CISCO PACKET TRACER ip configuring, router/switch

[Sofiacantera@gmail.com]

Hey, I'm doing a project where I need to connect 5 pc's, 3 to a router and the other 2 to another. The routers have to be connected to a server. And I also need to conect a printer to the router with 3 pc's, and two to the other. All the videos I find on YouTube connect the pc's and the routers with a swtich in between, but my teacher said no switch is needed, but he also refuses to explain why cause he wants me to understand by myself and all that but I really can't find an answer/explanation, so what im asking here is: Do i need a switch in between? If so, why?

pd: i need to configure static ip directions, to the pc's , should i create subnetworks? Sorry if the questions don't make sense, I really do not understand about this and it doesn't help that English isn't my first language either. Anyways thanks!

[jeetkulkarni]

Hi Sofia,

Your teacher might mean in literal sense that switch is not required but will need a switch as it acts like a cable connector from router to the PCs. As router has only got one link going out. You can also have a layer 3 switch like the Multilayer switch 3560s which has routing capability by issuing global command for #<config>ip routing

Hope this helps.

Please rate useful posts.

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hola Sofia,

You don't need a switch if you have available ports on the router unless you need the computers on the same subnet so you need a switch to create a VLAN and add the computer to that vlan. Each router's interface represents a broadcast domain in few words it is used for different subnets. 

Other option to discard a switch is use ether-switch module (it will have switchports so you can assign VLANs like a switch)  on the router and configure VLANs, Packet tracer includes this module. Please see the attachment.

Now if you are going to communicate the Router 1's networks with Router 2's networks you need to configure static routing or dynamic routing protocols like RIPv2, EIGRP, OSPF.

:-)

[Julio E. Moisa]

Once installed the module, you need to create the SVI (interface vlan), so you can assign a vlan to the switchport and connect the PCs on each port.

You will see the ports like:

interface FastEthernet0/3/0

switchport access vlan 10

switchport mode access

!

interface FastEthernet0/3/1

switchport mode access

!

interface FastEthernet0/3/2

switchport mode access

!

interface FastEthernet0/3/3

switchport mode access

interface Vlan10

mac-address 000b.bedc.1d01

ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0

Now configuring routing, you could configure EIGRP on both routers

router eigrp 100
no auto-summary
network 192.168.10.0 0.0.0.255

And if you are using for example the vlan 20 on the router 2, and you have installed the module and configured the SVI 20 with network 192.168.20.0/24, you could have:

router eigrp 100
no auto-summary
network 192.168.20.0 0.0.0.255