IOS Packet Capture

Finally there is a feature that was missing from IOS in the past. This is the ability to easily capture packets travelling through the router, and export the captured data to PCAP format so that you can view it with third party tools (like Wireshark). The packets can also be viewed locally on the router. The configuration example below shows how to enable packet capture (supported in IOS version 12.4(20)T):

Cisco-Router# monitor capture buffer mycapturedata size 128 max-size 128 circular
Cisco-Router# monitor capture point ip cef capturepoint1fastEthernet 1/1 both
Cisco-Router# monitor cap point associate capturepoint1 mycapturedata

The configuration above first creates a capture circular buffer (mycapturedata) and a capture interface point (capturepoint1) on physical interface FastEthernet 1/1. Then you need to associate the capture point and the capture buffer.

Now, in order to view or export the captured data use the following commands:

Cisco-Router# show monitor capture buffer mycapturedata dump
Cisco-Router# monitor capture buffer mycapturedata export [location]

IOS Auto Upgrade

From IOS version 12.4(15)T, there is a new feature for automaticaly upgrading your Cisco IOS images either directly from Cisco (IDA Server – Intelligent Download Application) or from a local TFTP/FTP server, as shown below:

The new auto upgrade feature provides also a “warm upgrade” option which decompresses the new image and transfers control to it using the reload warm command. To set up auto upgrade, use the following commands:

Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# autoupgrade disk-cleanup crashinfo
Router(config)# autoupgrade ida url [enter the URL of the IDA Server]
Router(config)# autoupgrade status [email address] [smtp-server]

! Now issue the interactive mode command to step you through the upgrade process
Router# upgrade automatic

Back in 2004-2005, the most prestigious Cisco certification, the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) was considered the biggest cash cow of IT certification. The average salary of a CCIE professional in USA was around $110,000 per year.

However, employers recently are seeking IT professionals with business-oriented certifications in such areas as project management and Six Sigma (six sigma is a technique that applies statistical tools to measure, analyze and fix problems). This new trend has caused the CCIE certification to drop to the fifth position in salary earnings. 

The top 6 paying certifications in 2008 are:  

1. PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) – $102,000 average salary in 2008
2. PMI Certified Associate in Project Management
3. ITIL v. 2 – Foundation
4. (ISC)2′s Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
5. Cisco CCIE – $93,500 average Salary in 2008
6. Cisco Certified Voice Professional – $88,600 average Salary in 2008

Just for comparison purposes, the highest paying Microsoft certification is the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer ($84,522).

UPDATE:

An update to the above post is an interesting post I was reading from http://www.itworld.com about the salary range of CCIEs in different world regions. It seems like UK guys get the most money from all !!

Salary Range of CCIEs in different world regions

South America/Mexico from $30k – $70k
Canada from $65k – $110k
United States from $80k – $150k
United Kingdom from $90k to $190k

As Eman (itworld) mentions in his post, your real salary value as a CCIE really depends on your interview skills and your ability to convince your employer that you are worth the money and that you can meet his expectations.

The Next Generation Wireless technology came into play with the introduction of the new 802.11n Wi-Fi standard which delivers unprecedented reliability and up to five times the throughput of current 802.11a/b/g wireless networks. Some of the key advantages of the new 802.11n standard are the enhanced data rate of up to 300 Mbps and the adoption of MIMO (Multiple In – Multiple Out) radio technology which greatly increases the Wireless LAN coverage.

In terms of coverage, Cisco has also developed a new solution called ”Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh”, which is supported on the Cisco Aironet 1240 and 1130 Series access points. Without requiring wired connections, mesh wireless access points use the 2.4 GHz frequency to deliver network access to users in hard-to-reach areas, and use the 5 GHz frequency band to backhaul traffic to traditional access points connected to Ethernet ports. This solution will provide network wireless connectivity in indoor areas that until now have been difficult to achieve. The wireless mesh technology offers high availability through dynamic wireless mesh self-healing, and optimal network performance for the entire enterprise.

