All language subtitles for 08 - Cisco Foundations - Configuring a Cisco Device - Programs and Console Connections-eng

>> Okay. So I'm standing here getting ready to
start this nugget, which you can see the title,

"Configuring A Cisco Device -
Programs and Console Connections."

And I'm reading that title to myself,
looking at it; and as I read it,

I'm like that is so anti-climatic just
looking at that title because everything

that this nugget right here represents
is, like, action, you know to where, yes,

we're going to be looking at how
we connect to our Cisco device

and configure it using a console connection,
using this serial rollover cable and all that.

But -- but it's like -- like the
image -- if I could draw it up here.

The image that I get in my mind is this
big, white slate with this big button

in the middle, and it just says "go."

You know? Like, for instance, if you ever walk
in an IT room, a lot of upper end IT rooms

for companies all over the place will
have the -- the halide to where --

where if there's a fire in the IT room, you
hit this big, old, red button on the wall;

and what happens is -- well, honestly, I've
never been in a room where we've hit the button.

But -- but what happens is essentially halide,

which is kind of like dry fire
extinguisher, will drop from the ceiling.

All the power goes out.

I mean, it's like a takedown everything button
and just dump halide on everything; but it --

you know, it keeps your equipment
from getting drenched with water.

So that's the goal.

So every time you walk into the IT room and
you see one -- I mean, it's so luscious.

Like, you're looking at this
big, old, red button on the wall.

It's got the -- you know, the glass case over
it and all that; and it -- you just want to --

I mean, it's totally -- like
every IT person envisions, like,

a slow emotion made-for-TV movie where
they're running in there and they're like,

"no," and they hit, they actually
get to push the big button.

So anyway, all of that leads up
to this: This is the big button.

Like as we move into this nugget, yes,
we're going to be getting connected;

but this is the big button
that launches us into Cisco.

Now, I know that some of you are thinking,
well, haven't we been doing Cisco all this time.

Well, yes; but "Concepts,
my dear Watson, concepts."

What we're about to move
into is the -- the fun part.

And I -- I always bit my tongue as I said that.

It's not that the concepts aren't fun.

It's awesome to be able to get
it, and you have to have that.

I mean, obviously, if you don't understand
what you're doing, you can't get anywhere;

but the fun part of Cisco is in
actually doing it and doing a roll out.

You know, getting everything
working -- working correctly.

It's like architecture.

Right? You can -- you can draw up plans
all day; but until somebody, you know,

hammers the first board into
place, nothing really takes effect.

So that's what we are -- and this
is -- this is board number one,

getting the nail in on configuring
our Cisco device.

Console connections are what allow
us to configure the Cisco device.

So first things first.

What is a console connection?

Well, every Cisco device has one.

It is a console port.

It's often -- I've -- matter of fact, I've
never seen one that's not labeled with kind

of this lightish [phonetic], bluish -- I'm sure
my wife would know exactly what color that is --

but this lightish, bluish console color.

It is an RJ45 jack, which is the same
exact cable tip as Ethernet uses.

However, you don't plug a
normal Ethernet cable into it.

You use what's called a "console" cable.

Now, some people will call them rollover cables
because -- you might have made cables before.

Maybe that was part of your history.

If not, I encourage you to go
out there and just crimp a cable.

It's a rite of passage.

But when you make cables, inside
there are eight individual wires.

And you can make what's called
a "straight through."

I talked about this, yes?

Yes, I did.

A straight through or a crossover
cable where you kind of --

you know, on each side of the connections, you
flip those wires in different ways so the send,

which most people will write TX, and receive,
which is RX, pins will end up matching up.

So when one device, let's say it's a computer
over here, communicates to the other side,

they're able to talk because their
pins line up for transmit and receive.

And whatever this guy transmits, this guy is
matched to receive; and this guy transmits,

and this guy is matched to -- so that's
-- that's a normal Ethernet cable.

