Home Networking Lab Setup

[Mark91]

Hi, I'm new to this forum! Looking forward to being a part of the community and I'm also a new IT Networking student...would like some suggestions for what I'm trying to do.

I bought two Dell Precision 490's with a bunch of RAM on both, and intend to set them up with virtual machines to learn networking and administration. The guy I bought from also gave me two Netgear switches, an old Juniper SSG 5 and a Cisco 1800 Series Router. I've been reading here and there about both, and was able to reset the SSG 5 password so now I have admin on it but I still don't fully understand what I can do with all this equipment.

I have a Motorola SBG6580 connected to cable, and first what I would like to do is be able to host VMs and mess around without exposing the entire network to potential outside threats but still have everything accessible internally. Then get the SSG 5 firewall up, tinker with the switches, etc.

If someone could point me to some useful guides, provide some tips/tricks, or just general info it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Terry Kennedy]

The guy I bought from also gave me two Netgear switches, an old Juniper SSG 5 and a Cisco 1800 Series Router. I've been reading here and there about both, and was able to reset the SSG 5 password so now I have admin on it but I still don't fully understand what I can do with all this equipment.

When you get to the point where you want to learn the Cisco 1800, feel free to ask here or drop me a PM. "Classic" Cisco routers tend to be a bit under-powered CPU wise when you use advanced features, but since they have pretty much the same configuration commands as modern Cisco models, they are a useful learning tool. I'm using a Cisco 3845 (very big brother to your device) as my external gateway at home (50Mbps cable connection).

 

[htismaqe]

Setup the SSG 5 first, that's your firewall. I wouldn't connect it to the Internet until the SSG is setup unless you have some sort of NAT gateway (SOHO router) to use in the interim.

I've never setup the SSG series but like Terry says, the 1800 is a great learning tool. Cisco IOS is also fairly straightforward.

 

[Mark91]

Hey guys thanks for the info.

As I learn more about the 1800 I'll definitely hit you up Terry, thanks! I'm pretty sure the 1811 isn't Gigabit, but at this point will that really make a difference for me?

So I took your advice htismage and am getting the SSG 5 setup first. I found the online manual and was wondering since I have wireless, can I use another cheap router to receive cable, then connect it to the 0/0 untrust port, connect my motorola SBG to the 0/1 DMZ and then the 0/2 trust to my servers?

Unfortunately this version of the SSG 5 doesn't allow connection of antenna for wireless.

 

[Mark91]

Hey what happened to htsimage's comment? It was just here a minute ago...

 

[htismaqe]

It's awaiting moderator approval. I used a banned (for spam) word apparently...

 

[Mark91]

Oh, yeah I guess my other comment with my question and a picture is waiting an admin approval as well...

 

[Terry Kennedy]

As I learn more about the 1800 I'll definitely hit you up Terry, thanks! I'm pretty sure the 1811 isn't Gigabit, but at this point will that really make a difference for me?

All of the 18xx's are 10/100 only. 2801/2811 are 10/100, 2821/2851 are GigE. 38xx are all GigE (one combo RJ45/SFP, one RJ45). [Trivia - the 2811 actually has GigE Ethernet chips but not the extra pieces needed to get GigE at the connector.]

The 1811 is rated for a maximum performance of 70,000 packets/second, throughput of 35Mbit/sec (64 byte packets, larger packets will improve speed). So that's probably fine for a cable (or similar) connection of 25Mbit/sec or slower. If you start doing things that involve the router CPU more, you might want to look for a faster model.

If you're patient, a 3845 will show up on eBay in the under-$50 price range. If you need rackmount ears (unlikely), dual power supplies (likewise) or fully-loaded memory / flash (possibly), you may end up paying a little more, or buying those as additional items. Expect some cosmetic defects (case scratches/dents, broken compact flash eject button) at the lower end of the price range. But a 3845 is a dual GigE unit with a 500,000 packets/sec / 256Mbit/sec performance. It also accepts a huge variety of add-in modules, some of which are available quite inexpensively on eBay. Everything from VoIP interfaces to wireless to cellular modems to VPN / crypto accelerators. Just about everything you learn from that will carry over to much more expensive, newer Cisco models. In fact, the bigger the device the fewer "oddball" interfaces it will support, so the x8xx models are perfect to learn from.

Of course, if you're not going to use the unit as your "real" gateway but instead just for learning about Cisco IOS, then the 1811 you have will be just fine, though you might want a larger flash card and main memory in order to use the latest version / highest feature IOS images.

The first thing to do is power it up and make sure it works. If you're lucky, it came with a pastel blue console cable (8-pin modular on one end, 9-pin "DB" connector on the other). That will connect to a PC with a serial port, or a USB-to-serial adapter. Set your terminal program for 9600 baud, connect the cables and power the 1811 on. You should see a bunch of text messages, which will hopefully end with "Press return to get started" or "Do you want to enter the initial configuration dialog?". Somewhere along the way, you'll see "System Bootstrap, Version xxx", "Cisco IOS Software ... Version xxx", "Cisco xxx with xxxK/xxxK bytes of memory" and "xxxK bytes of ATA CompactFlash". All those xxx's will be good to know. It should also display a list of installed interfaces - you should see at least "2 ... Ethernet interfaces" and possibly some other things - also good to know.