Lab1: Learning about switches

1 OBJECTIVES  
1. Learn how to perform basic switch configuration & troubleshooting including.
a. How to activate/deactivate a Port
b. How to change the Speed and Duplex Mode on a Switch port
c. How to verify the MAC addresses of computers connected to a specific port
2. Learn how to secure a Switch port so that only a specific user/device can connect to it.
3. Learn how to Create VLANs within a single Switch.
4. Learn how to create VLANs across multiple Switches.

Notes:
1. This lab does not provide the switch configuration commands as they can easily be found from the
Internet and the Cisco official website. For example if you type in Google: “cisco switches configure
port security”, from the results, look for the Cisco documentation link and you will see all the
available commands for the specified keyword.

From the results of the above search keyword, the first link was:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/12-
2/25ew/configuration/guide/conf/port_sec.html

Also, from the configuration command line interface you can type the command followed by “?” and
you will see different possible options for that particular command. (ex: interface ? ).

2. In your report provide the names of any persons you collaborated with.
3. For any configuration command make sure you understand what it means and know what can
be the alternatives.
4. In your report please include the screen shot of your configuration commands for each
question.

2 Initial  set  up  

1. Use the console cable to configure the login username and password for the 3560 and 2960
switches. (use cisco as the default username and password).
2. For the same switches, set the hostname to R#SW1 and R#SW2 respectively (R# = R1
for the first Rack and R2 for the second Rack).

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 3. Configure and set the telnet password to cisco for the 2960 and 3560 switches and set the
initial IP configurations as indicated in the table below:

Device Device type Interface IP address Subnet mask VLAN ID Default gateway
R1SW2 2960 switch vlan1 10.10.1.6 /24 1 N/A
R1SW1 3560 switch vlan1 10.10.1.7 /24 1 N/A
PC1 N/A N/A 10.10.1.50 /24 1 N/A
PC2 N/A N/A 10.10.1.51 /24 1 N/A

Note: By default all the ports of the switches are in VLAN 1. Therefore, you do not have to
create it.

3 Configurations  
3.1 Port  Configuration:  
Now disconnect the console cable from your computer and connect the Ethernet cable to one of the ports
of the switch and use telnet to access the switch command line interface (it is best practice to always use
port 1 for the switch management)
1. Connect PC1 and PC2 to a switch. Ping from PC1 to PC2
2. Check the status of ports using ‘show interface status’ or ‘show ip interface brief’
3. Configure the Port that connects PC1 to the Switch. Set it up as 10Mbps and Half Duplex
4. Verify that PC1 adjusts to Switch port configuration verify that PC1 still reaches PC2

3.2 Port  Security:  

1. Configure one switch port so that it learns the MAC address of the PC automatically.
Configure the other so that you enter the MAC address by hand.
2. Configure the switch port that connects to PC1 so it does not permit any other computer to use
it.
3. Swap cables that connect to PC2 and PC1 to verify if your security policy works. (report the
messages you get on the IOS console as well as the port status after the security policy is
applied)
4. Verify network reachability (Hint: ping from all PC’s to each other) Report your results.
5. Restore network connectivity without reconnecting equipment. (Adjust security policy only)

3.3 Single  Switch  VLAN  configuration:  

1. Adjust Previous Network configuration to like this (use Cisco 2960 switch)

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 Figure 1.1

2. Assign IP addresses to all PCs, use same subnet, verify reachability(ping)

3. Create 2 different VLANs (Engineering, ID 10 and Accounting, ID 20). Use appropriate
commands on your switch to verify their existence (Copy a screenshot on your Report)
Hint: use different subnet IDs for the VLANs (ex: 10.10.2.0/24 for Engineering and
10.10.3.0/24 for Accounting).
4. Assign PC1 and PC2 to Engineering, PC3 AND PC4 to Accounting. Do not Change IP
addressing. Verify IP reachability from/to all endpoints.
5. Do you need to worry about the same IP addresses on Different VLANs? Why or Why not?
6. Verify that you can still Manage the Switch Remotely (First Objective), otherwise restore remote
management (Report the problems you encounter, if any, and how you solved them).

3.4 Multiple  Switch  VLAN  Configuration:  

1. Add a second switch (Cisco 3560) to your network environment. Reallocate the computers as the
diagram below shows.
2. Use appropriate commands to restore network reachability. As on step d) of previous section,
PC1 and PC2 still belong to engineering and PC3 and PC4 to Accounting. Report configuration
files from both switches (just parts where changes were made)
3. Which trunking encapsulation was supported by both Switches?

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 Figure 1.2

4 Post  lab  questions:  

1. How would you secure a switch to prevent others from accessing the network? (Hint: think
layers).
2. What is the length of the MAC address? How is it divided?
3. Are sticky ports secure? Why or why not? Is it recommended?
4. Why are switches faster than routers?
5. How many MAC addresses does your computer have? How do you find out?
6. Can you change your MAC address? If so, How?
7. Can you telnet into a switch? Can any PC on any VLAN telnet into a switch (assume all PC’s are
connected to the same switch)?
8. What is the difference between a trunk port and a normal Ethernet port?
9. What are the advantages of using VLANs?
10. What are any disadvantages of using VLANs?
11. List the IOS commands that you used in this lab (at most 10).
12. What was the biggest challenge for you to complete this lab?
13. List one resource you used that would help students in future semesters to complete this lab.
14. List something you learned about networking in this lab that you did not know earlier.
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