In this video, I'm going to show you some Packet Tracer tips and tricks.
Please make sure that you go through this video so that you'll learn these tips and tricks
they will be especially beneficial when you use simulation mode in Packet Tracer.
Now I'm not going to cover everything Cisco have this course.
Introduction to Packet Tracer so if you really want to learn how to use Packet Tracer then this is a
great course to take.
It's a free course once again.
Well worth your time taking this course if you want to learn the ins and outs of Packet Tracer.
In my course, I'm not trying to teach you how to use all the features of Packet Tracer. We're just
going to use some of the features that help us get started and help us better.
build networks in Packet Tracer.
So you can launch this course on Cisco's website and go through the course it once again covers a lot
of features available in Packet Tracer. So there's an introduction to packet tracer.
You can learn about the user interface and how to use simulation mode.
We're going to use simulation mode as part of this course and I want to show you two important tricks
before you use simulation mode.
But if you want to learn more about simulation mode once again have a look at this course.
You can also learn about the physical view in Packet Tracer as well as assessments which we going to
use in this course.
You can learn about IoT controlling smart devices and various other options in Packet Tracer such as
creating and programming objects whole bunch of options are available in Packet Tracer.
We are only using a small subset of the features and Packet Tracer because that's all we need to build networks
using Packet Tracer.
We are concentrating on the configuration of the devices within packet trace of rather than learning about
all the features in Packet Tracer.
But that being said very important, please go to options, preferences when you start a packet tracer.
And notice this tab miscellaneous.
Please check this checkbox buffer filtered events only that will save you from having problems where
the packet tracer buffers are overrun when you use simulation mode.
If you don't know what that is don't worry.
Take my advice and check this option. Under interface
there are various options where you can show device model labels, show device name labels, you can show
port labels in the logical workspace something that I find very useful is under font and make the fonts
a lot bigger for the CLI.
So I'll set this to 16 as an example.
You can change the font used.
You can change the size of the menus if you prefer.
But for me, the most important option is changing the CLI. I'm going to click apply and then I'm going to
close this down. Now we'll create a lot of networks together.
But I just want to show you that we have routers, switches, hubs, wireless devices and firewalls as some
of the network devices available in Packet Tracer. Packet Tracer very versatile fantastic software free
once again from Cisco.
It does have some limitations but it allows you to build a lot of networks. Under end devices we have
laptops and PCs as an example.
So I could add a laptop to my topology and add a PC to my topology.
I could go back to network devices and I could select a switch as an example and I could add a 3650
switch to the topology.
Now I'll be discussing network devices what routers are, what switches or what hubs are in a lot of detail
in the upcoming video.
So don't worry too much about this.
I'll also be discussing cabling types. So clicking on connections I could grab what's called a straight
through copper cable and I could connect the Fast Ethernet cable on my PC to a gigabit interface
on my switch. Again don't worry too much about this if you don't know much about networking.
We'll be discussing a lot of these options in the upcoming videos.
I'll grab another cable select another interface on the switch say gigabit 1/0/2 connect
that to the PC and Fast Ethernet0 and
what I'll do on the specific switch, I'll click on it and I'll drag a power supply into the switch.
This switch requires that you add a power supply to start it up.
And if I click on CLI I'll be able to see the switch boot up. Again I'll cover a lot of these details
later.
What I want to point out however is that we have real-time mode.
This is stuff happening in real time and then we have simulation mode which allows us to see what's
happening behind the scenes.
We can actually see the traffic sent on the network when we use simulation mode.
So I'm gonna go back to real-time and I'm going to click on this PC and I'm going to go to config
FastEthernet0
Now again I'm gonna explain Ethernet interfaces.
I'm going to explain
IP addresses.
I'm gonna explain cabling in the upcoming video so don't worry too much about this for the moment.
What I'm going to do is configure an IP address on this PC and give it a subnet mask as follows.
Again don't worry too much about this.
