cisco extending 90 days warranty to life time for switches

As of right now cisco is leader in switching world. Juniper with introduction of there ESX switches are newbie in this industry. Nortel already in worst condition. But HP is consistent competitor of cisco in the switching world and already snatch a significant market share from cisco. Cisco is trying to give extras to beat to competition now a new announcement from cisco for extending its warranty

Effective May 1, 2009, Cisco is extending the warranty period for Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and Cisco Catalyst 3560-E series switches from the previously offered 90-day warranty to a limited lifetime warranty (LLW).

This is not the end in a seperate bullitein simlar announcement for 4500 series switch:
As of May 1, 2009, Cisco is offering a limited lifetime hardware warranty on the Cisco^® Catalyst^® 4500 E-Series and Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches. This LLW is 5 year warranty in which cisco will make sure to ship the equipment within ten days of RMA request.

Similarly to better survive at access layer switching cisco has come up with LAN LITE image software of 2960 that offer prices that are almost equal to CE500. This was announced back in 2008
Details

Let us hope for some other better moves (: in the beneficiaries will be whom customer (:

Simple Setup for Dual Link ISP

I know a couple of customers that do run BGP just to ensure failover for there internet connectivity. The headache of running BGP with ISP can be saved by using few tricks, i shouldn't say it trick, rather its a feature of Cisco IOS.

A draw back of ehternet interface is that its status remain same regardless of far side interface status, this cause serious issues as for routing process as link remains up even the remote router ethernet interface fails to respond and thus the invalid route remain in routing table.

IP SLA can send echo packet to remote router and upon failure to receive ICMP reply can trigger the any specifed event like installing less prefered route to routing table and remove the old one below is the sample config of above topology
!
ip sla monitor 1 // Enter a number to reference our monitor
type echo protocol ipIcmpEcho 10.1.1.2 //10.1.1.2 is the ISP A IP i.e. Far side IP address of remote router)
timeout 500
frequency 3
ip sla monitor schedule 1 life forever start-time now // Scedule SLA to run forever
!
track 1 rtr 1 reachability // Creates tracked object 1 for RTR (Response time Reporter)
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
// Connection to ISP A
ip address 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface FastEthernet1/0
// Connection to ISP B
ip address 10.2.1.1 255.255.255.0
duplex auto
speed auto
!
Now Time for routing (:
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.2 track 1 (Add primary route, installed if track 1 is successfully completed)
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.2.1.2 20 (Secondary route to ISP B, should activate if Link to ISP A fails) =====================================================================
State 1: ISP A is active
R0#sh ip route {Output ommited}
S* 0.0.0.0/0 [1/0] via 10.1.1.2

R0#sh ip route track-table
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.2 track 1 state is [up] ======================================================================
State 2: ISP A is inactive( I had shutdown R1 F0/0 to simulate it)
R0#sh ip route track-table
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.1.2 track 1 state is [down]
R0#sh ip route
S* 0.0.0.0/0 [20/0] via 10.2.1.2 (Notice routing table has installed new default route to ISP B) ======================================================================

Mine one is just starter for more details and digging it with NAT etc below are very good links
Reference: http://www.nil.com/ipcorner/SmallSiteMultiHoming/ http://www.blindhog.net/cisco-dual-internet-connections-without-bgp/

Cisco Unity Express NM-CUE VS AIM-CUE

Cisco is everywhere, they are not even neglecting small businesses for their solution, same is the case with VoIP solution. From complicated call manger cluster to one box unified solution cisco is offering more and more.

Just take Cisco call manger express,what you need a single router that in any case you will need WAN connectivity but just add PVDM and enjoy call manger solution within router. i will discuss PVDM and AIM in later posts)and voice enable IOS. Pay more and you will get voice mail facilty in same router. Either you can purchase a NM module (NM_CUE)or additional card that you will insert inside router (AIM-CUE).

What is CUE : Cisco unity express is one of the three falvours avaiable for cisco voice mail.

• Cisco Unity Express: NM_CUE or AIM-CUE for upto 250 mail boxes

• Cisco Unity Connection: Upto 500 user if installed in same machine where CCM is installed. Extends to 7500 mailboxes if installed on seperate machine. No redundancy
• Cisco Unity: 7500 mailboxes per server, integration with MS exhange. lotus notes etc.

