Onto teh basics

Step 1 - Creating a new Lab.

- Launch GNS3
- Hit File -> New project
Give a name to the project file and save it in a folder. Tick the two options 'Save NVRAM and other disk files' and 'Export router configuration files'. As you progress and make changes to the simulation. Click File -> Save to keep updating the changes. I learnt this the hard way. The first time I used GNS, I created this massive WAN topology with all kinds of routing. Different OSPF areas, (area 0, stubby, nssa, etc) eigrp routes, I had BGP routes, even route redistribution taking place. I saved the file through the menu option [File-> Save As -> Filename) and would periodically keep saving thing the file by hitting the 'save' option. After a week or so I shut the application (as I had to turn off my pc) and launched it the next day only to come upon the painful realisation that it wouldn't open and that 'save method' apparently wasn't the way it worked! There was a flaw in that particular version of GNS3 (0.5) where I had to create the project first and then save it.

I vividly remember expressing my sheer frustration to the developers of GNS3 at the time because so much was lost. I told them how bad their documentation was considering there was absolutely no mention of this. The result of hours of work had gone into nothingness. I later came to know that they fixed it in the next version and as you'll notice now in the current version (0.7 at the time of writing) that whenever you launch GNS3 you will prompted with the 'New Project' box. This is that particular one.

Step 2 - Enhancing GNS3

Now we need a console manager to of-course use the IOS on our switches and routers. Initially when GNS3 came out, the documentation for it was so piss poor, guys like me had to literally try out all options to figure out how it all worked. Luckily, now with it getting more popular and everything it's a lot more easily available (thanks to documentation such as this... heh.. jokes. Just makin' my self feel better in-case this goes nowhere.)

- Download the latest version of TeraTerm from http://en.sourceforge.jp/projects/ttssh2/ (Latest version at the time of writing = Tera Term Pro 2.3)

- Do a full installation in your home drive. Eg: C:\Program Files (x86)\15 - Cisco\teraterm

- In GNS3, click on 'Edit' under the menu bar and choose 'Preferences'. The 'General' window shows up where you notice the option for 'Terminal command:' underneath which lies the path to the putty exe file. Replace the default path to the putty.exe with 'C:\Program Files (x86)\15 - Cisco\teraterm\ttermpro.exe' (using above example) keeping the '-telnet %h %p' after it as it is.

- Press 'OK' or 'apply' for the changes to take effect.
This replaces putty with the much better performing, sleeker looking Terra Term.

Step 3 - Tweaking the Terra Term GUI; MATRIX Style. [Optional]

- To illustrate this with an example, we'll need to add two routers or two switches, basically any device requiring the use of Tera Term to telnet across. Add them into the GNS3 simulation and connect them with the appropriate links (i.e: crossover cable if they're both same and straight-through if they're different. Should be knowing that else I'd suggest pulling that ICND 1 book from the shelf and going back to revising the CCENT)

-In this example I have chosen two routers. Right click on the router/s/switch/es, choose 'start'. This turns the router on. The green light depicts the POST process to be successful and the router successfully establishing layer 1 connectivity. Right click again on a router and choose 'Console'. This opens up Tera Term.

- Click 'Setup' -> 'Window'. Here we want the normal text to be green in color and URL-text to be white in color, both on a black background. To do this, choose the 'Background' option and click 'Reverse'. This inverts the current default font/background color selection and makes the latter black.

- Click back on the 'Text' bullet and move the 'R' and 'B' bars to 0, to the extreme left to make the text green in color as it currently is set for the URL option. Now, choose 'URL' for the 'Attribute' option and make the background color black by moving all 3 bars to ‘0’ and text color white by moving the 'R' and 'G' bars to the extreme right to a value of ‘255’ and moving 'B' to a value of ‘240’. This sets the URL-text to a font color of white, which was by default set as the font color for normal text.

- Press 'OK' for the changes to take effect.

- Click ‘Setup’ -> ‘Save Setup’ and save by overwriting the existing TERATERM .ini file located in the installation folder.
Now we're all set to go. This establishes the base-ground work needed to set your lab up. From here you can start building your project on. Since I've already given my BSCI exam, in the next chapter we'll start off the basic switching configuration and adding VLAN's, configuring trunk links, establishing VTP, etc. Basically a good revision of the CCNA (v5).

Depending on how this 'Blog project' of mine works out and whether it does help keep me updated with my skills or enhance them through further gain in troubleshooting techniques, or help any other CCNA's out there, I will then decide if it's best to continue a similar trend for the BSCI.

Till then, I hope this helps any Cisco candidates that are studying for their certification out there, or anyone else interested in its technology.