What the Heck is EIGRP Named Configuration?

While doing some MPLS labbing this week I came across something that I'd never seen before.  I decided that I wanted to use EIGRP as my PE-CE routing protocol, and I was using one router to simulate 4 CE's.  My line of thinking was that I'd just create four VRFs and it'd be no problem.  For some reason it never occurred to me that I could use 4 separate EIGRP instances in my config...  I instead just assumed that I could do a VRF aware EIGRP config without any trouble.  Well, I was wrong.  At least I was wrong in the way I originally tried to get it working.  So after a 'no router eigrp 1' I headed over to the DocCD and found me some EIGRP Named Configuration.

Tips and Tricks: Saving Device Configs with Mac OS X Terminal

One of the age old techniques to save your device config is to simply issue a "sh run" (or equivalent on non-Cisco devices) and copy and paste the resulting output into a text file.  This method certainly works in the absence of at TFTP server, but it's kind of a pain and when you have a few devices it becomes time consuming in a hurry.

In a Windows environment I use PuTTY.  PuTTY has a built in feature that allows you to save the terminal session you're working on.   At home I have a Mac.  To that end, here's how I save configs if there isn't a TFTP server available.

How IOS Cheats When Using the Network Command

When you type a command into the IOS CLI you normally expect IOS to execute your instruction as typed.  You don't expect IOS to modify what you typed, or to assume you meant something other than what you actually typed in.  In fact, to me that behavior is extremely undesirable.  I understand there are some assumed defaults where if you omit certain keywords then IOS imposes on for you.  That's fine.  But sometimes IOS changes what you typed in to something completely different.  The network command contains one such example.

Book Review: CCIE Routing and Switching Certification Guide 4th Edition

As part of studying for the CCIE R&S Written exam I got myself a copy of the CCIE Routing and Switching Certification Guide 4th edition by Wendell Odom, Rus Healy, and Denise Donahue.  This is the newly revised version for the CCIE R&S v4 written exam that came out very shortly after the new version of the exams did, and it's also the updated version of a book that's been around for a very long time.

I used this book extensively in my written exam preparation, and now that that piece is completed, I wanted to briefly reflect on this text and the role it played.  It was certainly a love/hate experience, and if you are considering this text in your own studies then you should definitely be aware of a few things prior to purchasing this book. 

Retro Post: Session Initiation Protocol: Evolution in IP Telephony Signalling

Since I'm into retro posts this morning, here's another oldie circa 2005.  This was an assignment from when I was in school.  Looking back it's not very useful...  But hey, what the heck, right?

Retro Post: An Introduction to Subnetting

Back in about 2003/4 I wrote a tutorial on subnetting.  I posted it up on a couple forums that I frequented at the time and then forgot about it.  I came across it about again about a year ago, and then today I actually dug it up to reference it in a post I was making.

Since its mine, I decided that I would post it up here now.  I think it's fun to go back to when I was getting my start in Networking and see some of the sorts of things I wrote back then.  So without further ado, get into the time machine and enjoy this old, very basic tutorial.

Written down. Lab to go.

I passed the 350-001 CCIE Routing and Switching Written test today.

Onwards to the lab!

The Mess that is QoS in Layer 2

Since I looked at QoS Classification and Marking in the IP Header I figure I might as well finish it off and go over the same topic at Layer 2.  I kept the title, but in reality it's not that bad here.  There's a lot more consistency between the various Layer 2 technologies and things seem to translate pretty well.  The only real challenge comes into play when you need to start translating a Layer 2 marking to a Layer 3 marking, and vice versa.  I'll get to that in a bit, but first lets look at what we have to work with.

The Mess that is QoS in the IP Header

If there's a group of people out there that should be drug out into the street and shot it's the jackasses that designed QoS classification and marking in the IP . More specifically, the jackasses that decided we needed multiple definitions of the same bits and different bits at different layers. I sometimes wonder if the only reason that QoS classification and marking is this way is so that vendors, like Cisco, can test you on it.

At any rate, things are the way they are and we must learn it. 

Networking-forum.com is giving away 8 copies of AAA Identity Management Security

http://networking-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=21126

Good Luck!