CCNA Guide to Cisco

Networking Fundamentals

Chapter 5
Router and IOS Basics
 Objectives
• Describe the benefits of network segmentation with
routers
• Understand the elements of the Cisco router user
interface
• Configure the HyperTerminal program to interface
with the Cisco router
• Describe the various router configuration modes

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 Objectives (continued)
• Describe the various router passwords
• Understand the enhanced editing features of the
Cisco IOS
• Compare router components to typical PC
components

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 Benefits of Routing
• Routers provide
– Packet filtering
– Connections between local networks
– Traffic control
– Wide area network (WAN) connections
• Routers operate at the Network layer of the OSI
reference model
– Because of Network layer addressing, routers can
direct packets to both local and remote segments

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 Cisco Router User Interface
• Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS)
– Provides a command-line interface (CLI)
• Allows network operators to check the status of the
router and network administrators to manage and
configure the router
• You can access a router in several different ways
– Console port (also known as the console)
– Auxiliary port (AUX)
– Virtual terminals (VTY)
– Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server

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 Connecting via Terminal Programs

• When configuring the router through the console or

AUX ports
– You must first make the physical connection
– Then, you can access the router through a terminal
program
• Steps to configure HyperTerminal:
– Open the HyperTerminal application
– Click File on the menu bar, and then click New
Connection
– Enter a name for the connection

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 Connecting via Terminal Programs
(continued)
• Steps to configure HyperTerminal: (continued)
– Configure how you will connect to the router via the
Connect To dialog box
• If you are connecting to the router through the AUX
port, you would provide the router phone number here
• If connecting to the router through the console port,
click the “Connect using” list box and choose the COM
port to which the RJ-45 to DB-9 connector is attached
– Configure the following settings for the COM port: Bits
per second, 9600; Data bits, 8; Parity, None; Stop
bits, 1; Flow control, None

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 System Configuration Dialog

• If the router has not been configured previously, or if

the startup file has been erased
– The Cisco IOS will prompt you to run the initial
configuration dialog after the router boots
• The system configuration dialog presents a series of
prompts that guide you through the initial
configuration for the router

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 User Interface

• The initial prompt consists of two parts:

– The host name of the router followed by the greater
than symbol (>)
– Default: router>
• User EXEC mode (or user mode)
– When the prompt displayed is the greater than symbol
– Network operator can check router status and review
several of the router settings

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 User Interface (continued)

• The question mark activates context-sensitive

Help on the Cisco router
• User mode does not allow you to configure the
router
– To do this, you must go into the privileged EXEC
mode
• To enter privileged EXEC, you can type the enable
command at the user mode prompt
– Next, you may be prompted for a password
– Greater than symbol (>) changes to a pound sign (#)

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 User Interface (continued)

• You can do a few things at this prompt

– Setup: the setup command will cause the router to
enter the system configuration dialog
– Copy: configurations can be copied from TFTP
servers to the router and therefore change the router
configuration
– Erase: configuration files as well as the entire IOS can
be erased

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 Configuration Modes

• Global configuration mode

– Accessed by typing configure terminal at the enable
mode prompt
• Interface configuration mode
– Allows you to configure the Ethernet and serial
interfaces on your router
• Line configuration mode
– Allows you to configure the virtual terminals, console,
and AUX lines that let you access the router

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 Configuration Modes (continued)

• Typing exit will take you back one level

• Typing end or pressing the Ctrl+Z keys will take you
all the way back to the enable prompt
• Often, you can discover abbreviated commands by
simply trying them
– The router will show you the point at which you
entered an incorrect character

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 Configuration Modes (continued)

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 Plethora of Passwords

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

• Enable Password and Enable Secret Password

configuration
– You can set both passwords from the global
configuration mode prompt
– Because it is encrypted, the enable secret password
is more secure than the enable password
– You can type no enable secret and no enable
password at the global configuration mode prompt
• To remove the enable secret and enable passwords

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

• Setting Line passwords

– Line passwords are the first line of defense against
unauthorized intrusion into the router
– You can set passwords for each line used to
configure the router
– Configure the console line password
• Enter line configuration mode
– You can also configure passwords on the five virtual
terminal lines that exist on every router
• In much the same way as on the console port

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

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 Plethora of Passwords (continued)