So I say all that to say these
are not normal Ethernet cables.

They are considered rollover, to
where if there's eight pins in there,

one through eight -- man,
my -- I just have a fat pin.

Hang on. I have to skinny this guy up.

All right.

So if -- so if I've got eight pins over
there and I've got over on on this side,

this is one through eight, I actually
roll them to where Pin 1 matches to Pin 8,

Pin 2 to Pin 7, Pin 3 to Pin 6, Pin 4 to Pin 5.

So literally, if I were to cut this
off and put an Ethernet cable --

or Ethernet net tip on the side,
that's what you would see is all

of these pins are actually rolled over.

And this is the older style of connection
that was -- that used to be shipped.

Now, it looks like -- you're like,
okay, one's blue, one's black.

What's the difference?

Well, in this one, this is a
-- a little snap-on adapter,

to where the cable itself,
this -- this is RJ45 here.

I will just put "45."

It actually -- if I look
behind there, it is RJ45.

It just clips into this serial
adapter because back in the day --

I don't know if you go back this far, but
every time I would buy a Cisco device,

it would always come with two of these.

You would have the big 20
-- What was it, 25 pin?

-- 25 pin serial connector.

Now some of you might be like,
is that like a printer port.

No, that's parallel.

There's actually -- there was
a 25-pin serial connector.

You use it for like scanners
and stuff like that.

And then there's the nine
pin, which is what this is.

Excuse me.

But the -- the 25 pin had, you know -- so
they would ship you an RG45 and you would put

on the adapter, whatever your computer went.

So as 25-pin eventually disintegrated
and nobody used that anymore,

that's when I started seeing these cables come
out to where Cisco would just ship them as a --

you know, the nine-pin serial adapter
would be integrated into the cable.

That was probably about seven years ago
or so I first started seeing those cables.

So -- so they been out for a while.

Now -- now the funny thing is nine pin,
who -- who has a serial port anymore?

Nobody. Everything's getting
skinnier and skinnier and skinnier.

I mean, like take a MacBook Air or laptop,
where are you going to put a serial port?

So that's where this guy comes in.

Most of the time if you have a modern
device, modern desktop, modern laptop,

they've eliminated the serial ports.

You're going to need to go
buy a USB-to-serial adapter.

And I don't know if I've brought it up in
this series yet; but the best play to go --

place to go for these guys -- or
I should say the cheapest place

to go is actually monoprice.com.

What an amazing vendor.

They're actually over in California.

They're one state away from me.

And the -- I would say the biggest -- of
course, this place has super cheap prices.

Best thing -- best thing you can get from --
from this place is -- let's see where we were?

Networking -- Cat 6 or Cat 5 network cables.

I mean, you find just amazing prices.

Just to give you an idea, I went to
Fry's Electronics just because I forgot

to order some before I was doing a deployment.

And I picked up some 7-foot cables, and they
were 6 99 a cable, $6.99; and it's like I had

to buy them, had to buy eight of them.

I'm like, are you kidding me, you know,
as I'm walking out of Fry's Electronics.

You know I could have got these for
a $1.67 if I bought one, you know.

If I bought whatever, 20, $1.58.

So anyway, I'm not trying to sell you monoprice.

I should get some kind of cut for how much I
send those people, but they have USB to serial.

They have some of the cheapest
USB-to-serial adapters -- maybe this guy.

USB. Yeah, that's right.

So the cheapest USB-to-serial
adapters I've ever seen.

Normally, these things are, you know, 20,
30 bucks if you go to a Fry's Electronics.

So anyway, this is -- this is where
I would send you is to monoprice.com.

Pick up -- pick up some of those, and
that will give you your USB connection.

Now, over -- where's my pen?

Over here, this is new, where Cisco
devices are now starting to come

in where they have a console
port that uses the normal RJ45;

but are giving you a direct USB option as well.

That's probably going to be the future.

