blindhog.net

One of the major hurdles many people face with GNS3/Dynagen/Dynamips is that the emulators do not come with the Cisco Images to actually build a lab. It seems like once a week, I get an email with a request for an IOS Image, Pix Image, Pix Serial Numbers or Pix Activation codes. Just so I make myself clear, I will not give this information to you. Period. However…

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One of my customer’s recently started having problems receiving inbound calls although outbound calls worked just fine. Long story short, one of the dsp’s needed to be reset. When I issued the ’show voice dsp detailed’ command, the dspware version displayed all zero’s. After reseting the dsp, calls started working again.

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One of the biggest problems I face after installing a new Call Manager or Call Manager Express System is end user training.

I always provide end user training while on site and I do a good job too. Unfortunately, phones are boring and users have work to do. The majority of questions come the day I am leaving or 3 days later. Instead of trying to create my own video tutorials for end user training, I have compiled a list of Cisco’s Video Tutorials. Enjoy!

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect an MS Loopback interface on your PC to the PEMU Pix emulator using GNS3. The trick is to use a switch between the cloud and the virtual PIX.

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Have you ever wanted to keep notes inside a router instead of an external location? For a few years now, I have thought it would be great is Cisco would include a minimal text editor within the IOS code. It would be nice to have a notes inside the router regarding the last change that was made or other various notes.

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to build a small frame-relay lab. I will walk you through adding the routers, the frame switch, configuring the PVCs on the switch, and configuring the routers for basic point-to-point connectivity.

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The guys at GNS3.net have done it again! They just released version .04 of their incredible network emulation software. There are lots of new features including Pemu integration, c1700 and WICs Support and Project feature (you can keep router configs, nvram …).

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In a previous tutorial, you learned how to install Call Manager 4.x in vmware. Installing CUCM 6.x in VMWare is much easier. Cisco did a great job with CUCM 6.x in terms of allowing you to install the software in a virtual machine without needing to hack the system.

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In Part 2 of the GRE/IPSec tutorial series, you will learn how to encrypt the GRE tunnels you built in Part 1. Although I only show you how to create a hub and spoke topology, it is also possible to create a fully meshed topology or even a partial mesh. I highly recommend creating GRE tunnels from the branch to every datacenter in your organization.

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I first discovered GRE with IPSec about 4 years ago when a customer needed to transmit IPX and multicast traffic over his VPN. Since then, I have primarly used GRE/IPSEC tunnels for transmitting internal routing protocols over the internet.  RIP, EIGRP or OSPF can be used over a GRE tunnel just as though it were a point to point circuit. It is also very useful for multicast music on hold.

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