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 Enhanced Editing

• By default, the router supports enhanced editing

features that allow you to modify lengthy commands
• The enhanced editing commands let you jump to the
beginning or end of a command line
• You can also jump forward or back, character by
character, or word by word
• You can turn off the enhanced editing features by
typing terminal no editing at either the user
EXEC or the privileged EXEC prompts
– You can turn on terminal editing by typing terminal
editing
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 Enhanced Editing (continued)

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 Command History

• Command history
– Allows you to retrieve previously typed commands
• You can see up to 10 previously typed commands
by typing show history
– From either the user EXEC or privileged EXEC
mode
• To modify the number of commands stored by the
router, you can use the terminal command
– Up to 256 previous commands
– Type terminal history size n

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 Configuring Router Identification

• Router host name

– Default host name is router
– To set the router host name, type hostname followed
by the name that you want to set
• Configure a banner
– A banner is a message that you can configure to
display each time someone attempts to log in to the
router
– Enter global configuration mode by typing config t
• Then type banner motd, followed by a space and a
delimiting character

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 Configuring Router Identification
(continued)

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 Configuring Router Identification
(continued)

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 Configuring Router Identification
(continued)
• Configure an interface description
– Use the description command
– The interface description helps you remember which
network the interface services

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 Configuring the Time and Date

• Use the clock set command in enable mode to

configure the time
– You must be in global configuration mode to configure
the time zone

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 Router Components

• This section discusses the hardware elements of the

router:
– ROM
– Flash memory
– NVRAM
– RAM/DRAM
– Interfaces

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 ROM

• Read-only memory (ROM)

– Loads the bootstrap program that initializes the
router’s basic hardware components
– Not modified during normal operations, but it can be
upgraded with special plug-in chips
• The content of ROM is maintained even when the
router is rebooted
• The ROM monitor firmware runs when the router is
turned on or rebooted

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 Flash Memory

• Flash memory
– A type of erasable, programmable, read-only memory
(EPROM)
– Not typically modified during normal operations
• However, it can be upgraded or erased when necessary
• The content of flash memory is maintained even
when the router is rebooted
• Flash memory
– Contains the working copy of the current Cisco IOS
– Is the component that initializes the IOS for normal
router operations
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 NVRAM

• Nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM)

– A special type of RAM that is not cleared when the
router is rebooted
• The startup configuration file for the router is stored
in NVRAM by default
– This is the first file created by the person who sets up
the router
• The Cisco IOS uses the configuration file in NVRAM
during the router boot process

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 RAM/DRAM

• Random access memory (RAM)

– Also known as dynamic random access memory
(DRAM)
– A volatile hardware component
– Its information is not maintained in the event of a
router reboot
• Changes to the router’s running configuration take
place in RAM/DRAM

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 RAM/DRAM (continued)

• The IOS contains commands to view each of the

router’s components
– show running-config
– show memory
– show buffers
– show startup-config
– Copy running-config startup-config
• Abbreviated as Copy run start

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 Interfaces
• A router can ship with a variety of configurable
interfaces
– A common interface is Ethernet0
• Other types of interfaces include:
– Token Ring
– Basic Rate Interface (BRI)
– Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
– Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
– Channel Interface Processor (CIP) for Systems
Network Architecture (SNA)
– High-Speed Serial Interface (HSSI)
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 Summary
• Cisco routers use the Cisco IOS to provide an
interface for network operators and administrators
• The first mode entered is user EXEC (router>
prompt) and the next mode is privileged EXEC
(router# prompt)
• In user EXEC, you can accomplish basic tasks
• To actually configure the router, privileged EXEC
mode must be accessed
• The privileged EXEC mode is often called enable
mode

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 Summary (continued)

• The enable, enable secret, and VTY passwords are

set during initial configuration if the system
configuration dialog is used
• When configured, the enable secret password
supersedes the enable password
• The components of a router include ROM, flash
memory, NVRAM, RAM/DRAM, and interfaces
• ROM stores a limited version of the Cisco IOS and
routines for checking the hardware during system
boot

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 Summary (continued)

• Flash memory stores the Cisco IOS that is loaded

by default during system boot
• NVRAM stores the startup copy of the router
configuration file that is loaded by default during
system boot
• RAM/DRAM stores the working copy (running
configuration) of the router configuration
• Interfaces provide connectivity to various types of
LANs and WANs

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