Now, it's going to take a long time
for it to get there and a long time

for the new cable types to permeate the market
that will allow you to do this; but, you know,

the brand new Cisco devices
are all having this --

this direct USB connection, you know, some day.

And will it be within the next ten years?

I don't know.

But some day that RJ45J will be gone.

It will probably be within the next ten years
because these -- these things are going away.

The things that come to me when I pause

to change slides a lot of
times, it's just profound.

I'm just sitting there going, okay, so
I've described a console connection.

That's the rollover cable.

And I'm like, oh, wait a second,
did I tell you what this is for?

What this is for is how to configure your
Cisco device when you pull it out of the box.

I mean, when you pull it out of the
box, it doesn't have an IP address.

You don't have a way of getting
in there and managing it.

Most Cisco devices -- unless you buy

like the small business kind
-- don't have like a default.

You know, if you go to the store and buy
like a NETGEAR or a D-link thing off of --

off of the shelf, it has a default IP address.

It will have a DHCP server where it's
handing out IP addresses for you to use.

It's kind of got a little base
configuration to get you started.

Not so in the Cisco world.

Cisco most of the time will
have nothing on there.

So you -- so this -- this is how
you configure your device initially.

Now a lot of people will actually
call this Out Of Band management.

The reason they call it that is because you're
not actually crossing the production network

or anything to configure this.

I mean you could -- you could walk into any IT
room -- this is an older switch -- find a --

wow, looks like a 1900, but we
will say a little newer than that.

Find a -- find a Cisco device, plug into
the console port with your laptop sitting

on your knee or on a desk nearby
you; and start configuring it.

It's -- it's out of band.

You're not actually telenetting
to it or using SSH.

You're not -- you're not working
remotely or anything like that.

Now, where this is going
-- or I'm going with this,

with this out of band management is
a lot people will get access servers.

So envision this: You walk into a company,

they don't just usually have
a switch sitting on a desk.

There's usually a rack of equipment where they
have lots and lots and lots of Cisco devices.

There's your Cisco firewalls.

There's your Cisco switches.

There's your Cisco routers, and all the
different devices sitting inside of this rack,

a lot of companies as they grow
will have one device that they'll --

they'll know is their access server.

And what it is is it's a lot of times a
Cisco router equipped with special interfaces

that have -- a lot of times you will hear
people refer to octal cables, which is the cable

with eight individual -- that's the octo,
eight, individual tips that come out it;

and it plugs into the console
port of each one of those devices.

So this device -- this access server allows
you to be sitting in Hawaii on a beach,

and you can actually telnet into
this and get to the console port

of each Cisco device in the rack.

And you might say, okay.

Great. Why?

Why? I mean, like, what's the point of that?

Can't I -- can't I just telnet that straight
to the firewall or straight to the switch?

Well, a lot of times, yes, you can; but
there's some things you just can't do

from a telnet connection.

For example, you can't watch a
device boot from a telnet connection.

Think about it.

If you reboot the device, it goes down.

You lose your telnet connection,
but the beauty of being plugged

into the console port is you
actually get to watch a device boot.

It's a -- think of it like a computer.

You ever work on a relative's computer or
a friend's computer sitting at their house,

you know, you'll do like log me in or go to
my PC or join.me session or whatever kind

of remote access thing you do so
that you're able to see their screen.

But there's always that --
that hold your breath point

where you're like, "Okay,
I need you to reboot it".

Immediately when they reboot,
you lose your connection.

And they're like okay, yeah, I saw
some stuff fly across on the screen.

Well, what did it say?

I don't know.

It's just.

It's just stuff.

Well, what did it say that's key.

I need that information.

Well, it's the same thing
with these Cisco devices.

A lot of times you reboot them,
you lose your remote session.

That's where the access server comes in.

I can actually watch it boot.

I can -- I can even upgrade the software.

I mean, there's a lot I'm able to do
if I can get to this thing out of band.