Support free auto attendant and seperate licensed IVR:
Support voice retrival from email web and phone
NM-CUE/ NM-CUE-EC/ NME-CUE

1. NM-CUE: 100 mail boxes, 6 sessions 14 hours of messages
2. NM-CUE-EC: 250 mail boxes, 8 sessions and 100 hours of messages storage
3. NME-CUE: 250 mailboxes, 24 sessions, 300 hours of storage

• Eat up whole module of router.
• Linux based
• Mature GUI contrary to CME GUI nad more people use GUI
• Laptop harddrive so gigs of storage
• Much Faster access to voice mails

AIM-CUE:

• Linux based boot from flash chips
• No moving part, so less break down
• Less storage as no hard drive
  
• Slower access to voice mails
• Similar GUI and features as that of NM-CUE
  

TOP 12 Shorcuts

Few of the microsoft shortcuts that are making my life easier

• To open RUN prompt of windows <-----> press window key + R
• To lock computer <-----> press windows key + L

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• To Open word <-----> enter winword in run box
• To Open EXCEL <-----> enter Excel in run box
• To Open POWERPOINT <-----> enter powerpnt in run box

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• To explore harddisk <-----> explore

• to use firefox <-----> firefox
• To open C drive <-----> C:\

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• To view network connection <-----> Type ncpa.cpl into the run prompt
• To go to control panel <-----> Type Control into the run prompt
• To open system properties <-----> Type System.cpl
  

External Hard Disk Selection

Now I have more than 200 GB of data and i am falling short of space, therefore I decided to buy an external hard disk to cope up with increasing storage requirement.

At first i were considering to buy a simple hardisk with external kit but as it requires power from outside thus it is far away from the word PORTABLE. I researched on web and found a couple of good names including WD, seagate, LAcie and toshiba. I were unable to find a differentiators that compel me to buy that product. Lacie is rugged and thus shock proof but considerably costly. All coming with same 8 MB cahce and about 5400 RPM so i decided to go for seagate 320 GB(least price) but eventually end up with buying western digital due to seagate availability in market. Overall WD seems fine to me with 3 year limited and 1 year full warranty. Price is reasonable, i got it @ PKR 7200/=.

Brand	160 GB	250 GB	320 GB	500 GB	1 TB
LAcie	4700	6800	8600	10500	12800
Maxtor	4900
Western digital	4750	6500	7300	11700
Seagate		6300	7100
Toshiba	4850	6600	7500
Iomega		8450

looking and offcourse praying (: for longer life for the disk.

Cisco IOS Packaging

At first understanding Cisco IOS packaging is alone a complex thing. One should always make sure to do proper research before getting it, as many of the important features are available in higher versions. Feature like OSPF in switches is supported in IP services. BGP is supported in routers above IP Voice. The below image(taken from cisco.com) is pretty nice summary and good starting point.

Real World eXperienCe

Today I were engaged in a deployment for cisco 2821, The router was ordered with HSEC bundle which do comes with ADV IP SERVICES IOS along with VPN accleration card. By the passage of time i realize that how important the real world experience is. The deployment was simple I copy the old router configuration modified it and pasted it to new router. That's it !!!

Althogh i need to configure BGP multiohoming too. The customer has one wimax link nad other DSL, both from link DOT net and they want to ensure that automatic switch over to second link. I thought that i can just give two default route and change AD for both and that would work but the problem is that both link are terminating on Rj45 ethernet so either i have to use BGP or IP SLA monitor. I will explore it in depth to see what works better.

The REAL world notes:
1- When i booted the brand new router it enters in ROMMON mode and i were wondering why it happens and a mighty REBOOT makes the job for me and normalize every thing.

2- Somehow I lost user name after configuring router and fortuntely worldcall EVDO (USB internet) do the maigc for me. I Google for password reset 2800 and found
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps259/products_password_recovery09186a0080094675.shtml
****************************************************************************
Press Break key on keyboard when reboor router.
In Rommon1 > Rebbot and give ansower no to every question
type # confreg 0x2142

Now saved config is ignored

type # copy start run
do the changes as needed and remember to do No shut on interfaces


#config-register 0x2102

#copy run start
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Thats all I enjoyed every bit of it, the network integration really makes me crazy no matter how small the deployment is, i enjoyed it. Last but not the least USB internet is a blessing for network engineer. Grab it if you can.............