Cisco ASA Firewall is ideal for Broadband access connectivity to the Internet since it provides state of the art and solid network security protection. Especially for small business or home use, the ASA 5505 model is ideal for broadband ADSL access connectivity. Some ISPs provide Point to Point over Ethernet access, which is abbreviated as PPPoE. Cisco ASA 5500 series support the PPPoE protocol as we can see below.

On the Figure above we assume the following:

• The Internal IP address range is 192.168.1.0 /24
• There is a modem in front of the Firewall connected to the ISP
• The ISP provides a public address to the ASA via PPPoE
• The ASA connects to the modem with Ethernet 0/0 (E0/0)
• The ASA connects to the internal network with Ethernet 0/1 (E0/1)
• There is NAT performed on the ASA to translate internal private addresses to the ISP Provided public address
• The ASA acts as a DHCP server to provide 32 addresses to the internal hosts.

Here is the sample configuration:
———————————————————————————–
ASA Version 7.2(2)
!
hostname ciscoasa
domain-name default.domain.invalid
enable password * encrypted
names
!
interface Vlan1
nameif inside
security-level 100
ip address 192.168.1.254 255.255.255.0
!
interface Vlan2
nameif outside
security-level 0
pppoe client vpdn group ATT
ip address pppoe setroute
!
interface Ethernet0/0
switchport access vlan 2
!
interface Ethernet0/1
!
interface Ethernet0/2
!
interface Ethernet0/3
!
interface Ethernet0/4
!
interface Ethernet0/5
!
interface Ethernet0/6
!
interface Ethernet0/7
!
passwd * encrypted
ftp mode passive
dns server-group DefaultDNS
domain-name default.domain.invalid
access-list inside_access_out extended permit ip any any
pager lines 24
logging enable
logging asdm informational
mtu inside 1500
mtu outside 1492
icmp unreachable rate-limit 1 burst-size 1
asdm image disk0:/asdm-522.bin
no asdm history enable
arp timeout 14400
global (outside) 1 interface
nat (inside) 1 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
access-group inside_access_out in interface inside
timeout xlate 3:00:00
timeout conn 1:00:00 half-closed 0:10:00 udp 0:02:00 icmp 0:00:02
timeout sunrpc 0:10:00 h323 0:05:00 h225 1:00:00 mgcp 0:05:00 mgcp-pat 0:05:00
timeout sip 0:30:00 sip_media 0:02:00 sip-invite 0:03:00 sip-disconnect 0:02:00
timeout uauth 0:05:00 absolute
http server enable
http 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 inside
no snmp-server location
no snmp-server contact
snmp-server enable traps snmp authentication linkup linkdown coldstart
telnet timeout 5
ssh timeout 5
console timeout 0
vpdn group ATT request dialout pppoe
vpdn group ATT localname [ENTER ISP USERNAME HERE]
vpdn group ATT ppp authentication chap [or PAP, depends on your ISP settings]
vpdn username [ENTER ISP USERNAME HERE] password [ENTER ISP PASSWORD HERE]
dhcpd auto_config outside
!
dhcpd address 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.32 inside
dhcpd dns [ENTER ISP DNS ADDRESS HERE] interface inside
dhcpd enable inside
!

!
class-map inspection_default
match default-inspection-traffic
!
!
policy-map type inspect dns preset_dns_map
parameters
message-length maximum 512
policy-map global_policy
class inspection_default
inspect dns preset_dns_map
inspect ftp
inspect h323 h225
inspect h323 ras
inspect rsh
inspect rtsp
inspect esmtp
inspect sqlnet
inspect skinny
inspect sunrpc
inspect xdmcp
inspect sip
inspect netbios
inspect tftp
————————————————————————————-

Take care to configure the Outside MTU to 1492 since there is an extra 8-bytes overhead used by PPPoE.