Limitation of Wireless and Multiuser

One wireless flaw we en counted was errors. When configuring wireless on floor 2 & 4, we discovered that Packet Tracer would crash. This meant we were unable to configure these floors.

We also discovered when using the Browsers on a student PC, there is a time out. When trying to view Site 2's website, we could receive a timeout message. In a real scenario, this would be fixable.

The Packet Tracer Activity

In accompany to our network, we also have a Packet Tracer Activity.

What we have created is a simplified version of our Baratiwa network. This provides a challenge to configure a working network following the steps we have written.

Similar to tests we participate in networking, we have restricted and controlled the parameters. This can allow us to more precisely control what can and can't be done, from Graphic user interfaces to start-up configs and set-ups.

This give the user the chance to try Vtp, Dhcp, and the basic addressing & passwords. The end result is a working mini school network.

Finalised WAN connection

we finalised the wan setup yesterday with the internet simulation web server and host for testing, we also managed to get http services working between sites 2 and 3 with access to the other groups web server and their access to ours.

Gonna go in on Wednesday and hopefully get connectivity to site 1's website if they can get through their acl's

Final Presentation

Work has proceeded on creating the finalised version of our presentation.

This has been completely remade, but by using our past presentation & slides as ideas for what to include in this new one.

It is approximately twice as long as our prior presentation (slide-wise).

Report Writing

I've started preparing the basic template for our report to start with. Had to create a brand new document because the template supplied was so hard to work with. Using brand new styles in comparison to an original document and the supplied template.

Unfortunately, it is recommended that the report be written entirely in Microsoft Word because Google Documents does not understand the formatting. When converted, the report looks undesirable. 

At the moment, all that needs configuring on our report is the page numbers prior to the Table of Contents. Since it was thrown together in about 15 minutes of Sunday afternoon-ness, my abilities using Microsoft Word are somewhat hampered, so I have forgotten for the life of me how to change where the page numbers should start from 1. Maybe another 15 minutes worth of my Sunday can figure this out.

Change Log updates to District Network

I have added a change log to Google Drive where Tavita, Richard and myself can post the various changes to the packet tracer file for the District Network. Here is the latest changes to the district network:

## V0.4

• Did some housecleaning.
• Renamed Packet Tracer names of servers from ‘DomainNameServer’ to ‘DNS’ and from ‘RadiusServer’ to ‘RS’.
• Added notes describing addressing information for both DNS and RS servers.
• Named Frame Relay Cloud ‘FR_Cloud’.
• Regained access to EdgeRouter, removed old secret password + old message of the day and old login banners.
• Added note describing addressing information for both GigabitEthernet interfaces within server network.
• Added new encrypted enable password on EdgeRouter.
• Added new login and message of the day banners.
• Modified addressing information of interfaces that link to the CoreSwitch & Servers.

I have also included a 'To Do' list in the change-log. Perhaps a seperate document would be required for that? Otherwise I will create a page on this blog to accompany the 'To Do' list so that we can establish what still needs to be done on this network before it is finished. Until then, this is still what needs to be considered on this network before it is finished:

• Research multi-link for packet tracer. Possibly implement.
• Configure DNS to actually supply Domain Name information to clients on school network.
• Configure Radius server to actually supply login information for routers/switches on school & district networks.

Inter-connectivity

We collaborated with the other groups to connect the 3 networks together, as originally required in the aim.
The connections were later created in Packet Tracer by using a Frame-Relay cloud.

Adding a server to Baratiwa

We decided to relocate the server processes to a dedicated server, as opposed to running various services on the router.

We implemented the DHCP process on to the server. This reduces strain on the router. We also added a helper-address to make sure that DHCP continued to work.

For a test, we also enabled HTTP and a local DNS. This let us create a locally hosted website and translation. This is a similar idea to MIT's Cisco start page.

Access and security between sites

Site 1 & 2 to us (Admin)

Allow:

• Internet (Http, Https)
• Ping, Icmp (Between routers)
• DNS

Block:

• Telnet
• SSH
• Carpet Block (Block everything)

Other:

• NTP (Centralised time)

Sites 1 & 2 to the internet

Allow:

• Internet (Http, Https)
• FTP (Inwards)

Block:

• Remote connections (Telnet, Ssh, Rdp)
• Everything else

Packet Tracer - Physical Simulation

We discovered some of the realism to Packet Tracer and how it treats wireless.

As our building is multi-floored, we wanted to be able to show the physical layout of devices and their wireless coverage.

Packet tracer does not allow a building with more than one floor, so we created 5 individual buildings to represent each floor.

This let our building have good wireless coverage, without risk of channels overlapping and causing interference. 

One unexpected realistic part of packet tracer was the length of cable that can transmit. As each floor was linked to the Central switch via copper cabling, the connection would start to drop if the connection was more than 100 meters apart in physical view. To help alleviate this issue, we decided to put the Central switch and main router on floor 3, making floors 1 & 5 evenly far away.