So here's how you do it: Get a console cable.

Cisco devices come with console cables.

If you're -- you're a little
creative, you can make your own.

You can actually make a rollover cable.

I showed you, you know, Pin
1, 2, 3 match to 8, 7, 6, 5.

I mean, you can make your own
cable, go buy a serial adapter.

You know, it's -- you can
-- you can buy them online

like if you go to Ebay if you don't have one.

But just note you shouldn't pay more
than a dollar for a console cable.

I mean, they're -- I -- I went on there
when I was preparing for this nugget,

and I saw somebody selling
a console cable for $19.

I'm like "Good grief.

What are these people doing?"

Searching for somebody who
doesn't know what they're doing.

So -- so console cables,
comes with every Cisco device.

Plug that into the back of your PC.

If you are lucky enough to still have
-- [laughter] -- I just had this --

if you're lucky enough to still have a
serial port, then you're probably unlucky

because you need an upgraded computer.

But you can just plug straight in.

That's the benefit.

Otherwise, you have to set up a USB-to-serial
connection and then physically plug

into the RJ45 end of the console port.

Now, most Cisco devices, the
console port will be on the back --

kind of hesitate because I'm looking --

I'm looking here at the two Cisco
devices sitting in front of me.

Actually, let me -- let me kick
on the camera because I think

at this stage seeing a lot
of this is -- is good.

I've actually got three Cisco-- three Cisco,
not two, three Cisco devices in front of me.

Two of them are -- these are Cisco 2620.

Twenty-six -- no 2621XM devices.

So you can see if -- and let
me zoom this a little closer.

Right here, these two yellow ports,
those are going to be fast Ethernet.

Again, the Cisco's scheme on
color is very standardized.

Anytime you see yellow, that's
like a working router interface.

So -- so fast Ethernet 0
slash 0 is sitting right here.

We'll talk about the modules in just a second.

Zero slash one is here.

Then -- and this is -- you're
going, what is that.

I lost the plate that goes there.

[laughter] Right next to
that I see a console port.

That's the light blue one
we've been talking about.

That's where I would plug into.

And then an auxiliary port.

Auxiliary ports, you'll see them on
-- not all Cisco devices have them.

But I'll get -- usually routers have them.

Auxiliary is -- think of it like another kind
of console port, but it's designed for a modem.

Like, if you want to plug
a modem into this device,

primarily for remote access,
that's where you would put it.

So I've got two of these devices right here.

And then I looked up; and I'm like, oh, well,
so these are -- these are on the back like on --

well, I can't really flip them around.

But on the other side of that device
is the front; so there's the back.

So this is a Cisco UC520, where the
front of the device is everything.

The power goes into the back.

So right here you see yellow all the way across.

Anything yellow is not console.

So this -- this is a swouter [phonetic]
[laughter] and it's a switch and a router.

It actually has a switch
built into it right here.

And over to the left here is
that light blue console port.

So that would work -- be
where I connect on this.

So here's the back of these
devices, the front of this device.

You know, it's not really consistent.

Most of the time on switches,
which is this device right here,

you're going to find the console port
on the back of it, not on the front.

So don't -- don't plug the
console port in up here.

It won't damage it or anything
like that, but you will feel silly.

Routers, you will find it wherever
all the rest of the interfaces are.

Okay. So I now have the console cable
plugged into the serial port of my computer.

Check. I've got the other end going to
that blue console port on the Cisco device.

Check. Now what?

Well, now we have to get a terminal program.

Because everything that you do in the
Cisco world is command-line based.

Actually, let me put a little sidebar
into this just to give you a heads up.

Cisco is primarily a command-line
configured device --

or I'll say command-line
driven company if you will,

with secondarily graphic
interface, GUIs that are out there.

And there are GUIs that can manage
Cisco devices like the Cisco SDM

or the Cisco ASDM for their firewalls.

These -- these are kind of web-based
or java-based graphic devices.

