Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

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wavetar
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Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by wavetar »

I'm weak when it comes to networking overall, especially when it comes to routing. I understand the concepts, and have even attended some classes at Motorola several years ago, but had little opportunity to practice.

We're beginning to do more work with IPSC and LCP systems, and they are getting more complex. My rudimentary networking skills aren't cutting it anymore. I've been lucky in the respect that either the customer's own I.T. have been involved and supplied what was needed for networking, or everything has been on the same subnet.

In an effort to learn and understand better, I'm trying to simulate a 4-site IPSC system, each on it's own network, with static routes between them.

I'm forced to work with what we have available, which is four Linksys/Cisco RV042 4-port dual WAN routers, and one Linksys/Cisco RV082 8-port dual WAN router.

I'm using the RV082 as a centralized switch, LAN IP address 10.88.1.1, subnet 255.255.0.0

All RV042 have their working mode set to "Router"

The four RV042 have their WAN IP's set to 10.88.1.3, 10.88.1.4, 10.88.1.5, 10.88.1.6 respectively, all subnet 255.255.255.0, with 10.88.1.1 as their default gateway

Their LAN IP's are set to 10.88.3.1, 10.88.4.1, 10.88.5.1, 10.88.6.1 respectively, all subnet 255.255.255.0. I have created static routes in each to the other 3 networks via the WAN1 interface...or at least I *think* I have.

From the RV082 I can ping all LAN and WAN IP's, and I can do remote management via web browser on all RV042's through either their WAN or LAN IP's. So the connectivity is there.

From any of the RV042, I cannot even ping the RV082 gateway IP of 10.88.1.1...the requests time out, so it seems I have something wrong in the routing tables.

I realize setting the RV082 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0 is what's allowing me to ping and manage the RV042's through both their WAN and LAN ports, since as far as it's concerned, it's all the same network. I'm sure if I had the routes set up properly, I could set it to 255.255.255.0 and still be able to access everything.

Any input is appreciated. I'd be more than willing to discuss via email/PM or here in this thread. I could give remote access to my test laptop via team viewer or similar...whatever works!
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wavetar
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Re: Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by wavetar »

Spent a bit more time with this and made some progress...

I can establish static routes between any two of the RV042's if I connect their WAN ports directly and change the static routes to use each other's WAN IPs as their default gateways...everything pings out great.

I need a way to have all 4 of the routers connect to each other. I had assumed running them all to a LAN switch on the same subnet would allow them to all communicate...I'm obviously wrong!

Could somebody nudge me in the right direction?
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wavetar
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Re: Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by wavetar »

Ok, nevermind! Got it worked out. As a summary for anyone reading at some point:

Each RV042 WAN has 10.88.1.1 set as it's gateway (RV082 LAN IP, being used as a simple switch)

Each RV042 has three static routes to the other three RV042's LAN network, with each corresponding RV042's WAN as the default gateway

From any RV042, I can ping and manage all other RV042's using both their LAN or WAN IP's.

I can manage everything from the RV082 switch. I still can't ping the RV082 switch IP of 10.88.1.1 from the RV042's, but it's obviously functioning as a switch, so I'm not overly concerned about that.

Code: Select all

Site 3                                Site 4                           Site 5                             Site 6
LAN IP 10.88.3.1/24              LAN IP 10.88.4.1/24             LAN IP 10.88.5.1/24               LAN IP 10.88.6.1/24
WAN IP 10.88.1.3/24              WAN IP 10.88.1.4/24             WAN IP 10.88.1.5/24               WAN IP 10.88.1.6/24
GW IP 10.88.1.1                  GW IP 10.88.1.1                 GW IP 10.88.1.1                    GW IP 10.88.1.1

Route IP 10.88.4.0              Route IP 10.88.3.0              Route IP 10.88.3.0                 Route IP 10.88.3.0
GW IP 10.88.1.4                 GW IP 10.88.1.3                  GW IP 10.88.1.3                    GW IP 10.88.1.3

Route IP 10.88.5.0              Route IP 10.88.5.0              Route IP 10.88.4.0                 Route IP 10.88.4.0
GW IP 10.88.1.5                 GW IP 10.88.1.5                  GW IP 10.88.1.4                    GW IP 10.88.1.4

Route IP 10.88.6.0              Route IP 10.88.6.0              Route IP 10.88.6.0                 Route IP 10.88.5.0
GW IP 10.88.1.6                 GW IP 10.88.1.6                  GW IP 10.88.1.6                    GW IP 10.88.1.5

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JAYMZ
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Re: Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by JAYMZ »

If you want to start learning a little more about networking in a Cisco environment, download a program called GNS3. When you do I will make a couple of IOS images available to play with. This way you can configure, play and imagine just about anything that you want. The only things that this program won't do are ASAs and complex switching. (There are no switches in the virtual interface) It is all not really that hard, you just need to know the concepts behind it (which it sounds like you already have) and the command structures to configure and test it.

All in all it looks like you have a really good start going there.
JAYMZ

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wavetar
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Re: Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by wavetar »

Thanks Jaymz, that would be much appreciated. I've downloaded the GNS3 program, and also plan on checking out some of the tutorial videos and supporting documentation. I'm pretty much starting out from scratch on this, but I'm looking forward to improving on a real weakness of mine!

Todd
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Re: Routing/Networking...knowledge & help needed!

Post by ryanm »

Static routing makes for a miserable day... but it works very well when things don't change.

Those RV routers are neat... but not nearly as feature-rich as the 'real' Cisco gear. I think I like them for small implementations, but I've never put any into real use.
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