June 4, 2011
7:36 pm
by: admin

Cisco ME3600X – Quick Review

I recently had the chance to demo 3 of Cisco’s new ME3600X Carrier Ethernet Access switches.

The ME3600X and 3800X are very similar in features.  The major differences are VPLS support and higher scalability for the 3800X.  Both units offer AC and DC power with redundant power supplies.  It seems the new breed of switches will be replacing all previous ME switches(3400, 3750, etc).  A great thing indeed.

My first thoughts were WOW!  Finally something from Cisco targeted for Carrier Ethernet access level with MPLS support.  I have found that pushing MPLS further to the edge has greatly simplifies our deployments.

This is a preview of Cisco ME3600X – Quick Review. Read the full post (278 words, 1 image, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)
Posted in Cisco, New Products

September 17, 2010
8:38 am
by: admin

Cisco Router and Switch Naming/Labeling Conventions

Sometimes looking through a running config on a Cisco router or switch it is hard to determine what is a “Name” and what is part of a command syntax.
Over time I have used a few simple rules to help me when configuring a router.

  • Always use capitols for names.
    • ACL_BLOCK_SMTP
  • Be descriptive in your name
    • CMAP_MAILSERVER_OUTSIDE_TO_INSIDE_PROTOCOLS
  • Use copy and paste.

Here are a few examples.

policy-map type inspect PMAP_INSIDE_OUTSIDE
 class type inspect CMAP_ALL_IP_TRAFFIC
   inspect

zone-member security INSIDE
ip access-list extended ACL_DEFINE_MAILSERVER

If you have any further suggestions place post a comment.

Permanent link to this post (94 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)
Posted in Cisco Tagged , , , , ,

April 2, 2010
8:58 am
by: admin

PPPoE Configuration and Port Forwarding on Cisco Router

The follow is an excerpt from a router that is configured for PPPoE.  At the end I have an example of a Static Nat translation to emulate port forwarding to internal hosts.  I am using a Cisco 2610XM in this example.  This router only has one fast ethernet port so I will use a VLAN trunk and subinterfaces.  If you are using a Zone firewall or IPSEC tunnel, those configuration commands should be placed on the Dialer interface, not on the Fastethernet interface.

——————————————————————————————————————-

interface FastEthernet0/0.5     
 description $ETH-WAN$
 bandwidth 1500
 encapsulation dot1Q 5
 pppoe enable group global
 pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1

This is a preview of PPPoE Configuration and Port Forwarding on Cisco Router. Read the full post (181 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)
Posted in Cisco

March 24, 2010
7:19 am
by: admin

Using ASUS M2A-VM for ESXi 4

It is possible to install ESXi 4 on an ASUS M2A-VM and the SB600 southbridge.  There are a few steps that you need to take to accomplish this.

First, you must purchase a separate NIC.  The onboard Realtek NIC is not very well supported.  There are hacks and drivers you can use to install the NIC but there have been numerous reports of issues.  Save yourself hours of troubleshooting and buy an INTEL Gigabit adapter off Ebay for $20.

Second, change the sata controller mode to AHCI. 

This is a preview of Using ASUS M2A-VM for ESXi 4. Read the full post (170 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)
Posted in VMWare

March 23, 2010
10:08 am
by: admin

Iomega® StorCenter™ ix2-200

I stumbled upon the Iomega Storcenter when looking for a simple iSCSI device for my home VMware lab.  I needed cheap storage to house my Call Manager Servers and simple XP machines.

After reading reviews and documentation of the device I was pretty impressed.

Some of the features include:

  • iSCSI Target Support
  • External USB Storage
  • Active Directory Security Integration
  • Media Streaming to XBOX, PS3, Media Player, etc.
  • Apple Time Machine
  • Redundant Drives
  • CIFS and NFS File Sharing
  • Anonymous FTP Server
  • Torrent Download Manager
  • Optional Bluetooth Connectivity
  • 3 Year Warranty
This is a preview of Iomega® StorCenter™ ix2-200. Read the full post (200 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)
Posted in Hardware

March 23, 2010
6:00 am
by: Rob

Cisco Releases New Switches

Cisco has finally released an updated line of thier 3750, 3560, and 2960 switches.

Information and press releases can be found here and here.

The new 2960-S FINNALLY allows stacking.  Yes, one of the biggest complaints for a long time now has been the lack of stacking on Cisco lowest access layer switch.  With the new S model you are now able to link 4 switches with 10Gbps stack links.  The stacking features are similair to the original 3750s: 1 logical unit, distrubuted etherchannel, etc.

Other enhancements are optional 10Gb uplinks, redudant PoE stacking (3750-X), TrustSec (3750, 3560-X), and removeable power supplies.

Permanent link to this post (101 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)
Posted in Cisco, New Products