However, you're never going to be able
to do as much as you can through a GUI

as you can through the command line.

You just don't have the flexibility
with point and click interfaces.

Now -- now I will say there are other
companies out there, a lot of them,

who are primarily graphic based or
GUI based, kind of point and click,

with their secondary being
command line; where --

where their command line isn't to standardize.

It's not as pretty or anything like
that, but they have a nice GUI up front.

So there are advantages to both,
but we are in the Cisco world;

so we're going to be sticking
at the command line level.

Now all of these programs you see on
the screen -- my sidebar is over --

are command line configuration
tools for console connections.

I'm going to label them real quick.

Little F's.

Now these F's are not because they fail.

[laughter] But the F means free.

Like you can just go anywhere and download these
programs for free on your -- your computer.

So I mean just to give you an example,
let's start off with PuTTY at the top.

I'm going to go to -- let's bust out Google
and do "PuTTY" in my search; and right there,

the first link is PuTTY download page.

I just come here and click on PuTTY.exe;
and bam, I have a program that I can use.

It's a really good program that I can use
to handle my console, my serial connections.

Now, the beauty of PuTTY -- I will say
the advantage of PuTTY is its simplicity.

I mean, you saw right there any device that has
an Internet connection, I download it; I run it.

It's not an install program.

It just runs from whatever --
it's an all-in-one executable.

I can telnet.

I can have SSH.

And over here on the right-hand side
I have my serial port connection.

Now, there are a lot of other programs that
give you tons of serial options and so on;

but really what PuTTY presents
to you is the main thing

that you need, what comport and what speed.

Now, you can see down here I have serial where
can I go further, where we've got our data bits,

stop bits, flow control, all that kind of stuff.

Now, coming back over here, this is
Cisco's recommended serial configuration,

like how you want to run your serial port.

First off is the comport.

Now, you say, well, how I do know that?

Well, if have you a built in -- if you have
a built-in serial port on your computer,

most of the time it's going to be
COM1, that's just how things are.

However, when you -- when you get that USB to
serial adapter, it's like a box of chocolates:

You never know what you're going to get.

Best way to figure it out
is go to your computer.

I'm in Windows world.

Right? I right click on "computer" and go to
"manage" because I'm after the device manager.

And right up top I'm going
to click on "device manager."

Over here ports, COM, and LPT.

And I look and I go, Ah, okay.

So it gave my USB-to-serial
adapter a COM4 identifier.

So I'll go in there and say, okay.

Well then, I'm going to adjust my -- my comport.

I can do it from here, or I can
do it from the main one to COM4.

Now -- now you can see right here
data bits eight, stop bits one,

which I can see reflected right here.

Flow control, you can see
by default is Xon, Xoff.

That's a way for a serial port
to tell something to slow down.

You can put it to none.

I find if you live it on Xon, Xoff, it
usually works; but same time what you see

on the right-hand side is Cisco's suggestion.

You a lot of times see it
written as 9600, 8, and 1N.

Now, I've brought up PuTTY right here.

And you look and you're like,
okay, nothing is happening.

What -- what's the scoop?

Get my camera out here.

I can tell you nothing's happening
because it's not plugged in.

Now, if -- as soon as I plug this
device in -- get my power cord --

you can see that PuTTY is
starting to give me output.

This -- what we're actually watching
is the boot process of a Cisco device.

Now, a couple things on that, when -- when
you saw that black screen when you open it,

that's normal, even for a
device that is running.

It's not like Cisco devices are constantly
just spewing out information for you

to stare at coming out the console port.

So a lot of times when you first plug in
and connect to even a running Cisco device,

you'll just be staring at a blank
screen going, Okay, what do I do.

The best thing is to just click in
the window and press the "enter" key,

which will bring up the prompt or have you
get to a login or -- or whatever the case is.

Now, I didn't plan on this;
but what a great time to talk

about the boot process of a Cisco device.

