Programs that are meant for engineering professionals never are easy to learn- but practice makes perfect! Packet Tracer is a good example of a tough program released by Cisco, of which even making a small computer network can pose a challenge.

One of the most basic computer networks that you can create involves two computers and a router. Although it would seem simple in connecting the two computers to a router and calling it quits, configuring the Cisco IOS settings actually takes a bit of work. It’s quite unlike a commercial router that is widely available to consumers for home usage.

Constructing the network will take two crossover cables and a console cable. The two crossover cables will connect each desktop to the Ethernet ports of the router, while the console cable will connect one of the computers to the router for configuring. Be sure that the cable you are using isn’t a straight-through when using your Ethernet cable, as this type of cable is reserved for unlike devices.

The IP addresses you assign will be the logic of the operation. It’s up to you which network numbers and addresses you use, but they must follow a certain convention in order to work. You will be using at least four IP addresses total, counting your two desktop machines and two Ethernet ports on the router. Assign each Ethernet port and IP address that corresponds to a certain network. If you assign both to the same network, you will quickly see the configuration won’t work.

Even with all of the IP address information in place, and the Ethernet ports configured, there is still something missing. We haven’t installed a gateway address on the desktop machines. Without a gateway address, the computer won’t be able to send and receive information over the network. It’s simple to assign: the gateway address is going to be the IP address of the Ethernet interface that is connected to the desktop in question.

Last, we get to test the network we just created. By sending a packet of data through a ping, we can verify that one computer can contact another computer on a completely different network. From one computer, type in the ping command and the IP address of the separated computer. If the result times out, it means you have either configured the router improperly or have faulty cables. You will find that most often it’s a problem regarding cables and network topology.

In Conclusion

The small network described is functional, and is even used in real world applications. Using Packet Tracer will simplify the process of designing the network so that you can save time in the overall process, and put more time into troubleshooting and problems that arise during the course of the implementation.

Learn more about packet tracer tutorials and packet tracer router.