a.out) [relocatable, run from flash]
file size is 8524596 bytes, run size is 9044940 bytes [8512316+112248+420344]
Foreign image

For additional information on the show file information command, see Cisco CFR Commands: show context — show ip http server documentation.

Show host - Display the IP addresses that the Domain Name Server (DNS) uses to resolve the host name.You must be in exec mode to use this command.
Example: R1#show host
name-server-one : 10.3.106.20
name-server-two : 0.0.0.0
domain-name : orchard
For additional information on the show host command, please see the Cisco show commands documentation.

Can Cisco really change other businesses to help education?

While Cisco has great networking and VoIP solutions, I wonder what they can do to really change other businesses…

According to the latest Cisco news, Cisco believes a transformation of educational systems is required, as well as improved teacher and leadership development. Cisco has met with district administrators, school leaders, teachers and community members to make sure that their new paradigm is heard loud and clear.  Our kids are our future and we should give them every technological opportunity to help them seek their full potential. For more information on this new concept, please see the Cisco article, Cisco Says Radical Shift in Education Systems Required to Sustain Global Competitiveness. 

Cisco IOS what, when, & where questions

Here are 3 Cisco IOS questions that you should know the answer to:

Question: What is the purpose of ports?
Answer: Port numbers allow hosts to identify which application processes send and receive data inside TCP and UDP datagrams.

Question: When an engineer wants to verify the application layer (that’s Layer 7) software between source and destination stations, which command should he use?
Answer: Telnet. Telnet is an application that would test all seven layers of the OSI model.

Question: Where should you place standard ACLs in the Network?
Answer: Standard ACLs should be placed as close as possible to the destination to prevent unintended traffic from filtering to your other networks.

Cisco focuses on Russia and CIS

It amazes me what a global company Cisco is. How can they focus on China, Russia, and everywhere else in the world, all at the same time?

I found this news interesting, from Cisco’s website:

Cisco recently announced a venture capital investment in Almaz, Russia for $60 million dollars that will focus attention on Russia and The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Essentially, the Almaz partners seek out small and medium sized companies looking for technologies in media and telecommunications. Cisco then pursues startups for these companies. Cisco has already been doing similar ventures in the Russian market with a Russian online company named Ozon.
For more information on this new partnership, please see the Cisco article, Cisco Announces Investment in Venture Capital Fund to Focus on Russia and CIS.

Cisco will assist China after major earthquake

While Cisco seems to be a very humane company, they also have a lot invested in China. Because of this, their intentions are two-fold.

According to the latest Cisco news, Cisco has announced a $45 million three-year commitment to support reconstruction efforts in China’s Sichuan Province. They had a major earthquake there recently which all but destroyed the Province.  Cisco will be working with public and private partnerships for the health, education, and communication needs of these Chinese people.
For more information on this story, please see the Cisco article, Cisco to Provide US $45M (RMB 300M) to Support Rebuilding Efforts in China’s Earthquake-Affected Sichuan Province.

How to restore the backup configuration file from a HyperTerminal Emulator

In a previous blog entry (Using Text Capture in HyperTerminal to backup and restore your Cisco IOS configuration) I demonstrated how to use the Hyperterminal Text Capture to backup your Cisco IOS configuration.

In this post, you can see how to restore that Cisco IOS configuration. Here is how you do it, step by step:

a. Log into the router using HyperTerminal.
b. Go into router global config mode.
c. From the HyperTerminal window, choose Transfer / Send Text File.
d. Select the name of the file for the saved backup configuration.
e. The lines of the configuration are being displayed into the router. Look for any errors.
f. After the config is complete, press the CNTL-Z keys to exit global config mode.
g. Restore the startup configuration with the command, copy running-config startup-config.

Cisco spearheading a new organization to help with ever growing security concerns

The Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI) is very much overdue by those of us who are working so hard to protect our networks. This is a non profit  organization that is organized by 5 major corporations, Cisco being the first, that allows companies to come together on issues relating to viruses and other security cyber threats.
The organizations philosophy is committed to improving corporate threats, among other things,  by collaborating with other vendors with similar issues.

For more information on ICASI, please see the following Cisco article:

IT Vendors Create Forum to Drive Global Security

5 Cisco IOS Terms that you should know

When preparing for your Cisco CCNA or just learning the IOS, there are a number of terms that you need to know. Here are 5 of them:

1. Administratively Down – One possible interface on a Cisco router.
2. Assignable IP address – An IP address that can be assigned to an interface excluding reserved IP addresses in a subnet.
3. Bootstrap – The program that a computing device loads, using hardware, to initialize enough software to look for and load the fully functional OS.
4. Cisco IOS – The operating system that runs in a Cisco router.
5. Cisco IOS image – A single file that contains a complete copy of the IOS.

Using Text Capture in HyperTerminal to backup your Cisco IOS configuration

While you can download your Cisco IOS configuration using TFTP, this requires networking to be configured and operational.

Another alternative is to use HyperTerminal’s text capture to backup your configuration. Let’s find out how…

Here is how to use it, step by step:

a. In the HyperTerminal window, choose Transfer / Capture text.
b. Specify the name for the text file.
c. Click the Start button to start capturing the text.
d. Display the configuration to the screen by entering show running-config.
e. Press the Spacebar when each __More__ prompt appears.
f. When completed, stop the capture by choosing Transfer / Capture Text / Stop.

You can then take the text file created by hyperterminal and use it as a backup for that router or switch!