What you're watching -- I want
you to glance at the screen --

did you see this, all of this
action here that happened?

That is -- that is the Cisco device
copying its IOS image from flash,

meaning it has flash memory,
which is slow but stable, meaning,

if the power goes out, it doesn't lose itself.

But what it does when it's going
through this little boot process

up here is it's actually
copying the contents of flash.

Like -- like here's the Cisco device -- copying
the contents of flash and moving that into ram,

into running memory, and actually
decompressing at the same time.

So -- so the IOS image, the software of
Cisco is sitting there compressed in flash.

And as it copies it up into
the RAM, it decompresses.

Now, the boot process of a Cisco device
can be anywhere from -- and you're --

I know right now you're looking going,
Ah, what's happening, it's broken.

It's not broken.

It's just giving you all the status
messages that -- you'll get used to that.

It's normal on -- on boot.

What was I talking about?

Oh, so everything runs in RAM.

Now -- okay.

I was saying the boot process of a Cisco
device can take anywhere from, what was that --

maybe -- maybe a minute and a half or so, 90
seconds, maybe 60 seconds, all the way up to --

I have, for instance, sitting here
in my pile down here is some 2621XMs,

which I know if I power those guys on,
I've got the advanced to enterprise IOS,

which is almost every feature you can support.

I mean, the boot of those guys
takes five to six minutes.

And I tell you that because that --
if you have a network down situation,

that five to six minutes can feel like
five to six years, because I mean that --

that's a major outage if
a Cisco device goes down.

So reboots of these devices shouldn't be
done, you know, during business hours.

It should always be scheduled.

But that -- that -- that's the boot process.

So -- so what we saw was it actually
copying the IOS from flash into RAM.

Now we're able to work with it.

Now, you know, I can type whatever I want to.

You know, press the "enter" key.

It's -- you know, it's my command line base.

I'm going to get in all the
commands a little bit.

One of the things that I do
want to mention is the speed

of the console port on Cisco
devices is 9600 baud.

Now, that's like a slow modem.

So if you're getting a lot of output like
you saw -- for instance, let me get into here

and do a -- it's called a show, run, and config,
where I can actually watch the run and config.

Now, you can actually almost as I'm
scrolling that down -- you can almost --

your eyes can almost see that -- I know, it's
fast -- but almost see that content go by.

Compared to seeing that over a telnet
or SSH session, it's very slow.

So if you are looking to get gobs of information
in or out of your device, 9600 baud is painful.

Now, you can change that speed on a
console port; but most people don't care

because not many people manage it eternally
or indefinitely over the console port.

They'll telnet or SSH, at which
point that output is a lot faster.

Instead of being able to see it
scroll just like you saw right there,

it is -- it's like zip, zip, zip.

I mean, the whole page fills
at once kind of thing.

I mean, all the output is done.

So -- so that is PuTTY.

Tera term is actually -- that's the
one I've been using in the videos.

So PuTTY advantage, it's got a lot of features.

It's free.

You just -- you download it.

It's an all in one.

You don't have to install anything.

Tera term is actually what
I've been using up 'til now.

Actually, have I done any config?

This is what I use for most of my recordings.

It installs.

It's another free one that you can download.

The advantage of Tera term that I
like is how clean you can make it.

I like being able to eliminate
the menu bars, you know, like --

like all it is is a black
window and my green font.

I love the color green for some
reason when I'm configuring.

So I can -- I can kind of -- this is just
-- I just like a clean window sometimes.

So if I'm doing trainings like I'm doing
now or demonstrations, which, you know,

you might end up doing for people as you
learn more of Cisco, I like Tera term just

because it's -- there's no distractions.

I'm right into the config.

Hyperterm, don't use it.

Hyperterm came with Windows and
Windows 2000, Windows '95, Windows '98.

I mean, all those ones.

It's just not a fun program;
but if you must, it's there.

