So how do I get really good with Cisco routers?

This always seem to be the biggest quandry. How do you get to be good at routers if no one will let you touch them? Sure you could go on ebay and start paypal'ing your way to a wonderful Cisco lab in your garage but there has to be a better way right?

Now there is. When I first took the CCNA 8 years ago I was limited to the Sybex CCNA training simulator. Sure it was better than nothing but it was very limited. Good enough to past the test but not good enough to become proficient at routers.

Now enter Dynamips. It's an emulator that is able to boot real Cisco IOS files thus allowing users to run REAL routers within windows of their desktop. Real routers. Real commands. Everything is there.

I recently took an advanced Cisco class and the training was performed with Dynamips. Each student was able to fire up a series of routers to perform the labs. Short of stacking up a bunch of routers on my desk I've never been able to perform the tasks that we did. In my spare time I was able to pretty much duplicate our North America network we have at work. Same IP addresses and configurations and everything. EIGRP running and everyone was talking.

Now for the fun part I was able to manipulate those configurations to see how things were affected. I can't do this on our production network. I was able to turn on debugging at all levels.

1000 foot overview of Dynamips:

• Free
• Linux or Windows
• Need to have access to Cisco IOS's
• Can be frustrating to get installed and working

I plan on posting a multipart series on how to install and get everything working from start to finish - to include Dyangen and GNS3 which can provide a beautiful GUI interface to everything you want to with Dynamips.

In the meantime I leave you these links:

Dynamips

http://www.ipflow.utc.fr/index.php/Cisco_7200_Simulator

Dynagen

http://dynagen.org/

GNS3

http://www.gns3.net/

NEDI and me - Cisco management on the cheap!

Anyone else using NEDI? If you don't use it and you're in a Cisco environment like I am you might be interested in using it.

High Level Overview:

• Configuration managment (grabs the configs on all our devices for backup) and shows diffs!
• Uses SNMP, CDP and telnet credentials to pull just about everything about your network
• Great for network inventory - tracks serial numbers etc.
• Performs node listing down to the port - uses ARP to figure out who's where - easy to find anyone and what switch/port they are in

Like I said this is the 1000 foot overview - I recommend you try it yourself .... and it's FREE

Have it running on a VM with Ubuntu 6 server (no X)

If you're like me you want screenshots ... so here you go

http://www.nedi.ch/doku.php?id=gallery:gallery

Putty Reborn

Just like all good admins I rely on SSH connections to a lot of my stuff.... and I hate putty.
Okay okay get off my back... I just don't like it. It's too clumsy. Sure it works but just not as well as I want it to.

That's until I was introduced to the Putty Connection Manager

http://puttycm.free.fr/

Best tool I've come across in a while - definitely recommend

The tabbed connectinons, moveable/dockable windows, automatic login .... what more can a guy ask for?