Router and Switch Configuration

Router and Switch Configuration

Kent Smith

IT/242 - INTRO TO WAN TECHNOLOGIES

7/29/12

LAWRENCE MASTER

Router and Switch Configuration

Switches are physical pieces of equipment that are used in networking. They are usually installed in communication rooms in stacks organized and attached to racks, connected to each other and other devices that may be on the network by using Ethernet cables. They also need readily available power sources that can handle the power usage, especially when connecting multiple switches up. (Cisco, 2012)

Switches use User Interfaces Consoles (consoleUI) which are text based programs that let you interact with the switch to set it up so it knows what to do with and where to send information. When using a consoleUI there are multiple fields that we can create. Window, Prompt, ConsoleField, ConsoleForm, Menu, and MenuItem are our options. Windows are rectangle areas that we can set up to show the information or variables we pull up. Prompts are one line statements that we use to get user input. These answers can be one word responses, like a password, to whole strings or sentences. ConsoleFields are defined in the Console Form. They are any section within the field that we are creating. ConsoleForm is used to set up multiple consolefields in the creation of our consoleUI. Menu is a horizontal list of different menuitems that we have set up. Menuitems display the name of the fields that we created within the Menu. (IBM, 2005)

Also important to switch networking is the Spanning Tree Protocol and configuring you Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). VLANs work like local area networks but are nice because they are not restricted to being in the same location. They do this by allowing us to partition the LAN into broadcast domains. Newer technology allows us to tag packets of information so that a single trunk can be created to transmit the data securely. (Wikipedia, 2012) Spanning Tree Protocol is a protocol that keeps...