Modifying the LAN router name and admin’s configuration

_{An image edited in Canva. The original image was from Unsplash by Sincerely Media}

As I continue to learn the networking in Cisco Packet Tracer, my comprehension of changing, modifying, and configuring computers in virtual simulation helps me to gain experience a lot. It is not easy to understand at first because, ideally, there are plenty of commands and inputs you have to memorize. However, before I get used to it, I have to rewrite an activity over and over again. At first, I have a copy of the commands beside me. I’ll just have to look at it from time to time when I forget something. It happened multiple times since the Cisco Packet Tracer is truly a complex one to study.

_{Creating a front banner that will appear before logging in.}

For this week, I’ve learned how to create a banner inside the IOS Command Line Interface. Creating a banner is for the first line when the user logs in to the LAN Router. There are many phrases we can use to welcome our guests or users. But as for me, I wrote the phrase, "Authorized User Only!" which means if you are not authorized to log in as the admin, then you have to go back immediately. In this way, we can also filter the people who can access the admin portal. Before I forgot, after you create the banner, always end it with # to give a signal that you are finished. It is because when you don’t, it will continually ask you to put in a #.

_{Adding a new hostname and IP domain.}

Now that we have created the banner, whenever you open your CLI, the phrase, "Authorized User Only!" will appear before you can log in as the admin. After the banner, we need to add the hostname and IP domain for our LAN router. For us to do that, we have to enable and call the LAN Router as our hostname. Then, inside the LAN router, we can configure the IP domain as our admin. To continue, we have to set a crypto key to generate RSA because this will be needed for our SSH (Secure Shell). Set the modulus to 1024 for every 512 bits.

_{Setting up a username and password for global configuration}

The next step would be to create a username and password for our global configuration. The good thing about the global configuration is that you can add both usernames and passwords as many times as you want. That is a very good thing in the global configuration. I renamed the admin as denn, and I set the password to 12345678. Of course, this was not a good password, but this was just a presentation on how to do it, anyway. After that, we have to add a console and vty. I set login local because I want the global user(s) to have access to the LAN Router; whether you allow them or not is up to you, but it's best if you do.

_{Testing the console in the CLI.}

This was fairly simple because we renamed the LAN Router, added a username and password in global configuration, and can now test the console and VT via CLI and Command Prompt. As you can see in the photo, whenever we open the CLI, the phrase we wrote earlier will prompt us before we can access the admin. I inputted my set username and password. But, wait! Why is the password not visible in the CLI? In fact, you cannot see it because the Cisco Packet Tracer hides it for you. This is actually one of the features whenever you are entering the admin. The password you wrote cannot be seen by the user or others. Pretty safe!

_{Using the test computer's command prompt to test the VTY.}

Now that we have done testing the console and VTY in CLI, it’s time to test and check it in our Command Prompt. I have selected PC01 as my test computer and opened its command prompt. To test the vty in the command prompt, we have to use the telnet and SSH commands. Did you notice our banner appearing in the command prompt? This means that we were really successful in setting it up. I first test the username admin and its password, 12345678.

_{Testing the username and password in the command prompt.}

Followed by the username admin, is my very own username, denn. I tested it and it worked successfully. I thought at first that I made a mistake in my command because I repeated the same command earlier when I made this. But luckily, it didn’t affect my configuration because I already exited the prompt before I finished it. At the very last, I tested the SSH command using the command ssh -1 admin 192.168.1.1 and the same thing with the username, denn.

I’ve done the configuration, and set up the LAN Router. Then, it will be the same process for the WAN router and switches connected to the LAN router. Of course, I'll not be showing it anymore since I’ve already done with the LAN. Too many repetitions are not pleasing. After I started this blog, I realized that I truly understand what I have studied and learned. The next blog about Cisco Packet Tracer will be on how to configure the LAN router together with gigabit ethernet, and we will now start to configure the WAN router, then give it multiple IP addresses.

More about my Cisco Packet Tracer blogs!

• Learning Networking through Cisco Packet Tracer
• Switching from a wired connection to a wireless using Cisco Packet Tracer