The one that comes with Windows is buggy.

And Microsoft didn't want to
pay the author to fix them.

They -- by the way, Microsoft
did not write Hyperterm.

They got it from somebody else.

So you can -- I think it's Hillgrave, yeah.

The author's name -- last name is Hillgrave.

If you Google "Hyperterm," you'll
find Hillgrave.com or something.

He has Hyperterm Private Edition, which
is free for people that aren't Microsoft.

And it fixes all the bugs if you --
if you really want to uses Hyperterm.

Minicom, only one I put -- reason I put
on there is this is a good Linux one.

Or for those of you that are using Apple, Apple
computers have Minicom or you can download it

onto there because it's a Linux
foundation, a free BSD port.

So -- so that's one that
you can use on that side.

This one, notice it's the
only one without the F flag.

It is not free.

Typical price is $99 for the standard user.

It works on Windows and Apple; and once
you use it, you will never go back.

Secure CRT, if you are in
Cisco for the long haul,

you will want to either have your company
buy this or you will buy it yourself.

It does, I mean, tabbed browsing.

It's got every -- it can record
everything that you're doing.

It does scripting.

You can have it automatically log in.

For example, instead of having
to type user names and passwords,

you can have it run a script at log
in -- not that I recommend this --

but automatically types in all the passwords
that you need so you're just sitting

where you need to be from
the minute you get in there.

So the Secure CRT in the long run
will definitely be the program you end

up with if you are staying in Cisco.

However, in the short run -- I
mean, I didn't buy Secure CRT

until I was in Cisco maybe three years.

You know, I was like hey, why -- why
pay a hundred bucks when I can do --

everything that you need can be done in here.

This is like, you know, the lazy boy recliner.

Uhm, bite my tongue.

Once we've hit that go button,
it's kind of like I just --

I just want to unleash on you and go into
all of the different aspects of working

with the Cisco device, which is coming.

But I've got to cut it off there.

So what did we talk about and what
do I want you to do with this?

Well, what we saw was what
the console port is, how we --

you know, you take the Cisco device out of the
box, it's like, well, what do you do with that?

How do you -- how do you
get in and configure it.

It's all through that console connection.

We looked at the kind of cables that
are there, the serial, USB adapters,

terminal programs that you can use
that are available, all of that.

So what I do want you to do with this?

Well, as -- as I mentioned at the beginning of
the series, one of the best things you can do

for yourself early on is to
purchase some lab equipment.

Now, I know -- I know.

There is GNS3, which I'll talk
about later on in the series.

It's a great way of learning Cisco
after you've been in there for a while

and you can do all kind of lab experiments.

And even -- even early on GNS3
is a great program to use.

However, there is -- I mean,
you can -- you can -- you can --

you just can't replace having a
Cisco device, to actually look at

and it say, Oh, that port connects to that.

At least this early on in your Cisco
journey is to be able to see and it plug in

and go, Okay, that's how I do it.

You don't -- you don't want to have
the first time you do that, you know,

when you're actually hired on and staring at a
Cisco device and kind of looking and scoping it

out like, okay, where -- where is these
things because all I've done is GNS3,

which is great for learning the IOS.

But for physically connecting -- okay.

So with that being said, I would say grab some
lab equipment, which you can grab from Nugget 1

where I go through all of --
what -- what lab do I suggest.

Get -- get connected.

Get -- you know, try out all
of those free terminal programs

that you can, PuTTY, Minicom, Tera term.

Find which one works best for you.

You can have even download a trial of Secure CRT
for, I think, 30 days if you want to check out.

It's a full-featured trial,
and take a look at that.

Get connected.

See -- you know, power on to it your device.

Watch the boot process.

Do the boot process a couple times
because we're going to be talking

about what happens there in future nuggets.

So just -- just get familiar with how can
you configure that device out of the box.

I hope this has been informative for you,
and I'd like to thank you for viewing.