Setting up a Lab...Any Suggestions?

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Hey guys,

I’m setting up my lab to start my studies and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on the best course of action.

I have the following equipment:
4 Computers
1 3Com Manageable Switch
1 3Com Hub

Thanks

 

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Hi Tlong,

Need a little more info

1. Do any of the machines have a built in Network port?
2. what spec are the machines?
3. how many ports are there on the switch and the hub?
4. What Version of Windows do they have running?

If i was to assume that the machines did not have network ports i would say get yourself to a computer fair and pick up 4 network cards, I got some 100Mbs cards for £5 each brand new, then measure the dustance between computers and buy some long network cables, you might have to get some made up speacial if the distance is a long way, Plug them all in then give us another shout and we can work through the set up

 

I'd suggest you get a copy of Nortons ghost, if you've used it you'll know how good a tool it is if not it will save you hours of reinstalling windows!

If you want more info on this just ask

 

Nelix,
The systems already have a NIC, they are running Win2K and have 128 Megs of RAM and I have all the cables.

I guess I should not generalize my question so much.

Having the 3Com hub and the 3com switch, should I use the hub to link all systems and then use the switch to setup and practice subnetting?

Or am I completly off base here.

Si,
Thanks. I have a copy of Ghost 2001, I'll give it a try.

Thanks Guys.

 

Hi tlong

To practice subnetting you will need a router, or you could use a windows 2000 server as a router with rras on. The switch does the same job as your hub only more efficiently. Put simply when a hub sends network traffic to a device it broadcasts the traffic across all of the ports on the hub. When a Switch sends traffic it is targetted to the device that is being addressed. The managed switch may be able to work with VLANs but ports on different VLANs still need to go through a router to talk to each other.

HTH

 

Haven't I seen this question somewhere before??? :?:

Anyway, how you set up your network depends on what you're studying. Assuming you aren't making up your labs from scratch, I imagine you are studying out of some sort of text that includes a lab manual...either within the text itself or as an accompanying document. Go through the labs noting the requirements for each of them and set up your network lab accordingly.

As far as practicing subnetting, you might want to try http://www.learntosubnet.com/. When I was studying for my CCNA, it was an invaluable resource for me. I tend to be a bit "math-phobic" so anything with a lot of calculations puts me off a bit. For a modest price, you can purchase the whole content of the site on cd so you don't have to be online to study.

Also, revisit "that other forum" and review the suggestions given there. I think when you put it all together, you'll have more than enough material to answer your query.

Phil's right in that, you can't set up networks with separate subnets without a router. As far as hubs and switches, I tend to not even use hubs. They're on their way out now that switches are more affordable and you avoid the whole collision domain issue. You can also practice setting up VLANs but again, you'll need a router so that they can communicate with each other.

Hope that helps.

 

I didn't know if I could "trick" the lab into thinking I was subnetting with the switch. No big deal, I'll use the howtosubnet site.

Tripwire,
I ordered the Sybex MCSA 2000 kit from bookpool a few days. I'm hoping it will have a lab exercise I can use to set this thing up.

If not I'm going to try to get my hands on the MS 2152 class book and follow their labs.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

If you want to play with subnetting try to get a version of server installed on one of your machines and install 2 network cards in it.

As Phil pointed out you can then use RRAS as router. I would suggest using 2 network cards rather than setting up a VLAN to start with as it makes it easier to see which machine is part of which subnet.