Cisco Packet Tracer mini activity

[Ch Teo]

Hi Cisco community members,

I'm a student currently studying and learning about networks fundamentals so basically a beginner and would like some help or advise on my mini activity. 

Allow me to put up a screenshot of the activity.

The activity needs to be able to access both HQ & Branch website from either network and I'm able to access both from the network on the left side. But on the right side I can't access the branch website.

I tried pinging from the right side network to the left side. The most i can reach from the right network is up till the ISP side which is 70.70.70.0

It would be appreciated if someone could advise me on it.

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi @Ch Teo 

 I can suggest you a few things to check but it is much more easy if you share the file here and I can open and check. I will tell exactly whats wrong.

 Just zip the file before attach

[Ch Teo]

@Flavio Miranda First of all thank you for your response.

I have attached and zip the file as suggested, do take a look at it.

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi @Ch Teo 

  The attached file is working, you can test. Let me explain what I have found.

First, the option for a Wireless Router on the Branch is not a good option because this PacketTracer Linksys router does not allow ping from outside to inside. They allow only from inside to ouside.  This is the first reason you was able to ping the HQ but not the other way around.

 I repleaced the Lindsys for another router and it is now working.

A second problem was that the network 192.168.91.0/24 was not known by HQ. As it was behind the Linksys and this router does not allow RIP protocol or add static routes, it was not propagating the network 192.168.91.0/24 to the next router which is the ISP router.

  When I replaced the Linksys by a 2811 router I could add RIP protocol on the 2811, but I didn´t. Because usually small offices like Branches does not use dynamic routing protocol with ISPs. Instead, I put a default route on the 2811 sending all the traffic to the ISP router.

But, we still have the problem of the HQ does not know the network 192.168.91.0/24. To fix that, I added a static route on the ISP router like this

ip route 192.168.91.0 255.255.255.0 70.70.70.155

Which means, sending the return traffic to network 192.168.91.0/24 to the Branch router. And I add an additional command on the RIP config for ISP router

router rip

redistribute static

With that command, now the HQ router learn through the RIP protocol that to reach the network 192.168.91.0/24 it needs to send the packet to ISP router. And the ISP router knows that it must send to the Branch router via static route.

This is it. Hopefully I was clear enough but if I was not, just ask.

[Ch Teo]

Hi @Flavio Miranda,

I have tried your solution and it works.

But I'm sorry for not stating that the activity requires me to not modified the Internet cluster portion or add another device. Therefore, I have to stick to this setup for this activity. nonetheless, I appreciate your detailed explanation it really helps me understand.

But from what my lecturer taught us was that we have to add in the IP address of the webserver on the wireless router GUI and we would be able to go into the website from outside network, but I tried from the HQ PC and was prompt with a request timeout.

Overall my activity requires me to be able to access both websites from both networks.

Wireless Router GUIHQ laptop unable to access www.branch.com

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi @Ch Teo 

 Let me check another solution.

[Flavio Miranda]

@Ch Teo  If there´s a solution I will wait for it and ask to kindly share here.

The way I see it, you need to change something on the topology. I may agree that the Linksys could be there but the routing config is not ok, that´s for sure.

 I added static routes on the R1 and HQ Router sending the traffic to the ISP but the ISP does not know how to handle the traffic, as it does not know where the network is.

When I ping from HQ to Branch, I get this response.

C:\>ping 192.168.91.94

Pinging 192.168.91.94 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 80.80.80.1: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 80.80.80.1: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 80.80.80.1: Destination host unreachable.

Reply from 80.80.80.1: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.91.94:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

This is the ISP router telling us " I have no clue where the network 192.168.91.0 is".

  If I can not say to him where the network is, the communication will never happen.

[Flavio Miranda · Accepted solution]

@Ch Teo 

 I have found the solution. The Linksys router must have a port redirect from external IP address 70.70.70.155 to the internal server 192.168.91.94.

As the ISP is able to get to the 70.70.70.155, all you need to do is change the DNS server to resolve the URL

www.branch.com to the IP address 70.70.70.155.

[Ch Teo]

Hi @Flavio Miranda,

Appreciate you taking the time and effort to assist me on my activity.

I can't believe i miss out on that small little detail but in the end, I did learn something from the experience. There I was thinking that the DNS side must include the actual IP of the web server.

But your explanation was clear enough to let me understand it. Once again thank you for your assistance.

[Flavio Miranda]

You are welcome. It took me sometime to understand also.