Presentation Preparation

We created a slide show demonstrating various parts of our project for the first practice preparation.

By using Google Drive, we were able to modify the slides on any computer with Internet access, proving valuable able to work at home.

We created slides covering the objective, methods of organisation, the creation of both the District & Baratiwa network and finally a progress update.

As a group we discussed that we would require more preparation on presenting for the final.

Progress with CCNA

Friday passed was quite a big day as we learned that there was a project progress report in the next week so not only do we have to keep going we've also got to catch up on some CCNA4 labs as well as the test we have for PC Engineering 2 and now we have to prepare a small presentation of how far we've come. as for the project itself Baratiwa school itself is pretty much complete, main things left are security and some extras. I showed Tavita the wireless problem i encountered and it turns out packet tracer physically put all the access points in the same wiring cabinet so after making new "corporate offices" as floors we got the wireless working pretty well with no extra problems so far. Another interesting packet tracer feature is that it stays true to the roughly 100m distance that an ethernet cable can travel before signal starts to fade.

Packet tracer dosent currently support VTP pruning  or true redundancy features yet but we talked it over with the customer and are going to state in the report that in a real life situation we would have done that.

Documentation

Over the weekend, I looked at the project spreadsheet we have on Google Documents. This spreadsheet contains the Gantt Chart, which shows an overview of the project and each single task that is related to the project, and the Budget, which just shows the overview of funds planned and used on the entire project.

The Gantt Chart

The Gantt Chart went through several changes which also lead to the entire chart being widened. The row where the tasks were placed had been modified where each week had their days merged, so each week can be clearly defined on the actual chart. The heading was modified and cleaned up. A brief description on how to use the chart was added to the top and one of the tasks was renamed from 'Preparation of Report/Budget' to 'Documentation'. I felt the name change described the task at hand more than the original one.

Overview of the modified Gantt Chart.

The Budget

The budget went through minor changes relating only to the formatting and layout. Mostly changes to the size of the format, and the headings the tables are located under. The expenditure heading was removed entirely since there was already a heading for budget. The sub-heading Salary, was replaced with Work Hours due to it sounding a little better.



Overview of the budget prior to the changes.



With the table containing each of the tasks as well as planned hours, start dates and costs involving workers, has been modified to directly link to the tasks in the Gantt Chart. If tasks are renamed in the Gantt Chart, they will be renamed in the budget. Simplicity. The wage rate was moved to the right of the work hours table, whilst maintaining the link where changing the wage rate changes the costs involved.

Overview of the budget after the changes. Still a work in progress.







Creation of the Baratiwa Network Part 3.

After creating our general network for Baritiwa, we needed to set it up.

We created 4 local Vlans, with the Central switch as server and each floors switch as client. On the router, sub interfaces were created for each Vlan. 

The Students Vlan was the wireless network.

After creating the addressing scheme, we needed a way to distribute the addresses to users. For this, DHCP was required. On the router, a DHCP pool was created for each Vlan, feeding the addresses through the allocated ports on each switch and floor. The default gateway and addresses given to the switches were fixed because they should not change

The various computer were added on each floor to check that DHCP was working on the different Vlans.

Limitations of Packet Tracer

Part of the limitation of Packet Tracer is the available hardware of which you are able to use.

Although we are able to utilize standard switches on each floor (24 fast-ethernet ports, and 2 gigabit ports); This does not work when we require at least 5 'gig ports on the central switch for each of the floors.

To solve this problem we decided to use the empty Packet Tracer devices.

The empty switch allowed us to have up to 8 custom selected ports. In our network we used 5 gig connections (copper) for maximum speeds between the floors and a fiber optic connection to our router.

For the router, we also used a empty Packet Tracer device. We allowed 3 fiber connections; one to the central switch, one to the District network and one extra port is there for any future expansion.

Creation of the Baratiwa Network Part 2.

Next we had to create the school network on Packet Tracer.

We first threw together an ideal setup of our network using equipment available on packet tracer.

This was designed to have as little latency between the switches on each floor and using the equipment commonly available in the Cisco software.

However, this design proved impractical as we had yet to cover Ether-channel.

We also discovered some limitation of Packet Tracer, as discussed in the separate post.

The simplified network.

We then decided to create a more stream-lined, working network; Of which we can easily modify and improve in the future.

It was decided that it is best to use the empty Packet tracer devices as this allowed more control over what we connected and closer to an ideal real network.

Creation of the Baratiwa Network Part 1.

For site 3 of the Network project, we only needed to create two zones. One the District network, and secondly the Baratiwa Network.

In this school network, we had to design a network in one building with 5 floors. Within this school network we must accommodate a large amount of users.

On the wireless network we must be able to handle at least 500 students, as well as various amounts of wired users on each floor shown on the image on the left.

Etherchannel

since we have the servers to look after i looked into etherchannel and am just playing around with it on PT  hopefully Tavita learned about it too over the weekend

Report

Attempting to create a skeleton report and will begin on the introduction today. I will show you guys when I finish so we can comment and modify.