Hi Joe, are you using SNAT? Normally, when the servers and VIP are in the same subnet, SNAT is necessary to prevent the traffic from bypassing the ACE. Regards, Steve ... View more

Hi, the ACE is not changing the behaviour, it's the client's browser. It does appear that the ACE is changing the POST to a GET but isn't. As an example, a client browser sends a POST and the ACE receives the POST. For a redirect, the ACE responds back to the client with either a 301 or 302 code. Here's where everything goes sideways .... The client browser receives the redirect code, but this isn't what it is expecting to receive from a POST. In turn, the client browser now sends a GET back to the ACE. The ACE receives the GET and forwards onto the load balanced servers that, in turn, aren't expecting this. Application fails because of this. Regards, Steve ... View more

Hi, VPN & other software utilities can interfere with the TCP/IP stack on your machine and result in Wireshark not capturing the traffic properly. I experienced this when Checkpoint VPN software was loaded on the m/c I was using ... as soon as it was disabled, Wireshark captured all traffic. Something to look into. Cheers, Steve ... View more

Hi,   although I haven't used the drawing portion of Open Office, it's a free download and you can try it to see if it provides the features you're looking for.  As mentioned, best to log into devices to see what is connected to what to develop your diagrams.   Cheers,   Steve ... View more

Hi Marco, another Cisco doc that covers a lot of explanations: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6600/products_white_paper09186a00800a3e16.shtml In order to do a design, you need to understand the requirements first. Questions regarding number of VLANs, devices, Users, is Internet or wireless access required, what about firewalls? etc. vs the budget. A 3-layer architecture may be a pipe dream if you don't have the budget. And, if you don't have the budget, you have to work around that. What are you going to do then?? I realize this is a Case Study but coming up with a design that doesn't meet the requirements (b/c you never asked for them) won't get you too far. If you haven't been given the requirements as part of your Case Study, ask for them. Otherwise, you have to come up with a lot of assumptions and be prepared to defend your design based on your assumptions. If you choose to use an IPv4 design, you may be challenged as to why you didn't go with IPv6 and vice versa. Something to think about while going over these documents. Cheers, Steve ... View more

Hi, Lei Tan is probably leading you in the right direction ... what are the phones actually marked at?? Some of the older Avaya phones are rebranded Nortel phones.Nortel mark using COS6. If that's the case, trusting DSCP on the port the phone connects to won't help - you'd need to trust COS and then do a COS-DSCP map to change COS 6 to be EF (46) and then all ports beyond could trust DSCP. Let us know what you find. Cheers, Steve ... View more

Hi, depending upon the requirements, just activate what you need  - there's no advantage to connecting unused ports to switches. This would just be an unnecessary expense in terms of extra switches, power and cooling. Add new switches as you need them. Getting a future projection on how the site will expand is one question, getting an accurate response is a totally different matter. ;-) Pre-cabling all 4 is usually a good move since the cost to re-cable after the fact will probably be double. Can't assist on the Telephony query other than to say, it may be wise to use separate VLANs/subnets for voice. ... View more

Hi, we typically will plan to use 44 ports out of a 48 port switch when planning new implementations. That's a bit less than 10%.for port capacity. In terms of IP addressing the 28 - 35% seems reasonable since, with virtual IP requirements you probably need more addresses than you would switch ports. Rather than percentages, we reserve network subnets based on regions and try to be as efficient as possible in assigning the subnets. i.e. a point-to-point connection only gets a /30 subnet. Small offices may only get a /25 which is further subnetted for data, voice and wireless networks. We never assign more than a /24 for any User/Server subnet so some larger floors may actually have more than 1 data VLAN. Hope this helps, Steve ... View more

Hi Pankaj , in the simplest terms, a token is passed from one device to another - no device can transmit data without being the holder of the token. Once the transmission is completed, the device releases the token. If a device receives the token but has no data to transmit, it will release it for the next device. Token Ring has been left behind since it wasn't a very scalable technology compared to Ethernet. Not aware of anyone using Token Ring these days - any companies I worked for converted to Ethernet back in the early 2000s. ... View more

Hi, you may have an authentication string mismatch. Run "debug ip ospf events" and you should see if that is the case. If there is a mismatch, no routes will show up in the table. HTH, Steve ... View more

Hi, 8.27 could also be referring to a DMZ firewalled environment. ... View more

Hi Mheick, since this is part of a hiring process, I don't believe this is the proper forum to ask for assistance. The potential employer wants to know what you would do. Collaboration and team work are very important elements in the work environment but not for job placement. However,  researching on the web or this forum to find useful information is all you need to do to develop your own solution. And, if a company is expecting this as part of the hiring process, expect to be grilled over your RFP - if you can't validate your RFP and defend your choices ......... Best of luck. Regards, Steve ... View more