I just need to configure an IP address to show you one of the options in Packet Tracer.
If I go back to desktop command prompt this gives me a prompt similar to what you'll have in windows
and if I Ping an IP address like this the PC will send traffic into the network but I don't actually
see anything except the results.
If I configure this laptop with an IP address and again don't worry too much about what I'm doing here
I'm going to explain all of these options in a lot of detail in a moment.
So I've given this laptop an IP address that ends in 2 when I go back to the desktop and ping that
IP address again.
I get a reply from the laptop ping basically just sends a message into the network saying Are you there?
In the first case because I hadn't configured the laptop with an IP address the request timed out.
In other words, I know that the laptop wasn't there. In the second example when I pinged the laptop I
got a reply back.
So basically I'm saying hello are you there?
And then the laptop is replying back saying, Yes I'm here and that's why I get a reply back from the
laptop because I configured the laptop with the IP address that the PC is pinging.
So it worked in the second example but notice I'm just seeing the results.
I'm not actually seeing what's going on on the network but if I go to simulation mode what I'll see
now is when I ping the PC it basically pauses packet tracer and I see a packet.
Now I'm not seeing all the options.
I'm going to click here to pop that window out and notice we can see a whole bunch of protocols.
So what we're gonna do is click Show All/None and notice of visible events is now set to None.
If I click that again I'm going to see a whole range of protocols.
We'll talk about what protocols are later but essentially we're going to see a whole bunch of information
which may cause problems when you run packet tracer simulations.
You basically going to overrun packet tracer with messages so click on this option Show All/None and
then go to edit filters and only select the protocols that you need for that specific simulation or
demonstration.
So if you're following me or you're trying things only select specific protocols I know that ping uses
ICMP as an example.
So I'm gonna select that protocol and click close and now I'm going to double click here to pop the
window back in there.
I see this specific packet and I can click next to send it into the network.
I could also do that by popping this window out and clicking play or click this option to go to the
next event in the network.
So notice the packet is now being sent to this PC. If I click back it basically takes me back to the
second event, back takes me to the first event so second event.
third event I can click on the packet to see what's going on.
A lot of detail here.
Don't worry too much about it.
We've got OSI model, we've got Inbound PDU or Protocol Data Unit and Outbound Protocol Data Unit.
We're going to be spending a lot of time discussing what these options meet.
Don't worry too much about it once again for the moment.
So big advice if you don't see the options to UN select protocols click on this little window to pop
the simulation panel out.
Click show all or none.
So we've got all protocols selected now under show no protocols and go to edit filters and I'm only
gonna select the protocols that I want to see which could be set up an ICMP and I'm going to close this
window and now I'll only see those two protocols.
So if I get back to real time
and that ping on the P.C. is now complete it if I do that again.
But before I press enter I'm going to click on simulation.
Notice it's remembered the events that I want to filter and I press enter again.
I see ICMP I'm not seeing opera and there's a reason for that which I won't go into right now.
Basically the PC's remembered information so I don't see OP messages but I don't want to confuse
you at this point so I'll discuss that later.
In a lot of the labs I'm going to tell you to uncheck a whole bunch of protocols and only enable certain
protocols so I'll help you through this but you can always enable certain protocols.
If I'm showing you those in a demonstration and you don't see them OK.
So my big tips are to go to Options preferences miscellaneous.
Make sure that you've clicked this.
Option 2 buffer filtered events only on the interface option.
If you uncheck this always show port labels in logical workspace you won't see the interface names in
your topology so if they missing.
Go to options preferences and select this option.
Again if you struggling with packet tracer doesn't make sense you're not sure how the user interface
works etc..
I suggest that you go through this course on Cisco's website at least go through some of the modules
so go through chapter one to Chapter 4 so that you learn the basics of the Cisco Packet Tracer interface
you can always ask questions but this will save you a lot of time and a lot of frustration if you understand
the basics of Cisco Packet Tracer.