Welcome to the world of networking. In this project you will learn about the basics of how all networks work, and you will create a small network to demonstrate what you have learned. Afterwards you will be quizzed on what this project covers, so please make sure you have a good understanding of the topics before taking the quiz.
For each networking project you will use GNS3, a tool used for simulating networks (You will need Passman to get GNS3 working. Please talk to a RunAs about this!). Before you start the project, take a few minutes to play around with it to see what it can do, and get familiar with it. Everything you do to configure the devices will be through the device CLI.
You have just been hired as the sole network engineer for a small business called the Ithavoll Group. Congrats! Your boss has decided that he wants a lab environment to test their program they are developing. He wants 5 computers in a room to all be able to talk to each other locally, and since they are just testing computers, they don’t need Internet access. Your security team wants you to make sure to secure the devices properly, even though they are not connected to the Internet. Since this is your first time working with this stuff, you would want to get familiar with the different kinds of physical components a network would use as well.
Create a small network of 5 computers that can talk to each other locally. Use whatever IP addressing scheme you want, but make sure you are not wasting unnecessary IP address space in your subnet. Configure each Cisco device you use to prompt you for a password at the console screen, have an enable password, a basic motd, and encrypt every password in the running configuration. Do not use the initial auto-configuration. Do some research on copper cabling standards and connectors.