Connect back to back 3550

I know this is stupid…. but I spent a while on it so if you have to connect two Cisco 3550 switches directly to each other on an Ethernet port you must use a crossover cable. Even though a straight through will do for a connection to an end station or even a 3650… UGHHH

CCIE RS Home Lab

After a long period of procrastination (probably from the fresh scars of the first CCIE) I finally have my RS rack up and running and with the IOS upgraded (still need a flash upgrade on R5)! I have had most of the equipment racked for about two months but have been able to find any excuse not to fire it up. I was able to reuse some of the equipment from my home voice lab but this time around it took quite a few more Ebay orders to complete. I also had so sell some of my voice stuff (NM-HDV & MFT cards) to finance some of it. I have decided to go with the Internetwork Expert setup and was able to pull it off with some alternative platforms. Here is what I went with:

Device — Interfaces Needed ——- I Went With

R1 —— 1 Ethernet, 2 Serial —— 2610xm w WIC-2T
R2 —— 1 Ethernet, 2 Serial —— 2610xm w WIC-2T
R3 —— 2 Ethernet, 4 Serial —— 2610xm w 2x WIC-2T & NM-1E
R4 —— 2 Ethernet, 2 Serial —— 2611xm w WIC-2T
R5 —— 2 Ethernet, 2 Serial —— 2611xm w WIC-2T
R6 —— 2 Ethernet, 1 Serial —— 2611xm w WIC-2T
SW1 —— 24 Ethernet ———— 3550-48-EMI
SW2 —— 24 Ethernet ———— 3550-48-EMI
SW3 —— 24 Ethernet ———— 3560-24G
SW4 —— 24 Ethernet ———— 3560-24G
BB1 —— 1 Serial —————— 2501
BB2 —— 1 Ethernet ———— 1760-v
BB3 —— 1 Ethernet, 1 Serial —— 2503
FRSwitch —— 8 Serial ———— 2523
Access Sever —— 10 Asynchronous Serial ——2511

I’ll post a few pictures once I get it cleaned up.

dot1q and ISL

dynamic desirable mode is default on 3550 with ISL
dynamic auto mode is default on 3560 with ISL
Disable DTP:
switch mode port access
switchport nonegoiate

802.1Q and ISL differ in that dot1q doesn’t encapsulate the native VLAN. If it gets a packet without an dot1q header it assumes that it must be in the native VLAN.

Native VLANs only apply to dot1q

If SW1 has a NV is 10 and SW2 has a NV of 20, SW1 will send all traffic in VLAN 10 untagged. SW2 will get that and assume it is for VLAN 20 since it is untagged. The switch will throw a VLAN mismatch error.

Default Administrative Distances

Connected===============0
Static===================1
eBGP==================20
EIGRP (internal)===========90
IGRP=================100
OSPF=================110
IS-IS=================115
RIP==================120
EIGRP (external)=========170
iBGP=================200
EIGRP summary route=======5

In the Beginning, Part II

I know, I know, you don’t get a second number but for this amount of effort you should… Have you ever watched the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? That is how I feel right now. I passed my Voice CCIE about six months ago, see my other blog http://ccievoice.wordpress.com ,and I’m itching to get another one, so R&S here I come. R&S is not my strong area and it’s not much in my daily job so I think that is a good and bad thing. We all know to well of you don’t practice a skill every once and awhile it starts to depreciate because I can keep my voice skills sharp while beefing up these skills; however, I think it is beneficial to be immersed in the technology that you are studying.