Student Name: ___________________________
CHABOT COLLEGE
CISCO NETWORKING ACADEMY I
5B - Switched LAN Challenge Lab
Preparations
Read this document carefully.
This is a "challenge lab", so step-by-step directions will not be provided.
Students will will work in teams of six, and all students must participate actively.
Objective
In this lab, you will connect workstations, hubs, and switches to create functional LAN segments.
You will also test your connections to confirm good functioning.
Equipment and Materials
The instructor will provide the following equipment and materials:
Windows 98 workstations (6)
UTP straight-through patch cables (10base-T)
Allied Telesyn Ethernet hubs (3)
Thin Coax cables, BNC terminated (10base-2)
Cabletron ESX-820 Ethernet switch (1)
Multimode fiber optic cable, ST terminated (10base-FL)
Special Notes
1. Take special care to protect the transceiver attached to port 1 of the switch! Transceivers and the AUI
port they are attached to can be damaged severely if they are accidentally bent up or down!
2.
When installing the coax cable, no terminating resistor is needed on the ends connected to a hub or switch.
Most ethernet switches and hubs with BNC ports include a built-in terminating resistor. They also include a
switch that lets the user defeat the built-in terminating resistor in the event that the hub is not installed at the
end of the coax cable. (Remember, terminators are needed only at the ends of a coax cable segment.)
3.
Take special care to protect the ends of the fiber optic cable! Do not touch the ends, and only handle the
terminations as directed by your instructor.
Team Task 1: Create LAN
 Connect the equipment using the supplied UTP cables to create the network segment shown below.
Cabletron ESX 820 Switch
hub



hub
hub
To confirm that you have good layer 1 connections, view link lights on all connected devices.
(If you don’t have a link, try changing from the uplink to a normal port on the hub.)
To confirm that you have good layer 2 & 3 connections, choose one PC and ping all the others.
Remember how?
To receive credit for these steps, show the link lights and Ping results to your instructor.
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Student Name: ___________________________
Team Task 2: Connect LAN segment to campus network; change media to coax & fiber.
 Now connect your network segment to the class network as shown below:

To reach the Cisco Catalyst 1924 switch, you'll need to use the lab wiring that extends from the network
outlets on the West wall to the patch panel on Rack E. To understand the picture, go to Rack E and
examine (but don't touch) the patch cables that go from the West wall outlets at the top patch panel (e.g.
W-6) to the Cisco Catalyst 1924 switch. That switch, in turn, is connected to the main campus router
and the internet.

Note that the Cabletron switch has only three RJ-45 10Base-T ports (one on a transceiver), so you'll
need to rearrange your connections to use one of these RJ-45 ports to reach the nearest network outlet
on the West wall.

Now you're out of RJ45 switch ports, so you'll need to use the coax cable to connect one of the hubs to
the switch. The BNC connector attaches with a push and clockwise rotation.

To add interest, use the fiber optic cable to connect another hub to the switch. Use the hub that has the
fiber transceiver attached. Do not bend the transceiver up or down, and do not touch the ends of
the fiber ST connectors. Ask your instructor to explain how to attach the ST connectors.

You'll probably need to force the switch to build a new MAC address table reflecting the changed in
location of one PC and hub to a different switch port. Power the switch off (use the power switch at the
left rear); count slowly to 10, and then power the switch back on. Observe the status lights as it reboots.
Cisco Catalyst 1924 switch
Campus
Router
Rack E
SD
1100CAT5
MODULAR
JACK
PANEL
Lucent
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Patch Panel
Wall Jack
Cabletron ESX 820 Switch
UT
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hub
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Project
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hub

To confirm that you have a good connection to the class network and the internet, Ping www.cisco.com
from each PC.

To confirm that your configuration is good all the way up to Layer 7, start the Internet Explorer browser on
each PC and load the page at http://www.cisco.com. Observe the activity lights on the switch
and notice that as you load this page, nearly all the activity is on the port going to the internet and the port
going to the hub that serves the PC loading the page. If necessary, click your browser's Refresh button to
reload the page to observe the activity.
 To receive credit for these steps, show the Cisco web page to your instructor.
 Leave the PCs running, but close the browser window.
 Now carefully disconnect all cables you installed and return them to the end of your project table.
 Turn the switch off. (This clears the MAC table for the next group of students.)
 You're done! There's nothing to turn in.
END | THREE-HOLE PUNCH
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